Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia

Anne Simpson
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Anne Simpson

Brief Biography

Anne Simpson studied at Queen's University and the Ontario College of Art and Design. Now she lives in Antigonish, where she teaches part-time at St. Francis Xavier University. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library, the Medical Humanities Program at Dalhousie University, and the University of New Brunswick. She has also been a faculty member at the Banff Centre.

She has written two novels, three books of poetry, and a book of essays on poetry and art. Her fiction has been awarded the Journey Prize and the Dartmouth Award for Fiction, and her most recent novel, Falling, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her poetry has been awarded the Atlantic Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Selected List of Publications

The Marram Grass: Poetry and Otherness. Gaspereau Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-55447-072-3 (bound). ISBN 978-1-55447-071-6 (paperback).
Falling. McClelland & Stewart, 2008. ISBN 978-0771080906, 978-0-7710-8089-0 (paperback).
Winner of the Dartmouth Fiction Award, 2009.
"Profound and sharply observed [...] like any good requiem, [its] song swings toward the universal." - The Globe and Mail
"Simpson has brought together character, plot, language and metaphor with both subtlety and intensity. The result is a potent mix," - The National Post
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Quick. McClelland & Stewart, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7710-8091-3
Winner of the Pat Lowther Poetry Award.
"In her irony and experiment, she calls to mind Anne Carson. But the lushness of her words [...] evokes Anne Michaels." - The Globe and Mail
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Loop. McClelland & Stewart, 2003. ISBN 0-7710-8075-1.
"With its strong lyric voice and simple yet dynamic forms, Loop is a collection that draws you, and draws you in." - uill & Quire
"Simpson's lines ring lean and mature, and, like the late Bronwen Wallace, are full of people you know and people you don't, but want to." - Elm Street
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Canterbury Beach. Penguin Canada, 2001. ISBN 0-670-89484-2.
Shortlisted for the 2002 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.
"A touching and perceptive first novel that journeys through the delicate intricacies of family life, its shifting alliances, its unique ability to wound, its capacity for forgiveness. The characters speak to the parent and child in us all." - Merilyn Simonds.
"An extraordinary, darkly shimmering novel." - The Globe and Mail.
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Light Falls Through You. McClelland & Stewart, 2000. ISBN 0-7710-8077-8.
Winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize, and the 2001 League of Canadian Poets' Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry.
"Light Falls Through You is strongly original - in its supple music and lucid imagery, its range of reference (to archaeology, painting, the mythological and natural worlds) and in the scope of its moral concerns. Anne Simpson has written an outstanding work." - League of Canadian Poets' press release on the winners of the Gerald Lampert Award
"Simpson's lines ring lean and mature and are full of people you know and people you don't, but want to." - Elm Street
"Each poem is meticulously constricted and is eerily and beautifully lit from within [...] Simpson's poems deserve to be lingered on, like a beach on those ever shortening summer nights." - ArtBeat
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Editions: An Orange from Portugal: Christmas Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Edited by Anne Simpson. Goose Lane Editions, 2003. ISBN 0-86492-345-7.
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Anthologies

Essays

"Look at Things Like This" in Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky. Edited by Mark Dickinson and Clare Goulet. Cormorant Press, 2010. ISBN 9781897151716.
"The Joshua Stone" in Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood. Edited by Shannon Cowan, Fiona Tinwei Lam, and Cathy Stonehouse. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7735-3377-6.
"Orpheus Recalling Eurydice" in A Ragged Pen: Essays on Poetry and Memory. Gaspereau Press, 2006. ISBN 1-55447-030-7.
First Writes. Edited by Kelley Aitken, Sue Goyette, and Barbara Scott. Banff Centre Press, 2005. ISBN 1-894773-16-0.

Poetry

"Deer on a Beach" in Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems. Ed. Nancy Holmes. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2009
Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets. Edited by Sina Queyras. Persea Books, 2005. ISBN 0-89255-314-6
In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. Edited by Kate Braid and Sandy Shreve. Raincoast Books, 2005. ISBN 1-55192-777-2
The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry. Edited by Carmine Starnino. Véhicule Press, 2005. ISBN 1-55065-208-7
Desire, Doom & Vice: A Canadian Collection. Edited by Nathaniel G. Moore. Wingate Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9735977-7-1
The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A selection of 2004 shortlist. Edited by Phyllis Webb. House of Anansi Press, 2004. ISBN 0-88784-699-8
Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Edited by Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross Leckie, and Robin McGrath. Goose Lane Editions, 2002. ISBN 0-86492-313-9
Words Out There: Women Poets in Atlantic Canada. Edited by Jeanette Lynes and Gwendolyn Davies. Roseway Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-896496-09-1

Short Fiction

"Dreaming Snow" in Atlantica: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Lesley Choyce, Editor. Goose Lane Editions, 2001. ISBN 0-8692-309-0.
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"Green Knight" in Home for Christmas: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Edited by Sabine Campbell. Goose Lane Editions, 1999.
"Waters of Immortality" in Rip-Rap: Fiction and Poetry from the Banff Centre. Edited by Edna Alford, Don McKay, Rhea Tregebov, and Rachel Wyatt. Banff Centre Press, 1999. ISBN 0-920159-65-6
"The Memory Theater of Guilano Camillo," Water Studies: New Voices in Maritime Fiction. Edited by Ian Colford. Pottersfield Press, 1998. ISBN 1-895900-12-3
"Dreaming Snow" in The Journey Prize Anthology 9. Selected with Nino Ricci. McClelland & Stewart, 1997. ISBN 0-7710-4425-9
"The Day Elvis Rose from the Dead," Fiddlehead Gold: The Fiddlehead Golden Anniversary Anthology. Edited by Sabine Campbell, Roger Ploude, and Demetres Tryphonopoulos. Goose Lane Editions, 1995. ISBN 0-86492-177-2

Awards

Longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Falling.
Winner of the Dartmouth Fiction Award for Falling.
Winner of the Pat Lowther Poetry Award for Quick.
Finalist for the 2008 Atlantic Poetry Prize for Quick.
Winner of the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize for Loop.
Finalist for the 2003 Governor-General's Award, Poetry, for Loop.
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize XXIX for Loop.
Finalist for the 2002 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.
Winner of the 2001 Atlantic Poetry Prize for Light Falls Through You.
Winner of the 2001 Gerald Lampert Award for Light Falls Through You.
Finalist for the 2001 Pat Lowther Award for Light Falls Through You.
Winner of the 1999 Bliss Carman Poetry Award.
Winner of the 1997 Journey Prize (shared with Gabriella Goliger) for "Dreaming Snow."