Phyllis Webb, is 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...

 and radio broadcaster

Presenter

A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...

. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as "a writer of stature in Canadian letters", and calls her work "brilliantly crafted, formal in its energies and humane in its concern".

Life

Born in Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, she attended the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

 and McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

. In 1949 she ran as a candidate for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...

, the youngest person to do so.

Her poetry was published in 1954 in Trio, an anthology of poems by Eli Mandel

Eli Mandel

Eli Mandel was a Canadian poet, editor of many Canadian anthologies, and literary academic.-Biography:...

, Gael Turnbull

Gael Turnbull

Gael Turnbull was a Scottish poet who was an important precursor of the British Poetry Revival.Turnbull was born in Edinburgh and grew up in the North of England and in Canada...

, and Webb published by Raymond Souster

Raymond Souster

Raymond Holmes Souster, OC is a Canadian poet whose writing career spans almost 70 years. He has published more than 50 volumes of his own verse, and edited or co-edited a dozen volumes of others' poetry...

's Contact Press.

In 1957 Webb won a grant that allowed her to study theatre in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Webb has worked as a writer and broadcaster for the CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

, where in 1965 she created, with William A. Young, the radio program Ideas

Ideas (radio show)

Ideas is a long running scholarly radio documentary show on CBC Radio One. Co-created by Phyllis Webb and William A. Young, the show premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight...

. From 1967 to 1969, Webb was its executive producer. In 1967, she travelled to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, carrying out research on the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 and on the anarchist Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin

Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...

, much of which appears in her serial poem "The Kropotkin Poems".

Webb has taught creative writing at the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

, the University of Victoria

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...

, and the Banff Centre, and was writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

 1980-1981.

She lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Honours

In 1980 Webb was awarded a prize of CA$2,300 by fellow Canadian poets in recognition of her book Wilson's Bowl, which was overlooked for a Governor General's Award nomination that year; "the letter accompanying the prize money stated that 'this gesture is a response to your whole body of work as well as to your presence as a touchstone of true good writing in Canada, which we all know is beyond awards and prizes'".

Webb won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry, 1982

1982 Governor General's Awards

Each winner of the 1982 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.-Fiction:Winner:*Guy Vanderhaeghe, Man DescendingOther Finalists:...

, for The Vision Tree.

She won Canada Council Senior Arts Awards in 1981 and 1987.

She became an Officer of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 in 1992.

Poetry

• Trio: First Poems by Gael Turnbull, Phyllis Webb, and Eli Mandel. Toronto: Contact Press, 1954.
• Even Your Right Eye. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1956.
• In a Garden of the Pitti Palace; A Pang Cantata: 2 New Poems. Vancouver: Pica Press, 1961.
• The Sea is Also a Garden: Poems. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962.
• Naked Poems. Vancouver: Periwinkle Press, 1965.
• For Fyodor. Toronto: M. Ondaatje, 1973.
• Broadside Poems. Vancouver, British Columbia: Slug Press, 1979-1982.
• Wilson’s Bowl. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1980.
• The Bowl. Lantzville, BC: Island Magazine, 1981.
• Selected Broadsides. Charlotte Town, PEI.: Island Magazine, 1981-1982.
• Talking. Dunvegan, ON.: Quadrant Editions, 1982.
• Sunday Water: Thirteen Anti-Ghazals. Lantzville, BC: Island Writing Series, 1982.
• Prison Report. Vancouver: Slug Press, 1982.
• Water and Light: Ghazals and Anti- Ghazals: Poems. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1984.
• Eschatology of Spring. Salt Spring Island, BC: Salt Spring Island Voice of Women, 1984.
• Pepper Tree: For Breyten Breytenbach. Toronto: Imprimerie dromadaire, 1986.
• Nine Poets Printed = 9 Poets Printed. Toronto: Imprimerie dromadaire, 1986-1988.
• Hanging Fire. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1990.
• Grape Vine. Vancouver: Slug Press, 1992.
• Four Swans in Fulford Harbour. Salt Spring Island, BC: (m)Other Tongue Press, 1999.

• Hulcoop, John, ed. Selected Poems, 1954-1965. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1971.
• Thesen, Sharon, ed. Selected Poems: the Vision Tree. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1982.
• Butling, Pauline, ed. Seeing in the Dark: the Poetry of Phyllis Webb. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997.

Prose

• Nothing but Brush Strokes: Selected Prose. Edmonton, AL: NeWest, 1995.
• “Radio Talks: From the Phyllis Webb Papers, National Library.” West Coast Line 25.3 (1991): 95-102.

Edited

The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2004 Shortlist. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2004.

Except where otherwise noted, bibliographical information courtesy Brock University.

Sound/video recordings

• Alex [sound]. Toronto: CBC Pub., 1966.
• Canadian Poets I [sound]. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1966.
• Phyllis Webb: The Question as an Instrument of Torture. [sound] Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1971.
• Phyllis Webb: Poetry and Psychobiography. [sound] 1993.
• Fall Equinox Reading at the Literary Storefront. Tape #4, Mona Fertig, Phyllis Webb, David Frith, Robert Tyhurst & Lakshmi Gill. [sound] Vancouver: s.n., 1981.
• Phyllis Webb. [video] Burnaby, BC: SFU Art Gallery, 1981.

Except where otherwise noted, sound/video information courtesy Brock University.

Books

• Collis, Steve. Phyllis Webb and the Common Good: Poetry, Anarchy, Abstraction. Vancouver, BC: Talon, 2007.

Articles

• Cash, Gwen. “Portrait of a Poet: Victoria's Phyllis Webb.” B.C. Magazine 6 April 1957: 17.
• Fagan, Cary. “The Articulate Anger of Phyllis Webb.” Books In Canada 20.1 (1991): 21-23.
• Frey, Cecelia. “Phyllis Webb: An Annotated Bibliography.” The Annotated Bibliography of Canada's Major Authors. Eds. Robert Lecker and Jack David. Vol.6. Toronto: ECW, 1985. 489-98.
• Hulcoop, John. “Phyllis Webb and the Priestess of Motion.” Canadian Literature 32 (1967): 29-39.
• Kamboureli, Smaro. “Seeking Shape, Seeking Meaning: An interview with Phyllis Webb.” West Coast Line 25.3 (1991): 21-41.
• Knight, Lorna. “Oh for the Carp of a Critic: Research in the Phyllis Webb Papers.” West Coast Line 26.2 (1992): 120-127.
• Macfarlane, Julian. Rev. of Selected Poems, by Phyllis Webb. The Capilano Review 1 (1972): 53-58.
• Munton, Ann. “Excerpt from an Interview with Phyllis Webb.” West Coast Line 25.3 (1991): 81-85.
• Potvin, Liza. "Phyllis Webb: The Voice That Breaks"
• Sejur, Leila. “Addressing a Presence: An Interview with Phyllis Webb.” Prairie Fire 9.1 (1988): 30-43.

External links

• Phyllis Webb entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia.