Susan Musgrave 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 children's writer. She was born in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 to 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...

 parents, and currently lives in 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...

, dividing her time between Sidney

Sidney, British Columbia

Sidney is a town located at the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula, on Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of the 13 Greater Victoria municipalities. It has a population of approximately 11,300. Sidney is located just east of Victoria International Airport,...

 and the Queen Charlotte Islands

Queen Charlotte Islands

Haida Gwaii , formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island in the north, and Moresby Island in the south, along with approximately 150 smaller islands with a total landmass of...

.

Musgrave is married to Stephen Reid

Stephen Reid (writer)

Stephen Reid is a Canadian writer, who has also been convicted twice of bank robbery.Born in Massey, Ontario, Reid began writing in 1984 while serving a 21-year prison sentence at the Kent Institution in Agassiz, British Columbia. During his sentence, he submitted a manuscript to Susan Musgrave,...

, a writer, convicted bank robber and former member of the infamous band of thieves known as the Stopwatch Gang. Their relationship was chronicled in 1999 in the CBC

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 series Life and Times.

Musgrave defended Al Purdy

Al Purdy

Alfred Wellington Purdy, OC, O.Ont was one of the most popular and important Canadian poets of the 20th century. Purdy's writing career spanned more than fifty years. His works include over thirty books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence...

's collection of poetry Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems, 1962–1996 in Canada Reads 2006

Canada Reads

Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC.-Overview:During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series...

, a nationally broadcast radio "battle of the books" competition.

She currently teaches creative writing in the University of British Columbia's

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...

 Optional Residency Master of Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 Program.

Poetry

• Songs of the Sea-Witch — 1970
• Entrance of the Celebrant — 1972
• Grave-Dirt — 1973
• Gullband Thought Measles was a Happy Ending — 1974
• The Impstone — 1976
• Selected Strawberries and Other Poems — 1977
• Kiskatinaw Songs — 1978
• Becky Swan's Book — 1978
• A Man to Marry, A Man to Bury — 1979 (nominated for a Governor General's Award
  1979 Governor General's Awards
  Each winner of the 1979 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts. The 1979 awards were the first in which a list of finalists was released a month before the presentation of the awards...
  
  )
• Tarts and Muggers — 1982
• Cocktails at the Mausoleum — 1985
• The Embalmer's Art — 1991
• Forcing the Narcissus — 1994
• Things That Keep and Do Not Change — 1999
• What the Small Day Cannot Hold — 2000

Fiction

• The Charcoal Burners — 1980 (nominated for a Governor General's Award
  1980 Governor General's Awards
  Each winner of the 1980 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.-Fiction:Winner:*George Bowering, Burning WaterOther Finalists:...
  
  )
• The Dancing Chicken — 1987
• Cargo of Orchids — 2000

Non-fiction

• Great Musgrave — 1989
• Musgrave Landing — 1994
• You're in Canada Now, Motherfucker: A Memoir of Sorts — 1989

Children's literature

• Gullband — 1980
• Haghead — 1980
• Kestrel and Leonardo — 1990
• Dreams are More Real than Bathtubs — 1998

Edited by Musgrave

• Nerves Out Loud: Critical Moments in the Lives of Seven Teen Girls - 2001
• You Be Me: Friendship in the Lives of Teen Girls - 2002
• The Fed Anthology - 2003
• Certain Things About My Mother: Daughters Speak - 2003
• Perfectly Secret: The Hidden Lives of Seven Teen Girls - 2004

External links

• Susan Musgrave's web site
• from Sangan River House. Unpublished poems by Susan Musgrave.