“Whom Say Ye I Am?” by Myra Lazeczko

Lazeczko, Myra [Maara Haas]. “Who Say Ye I Am?” Winnipeg Free Press (18 March 1939): 6.

An ambitious and perhaps precocious poem based on Marie Corelli’s well-known novel, The Soul of Lilith. The 16-year-old Myra Lazeczko—who later wrote as Maara Haas—published it in the Young Poets Corner of the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. This column was an early publication forum for a number of young Canadian poets in the early half of the 20th century.

 

CEWW is awarded a Canada 150 grant

2017 is Canada’s sesquicentenary. In celebration, the federal government has made available a number of grants to help make the world more aware of Canada’s history as well as Canada as the nation we have become. Thanks to the hard work of Carole Gerson (any of you who have filled in a SSHRC grant application will fully appreciate the degree of commitment here), the Canada’s Early Women Writers project received a grant to extend our work.

While the bio-bibliographical database over at CWRC continues to develop, we have added a new, simpler database project. With technical contributions from the Digital Humanities Innovations Lab at Simon Fraser Library, we are building a database of all of the authors that we have identified, regardless of how much—or how little—we know about them. This new database will include authors’ names; alternate names; birth and death dates and places; residences; books written; books, anthologies, collections, and periodicals contributed to; and a note field. The site will include a feedback mechanism, so we will be able to update the data, adding or correcting as necessary. Sometimes all we have is a pseudonym and the fact that the author contributed to the Canadian Poetry Magazine; sometimes that is enough for an interested member of the general public to identify her. And off we go…

In addition to being a repository of disparate but connected gems of data, the database will permit facetted searches. This means that you can find, for example, all of the women who published in The Week magazine and were born in Brantford, Ontario, between 1860 and 1870. Interesting fact (and, obviously, why I chose this example): that would include both Sara Jeannette Duncan and E. Pauline Johnson.

Here is the office announcement of the Canada 150 grant, on the SFU website. Further announcements will be made once the database is available to the public. We’re cleaning up the data now, so it shouldn’t be too long. I hope.

Canada 150: Maria Heathfield Grant

Like many of Canada’s early women writers, Maria Heathfield Grant (1854-1937) is known more for her political activism than her authorship. She did not, in fact, write any books, but was active in publishing articles in support of her political endeavours: hence her inclusion in our project. Vancouver Sun journalist Stephen Hume has rightly included her in his 150 profiles of “noteworthy British Columbians” for her instrumental roles in a number of political organizations aimed at increasing women’s access to social and political power in Canada (15 February 2017: A2).

 

Canada 150: E. Pauline Johnson

As with Nellie McClung (1873-1951), I was a bit surprised to see that E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) did not appear a little earlier on in Stephen Hume’s list of 150 profiles of “noteworthy British Columbians.” I think that is because Agnes Deans Cameron (1863-1912)—who I consider an amazing adventurous woman, but nowhere near as culturally or politically important as E. Pauline Johnson or Nellie McClung—appeared on the third day. This does suggest that while the selection of names is not random, the dates of publication might be. (1 February 2017: A2)

Canada 150: “Ma” Murray

Playing catch-up with Stephen Hume, the Vancouver Sun columnist who is publishing 150 profiles of “noteworthy British Columbians” in honour of Canada’s sesquicentenary, here is his article on Margaret “Ma” Murray (1888-1982), an amazing journalist, newspaper proprietor and politician whose career spanned most of the twentieth century (2 February 2017: A2).

Canada 150: Agnes Deans Cameron and Nellie McClung

In honour of Canada’s sesquicentenary this year, Vancouver Sun journalist Stephen Hume is publishing a daily column presenting 150 profiles of “noteworthy British Columbians.” Day three was one of our early Canadian women authors, Agnes Deans Cameron (1863-1912). (16 January 2017: A7)

Since Agnes Deans Cameron was posted, Hume has published three other early women authors’ profiles, which I will post soon. Today, though, we have Nellie McClung (1873-1951). All of you who know Canadian political history will doubtless be surprised that it has taken so long to get to her, but I am thinking that the order of presentation is random, although the selection of names is not. Regardless, it is nice to see Nellie McClung, likely the most famous of the Famous Five, finally making an appearance. (16 February 2017: A2)

 

“Discovery,” by Mona Weiss

In trying to determine if K.N. Cameron was a male or female poet, I stumbled upon a digital edition of The McGilliad magazine, to which he contributed (yes, sadly: he). In the same issue, I found this poem by another of our authors: Mona Weiss.

Weiss, Mona. “Discovery.” The McGilliad 2.3 (January 1931): 10.

 

 

“Too Easy: To Write of Miracles,” by Denise Levertoff

Levertoff, Denise. “Too Easy: To Write of Miracles.” Canadian Poetry Magazine 11.3 (March 1948): 22-23.