About Dorothy Livesay
Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, (born October 12, 1909, in Winnipeg, Manitoba; died December 29, 1996, in Victoria, British Columbia) was a Canadian poet, journalist, educator and activist. Dorothy Livesay was one of Canada’s most influential modernist poets. In the 1930s, she was a communist activist, and she pursued a career as a social worker, teacher, university lecturer, journalist, literary critic, and editor. She was also a strong advocate for social justice and equal rights.Livesay published her first collection of poetry, Green Pitcher, in 1928, when she was only nineteen. Shortly after, she published her first short story, Heat, in the Canadian Mercury in January 1929. Her second collection of poems, Signpost (1932), shows a “growing sophistication of her imagery talents.” Livesay won the Governor General's Award for Poetry twice: in 1944 for Day and Night, and in 1947 for Poems for People. The Royal Society of Canada welcomed her as a Fellow and awarded her the Lorne Pierce Medal in 1947. She also received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 1977.
The BC Book Prizes poetry award, established in 1986, was renamed in his honor in 1989. It recognizes the author of the best poetry of the year in British Columbia.
Browse all poems and texts published on Dorothy Livesay
