Susan Gillis is a Canadian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and editor. Her collections of poetry include ''Swimming Among the Ruins'', shortlisted for the

Pat Lowther Memorial Award The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is an annual award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the year's best book of poetry by a Canadian woman.ReLit Award The ReLit Awards are Canadian literary prizes awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories."Three indie writers honoured by ReLit Awards". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 19, 2007. Founded in 2000 by Newfoundla ...

; ''Volta'', winner of the

Quebec Writers' Federation The Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) is a not-for-profit registered charitable organization representing and serving the English-language literary community in the province of Quebec, Canada. QWF is a literary arts presenter, provides professio ...

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry; ''The Rapids'', a finalist for the

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry, and ''Yellow Crane'', a Jury Selection in the Grand prix du livre de Montreal and a finalist for the ASLE Creative Writing Book Award. ''Arc Poetry Magazine'' has called Gillis "a formidable poet." In her review of ''Yellow Crane'', Laura Ritland writes that "Gillis's poetry stands between the making of meaning (its "construction") and the unravelling or uncertainty of stable meaning (its "debris")." Gillis is a founding member of the collaborative

renku , or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns provi ...

poetry collective Yoko's Dogs, with poets

Jan Conn Jan E. Conn (born 1952) is a Canadian geneticist and poet. She resides in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where she does research on mosquito genetics at the Wadsworth Center, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York State Department of Health ...

Mary di Michele Mary di Michele (born 6 August 1949) is an Italian-Canadian poet and author.Joseph Pivato. Mary Di Michele: Essays on Her Works'. Guernica Editions; 2007. . p. 206–. She is a professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec where she teach ...

and Jane Munro. As host/curator of Concrete & River, she has interviewed and published the work of poets Gjertrud Schnackenberg, Mary Jo Salter, Sue Goyette, Sadiqa de Meijer, Sarah Venart, and many others. With di Michele, Gillis curates the online micro-poetry journal HALIBUT.https://halibuthaiku.blogspot.com/ She taught in the Department of English at

John Abbott College John Abbott College ( French: ''Collège John Abbott)'' is an English-language public college located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada, near the western tip of the Island of Montreal. John Abbott College is one of eight English publ ...

Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue () is an on-island suburb located at the western tip of the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is the second oldest community in Montreal's West Island, having been founded as a parish in 1703. The old ...

, Quebec, from 2002 until 2019. She continues to work as a freelance editor and mentor. Born in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, Gillis lived in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

until 2019. Then she divided her time between

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and (until 2006) Corner Brook, NL and (from 2007) the country near

Perth, Ontario Perth is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Tay River, southwest of Ottawa, and is the seat of Lanark County. History The town was established as a military settlement in 1816, shortly after the War of 1812. The settlement ...

, where she lives with her husband, the poet and novelist

John Steffler John Steffler (born November 13, 1947) is a Canadian poet and novelist. He served as Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate from 2006 to 2008. Biography John Steffler was born in Toronto, Ontario, on November 13, 1947, and grew up in a rural area ne ...

Bibliography

*''Swimming Among the Ruins'' (Signature Editions, 2000) *''Volta'' (Signature Editions, 2002) *''Twenty Views of the Lachine Rapids''(Gaspereau Press, 2012) *''The Rapids'' (Brick Books, 2012) *''Obelisk'' (Gaspereau Press, 2017) *''Yellow Crane'' (Brick Books, 2018) *''Whisk'' (with Yoko's Dogs; Pedlar Press, 2013) *''Rhinoceros''(with Yoko's Dogs; Gaspereau Press, 2016)

References

External links

Susan Gillis
Concrete & River

QWF Literary Database of Quebec English-language authors: Susan Gillis

HALIBUT Living people Canadian women poets Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from Halifax, Nova Scotia 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women writers {{Canada-poet-stub