Anne Szumigalski
Encyclopedia
Anne Szumigalski, SOM
(3 January 1922 – 22 April 1999) was a Canadian
poet
.
, England
, and grew up mostly in a Hampshire
village. She served with the Red Cross as a medical auxiliary officer and interpreter during World War II
, following British Army forces in 1944-5 across parts of newly liberated Europe. In 1946, she married Jan Szumigalski, (d. 1985) a former officer in the Polish Army
, and lived with him in north Wales before immigrating to Canada in 1951. They had four children: Kate (born 1946), Elizabeth (1947), Tony (1961) and Mark (1963). She spent the rest of her life in Saskatchewan
, first in the remote Big Muddy valley, then in Saskatoon
.
Szumigalski combined a love of the Canadian Prairies with a passion for language, a faith in poetry and an intimate knowledge of literary tradition. She was a great admirer of William Blake
, some of whose visionary qualities appear in her own work.
Her finest work is collected in a big volume of selected poems, On Glassy Wings (Coteau, 1997). In 2006 her literary executor Mark Abley
edited a volume of her posthumous poems, When Earth Leaps Up. A final posthumous book is expected in 2010.
The Manitoba Writers Guild has set up a scholarship in her name. The Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry is named for her. Her papers are held at the University of Regina
, and University of Saskatchewan
.
. Her 1995 collection Voice, featuring paintings by Marie Elyse St George, won the Governor General's Award for English language poetry
. She also received many other honours over the years.
Saskatchewan Order of Merit
The Saskatchewan Order of Merit is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Instituted in 1985 by Lieutenant Governor Frederick Johnson, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier Grant Devine, the order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...
(3 January 1922 – 22 April 1999) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Life
She was born Anne Howard Davies in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and grew up mostly in a Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
village. She served with the Red Cross as a medical auxiliary officer and interpreter during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, following British Army forces in 1944-5 across parts of newly liberated Europe. In 1946, she married Jan Szumigalski, (d. 1985) a former officer in the Polish Army
Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
, and lived with him in north Wales before immigrating to Canada in 1951. They had four children: Kate (born 1946), Elizabeth (1947), Tony (1961) and Mark (1963). She spent the rest of her life in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, first in the remote Big Muddy valley, then in Saskatoon
Saskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
.
Writing career
Most of her fifteen books are collections of poetry, but she also wrote a memoir, The Voice, the Word, the Text (1990) as well as Z., a play about the Holocaust. Her first book, Woman Reading in Bath (1974), was published by Doubleday in New York. Thereafter she made the deliberate choice to publish her work with Canadian presses. She helped found the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and the literary journal Grain, and served as a mentor to many younger writers.Szumigalski combined a love of the Canadian Prairies with a passion for language, a faith in poetry and an intimate knowledge of literary tradition. She was a great admirer of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, some of whose visionary qualities appear in her own work.
Her finest work is collected in a big volume of selected poems, On Glassy Wings (Coteau, 1997). In 2006 her literary executor Mark Abley
Mark Abley
Mark Abley is a Canadian poet, journalist, editor and non-fiction writer.Born in Warwickshire, England, he moved to Canada as a small boy and grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Saskatchewan from which he won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1975. He...
edited a volume of her posthumous poems, When Earth Leaps Up. A final posthumous book is expected in 2010.
The Manitoba Writers Guild has set up a scholarship in her name. The Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry is named for her. Her papers are held at the University of Regina
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...
, and University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan
The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...
.
Awards
In 1989, she was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of MeritSaskatchewan Order of Merit
The Saskatchewan Order of Merit is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Instituted in 1985 by Lieutenant Governor Frederick Johnson, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier Grant Devine, the order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...
. Her 1995 collection Voice, featuring paintings by Marie Elyse St George, won the Governor General's Award for English language poetry
Governor General's Award for English language poetry
This is a list of recipients of the Governor General's Awards award for English-language poetry. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama was divided.-1980s:...
. She also received many other honours over the years.
Memoirs
- A Woman Clothed in Words, (forthcoming from Coteau in 2010).
- The word, the voice, the text: the life of a writer. Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1990 ISBN 9780920079652
Poetry
- A Peeled Wand: Selected Poems of Anne Szumigalski Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2011. ISBN 9781897109472 (posthumous poems)
- When Earth Leaps Up. London: Brick Books, 2006. ISBN 9781894078528 (posthumous poems)
- Sermons on stones: words and images. Saskatoon: Hagios Press, 1997. ISBN 9780968225608
- On glassy wings: poems new & selected. Regina: Coteau Books, 1997. ISBN 9781550501148
- Voice. with Marie Elyse St. George. Regina: Coteau Books, 1995. ISBN 9781550500899
- Why couldn't you see blue? Caroline Heath. edited by Anne Szumigalski. Regina: Coteau Books, 1994. ISBN 9781550500646
- Rapture of the deep. paintings by G.N. Louise Jonasson. Regina: Coteau Books, 1991. ISBN 9781550500233
- Journey/journée. with Terrence Heath and drawings and wood engravings by Jim Westergard. Red Deer, Alta.: Red Deer College Press, 1988. ISBN 9780889950290
- Dogstones: selected and new poems. Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1986. ISBN 9780920079218
- Heading out: the new Saskatchewan poets. edited by Don Kerr and Anne Szumigalski. Coteau Books, ISBN 9780919926585
- Jaw, Sask.: Coteau Books, 1986.
- Instar: poems and stories. Red Deer, Alta.: RDC Press, 1985. ISBN 9780889950245
- Risks: a poem. illustrations by Jim Westergard. Red Deer, Alta.: RDC Press, 1983. ISBN 9780889950238
- Doctrine of signatures. Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1983. ISBN 9780920079003
- A game of angels. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1980. ISBN 9780888010445
- Wild man's butte: a stereophonic poem. with Terrence Heath. Moose Jaw, Sask.: Coteau Books, 1979.
- Thunder Creek Pub. Co-operative, 1979.
- Woman reading in bath: poems. Toronto: Doubleday Canada; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974. ISBN 9780385027434
Reviews
Z is thus, in my estimation, a major dramatic achievement. Szumigalski’s integration
of poetry, dance and drama is so effective that she has managed to put an experience on
stage which not only makes you think about the horrors of the past but also about the
callousness and dangers of the present. She sounds a wake-up bell, telling us to stay
vigilant.
I think that Anne Szumigalski deserves to be heard, sounded, because she represents the highest achievement of the English-Canadian mystical oracular poet, perhaps equaled only by Gwendolyn MacEwenGwendolyn MacEwenGwendolyn Margaret MacEwen was a Canadian poet and novelist. A "sophisticated, wide-ranging and thoughtful writer," she published more than 20 books in her brief life. "A sense of magic and mystery from her own interests in the Gnostics, Ancient Egypt and magic itself, and from her wonderment at...
. Too, her defence of spoken word aligns her with the only poetic movement in Canada that is fully of the people, by the people, for the people. As a poet of mystical bent, she is a bridge between the Blake mode and its strongest Anglo-Canadian practitioners, helping again to reinforce the non-academic side of our mainly academically-oriented verse. Her fascination with print and art highlights the possibility for other “illuminated books” in our culture, while her passionate religious philosophy connects her to such epochal figures as Louis RielLouis RielLouis David Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political and spiritual leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation Prime Minister, Sir John A....
. As well, her union of dance and poetry may reinvigorate our drama, while her status as immigrant aligns her with that strong proportion of Canadian literature created by foreign-born writers. Finally, as a woman whose feminism is both complex and natural, she opens up understandings of relationships beyond gender clichés. She is a woman British Prairie oracular poet who belongs transformatively to the entire English-speaking world. Poets, read her.
It’s a strange feeling to be giving the Anne Szumigalski Lecture for the League of Canadian Poets. Anne Szumigalski and I were connected with the same magazine, long, long ago—in the early days of Grain — but even longer ago than that, I was present at the formation of the League of Canadian Poets, way back in the mid-’60s
External links
- Grain
- Anne Szumigalski at The Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...
- Anne Szumigalski, Saskatchewan Publishers Group
- Anne Szumigalski, Poetry Project, Atwater Library, February 15, 2007
- Anne Szumigalski Collection, Mark Abley, University of Saskatchewan