Lorna Crozier

Lorna Crozier's picture
Photo credit: 
Angie Abdou
b. 1948
Biography: 

Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Lorna Crozier is the author of 15 books of poetry, including the Governor General’s Award–winning Inventing the Hawk. Crozier edited the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets and Breathing Fire 2 with her husband, poet Patrick Lane. She lives in British Columbia.

Micro-interview: 
Did you read poetry when you were in high school? Is there a particular poem that you loved when you were a teenager?: 

I loved "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and all of Shakespeare's soliloquies from Macbeth and Hamlet. 

When did you first start writing poetry? And then when did you start thinking of yourself as a poet?: 

I wrote my first poem in grade one and the teacher pinned it on the bulletin board. I think that's why I became a writer. It was about my dog dying though she was very much alive, and everyone felt sorry for me. I didn't dare tell them that I made it up.

What do you think a poet’s “job” is?: 

I poet's job is to see clearly and to pass that vision on to others. It is to make sense of this extraordinary world and to shine a light on the commonplace and ignored. It is to give voice to what is silent and to make it sing.

If you have a poem in our anthology what inspired you to write it?: 

"Fear of Snakes" is based on a true incident from my childhood. I did run from a group of boys who were chasing me with a snake and I hid and watched as one of them nailed it to a telephone pole. Years later I wrote the poem because I wanted to make sense of what had happened and I wanted to honour the snake. 

If you had to choose one poem to memorize from our anthology, which one would it be?: 

I would like to memorizie my own and recite it as beautifully as I've heard students perform it. They blow me away.

Publications: 
Title: 
God of Shadows
Publisher: 
McClelland & Stewart
Date: 
2018
Publication type: 
Book
Title: 
What the Soul Doesn't Want
Publisher: 
Freehand Books
Date: 
2017
Publication type: 
Book
Title: 
The Wild in You
Publisher: 
Greystone
Date: 
2015
Publication type: 
Book