Di Brandt

biography

Di Brandt was born in 1952 in Winkler, Manitoba. She was raised in Reinland, a conservative, separatist Mennonite village in Southern Manitoba. She left home and moved to Winnipeg at the age of 17. She received a BA from the University of Manitoba, and went on to a Masters of Arts at the University of Toronto and a PhD in English literature at the University of Manitoba.

her work

Brandt was the poetry editor for Prairie Fire for five years, among other publications. She has published several collections of poetry, for which she has won numerous awards, including the Gerald H. Lampert Memorial Award, for the best first book of poetry by a Canadian author. She has also published various works of literary criticism. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Winnipeg.

selected publications

• Dancing Naked: Narrative Strategies for Writing Across Centuries. Stratford, Ontario: Mercury Press, 1996.
• Jerusalem, beloved. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1995. *Mother, not mother. Stratford, Ontario: Mercury Press, 1992.
• Agnes in the sky. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1990.
• questions i asked my mother. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1987.

awards

• Canadian Authors' Association National Poetry Award[?], for Jerusalem, beloved, 1995.
• Shortlisted, Governor General's Award, for Jerusalem, beloved, 1995.
• Silver National Magazine Award[?] for he sound the wind makes, New Quarterly, 1995.
• McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award[?], for Agnes in the sky, 1990.
• Shortlisted, Dillons Commonwealth Poetry Prize[?], for questions i asked my mother, 1988.
• Gerald Lampert Award, for questions i asked my mother, 1987.
• Governor General's Award, for poetry, for questions i asked my mother, 1987.