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Lakshmi Gill

Lakshmi Gill

Lakshmi Gill is a poet, artist, and educator who has published extensively in Canadian and world literature. She was one of the two women poets (along with Dorothy Livesay) who founded the League of Canadian Poets in 1966. She attended Western Washington University (First Prize in Poetry), University of British Columbia (highest class mark of M.A. thesis), Mt. Allison University (Chancellor’s Prize in Education), University of New Brunswick Fredericton (Ph.D. studies), and taught English in Canada , Hong Kong, and England. Her varied publications include twelve books, eighteen anthologies, hundreds of individual poems/prose in literary magazines, book reviews, essays, and newspaper articles, workshops, conferences, readings in North America and Asia. Some of her poems have been translated into French and Spanish and her work has been studied at universities/presented in conferences by others in Canada, the USA, England, India, the Philippines, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Canary Islands. Her latest major work is Cruzamos una Mirada, a One-Act play in Spanish and English, virtual reading, Bogota, Colombia, July 20, 2021.  Born in Manila (Punjabi/Spanish-Filipina), she lives in Burnaby, British Columbia on the unceded traditional territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh),  xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and kʷikʷəƛ ̓ əm (Kwikwetlem) nations.

Province:
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Awards

Nominated for the New York Pushcart Prize for "Dogged," "Upside of Agoraphobia in Pandemic," The Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature , 2014, 2021
Dean’s List, Western Washington University, 1964
First Prize in Poetry, Western Washington University, 1964
Canada Council Grants , 1972, 1994
Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Reserve Grant, 1994
Doctoral grants, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, 1979
Chancellor’s Prize in Education, B.Ed. degree, Mt. Allison University, 1985
1st Prize Literary Contest, poems and short story for The Knoll, Maryknoll High School, Manila, Philippines, 1958
Links:
Pandemic Artbook 2021, a sound recording
https://youtu.be/eg2eQsUM9t0
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Eligible for National Public Readings Program:
Yes

WITS

Presentation Description

Workshop Description:

Equity Initiative

As part of the Union’s Equity Implementation Plan, we are committed to increasing awareness of authors who are Black, Indigenous, racialized, LGBTQI2S, or living with a disability. This author identifies as:

  • Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized