"I am a cook, a woman trying to marry / sky to stew." -- Zoë Landale
Women have long been integral in the labour force of the commercial fishing industry. Zoë Landale, after seven years in that industry, beginning when she was 17, recorded her experiences in her first book, Harvest of Salmon, and again in Colour of Winter Air. Her first novel The Rain is Full of Ghosts is about a woman who leaves Denmark to work on West Coast fishing boats.
Landale was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1952. She has a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, where she studied Creative Writing. A former president of the Federation of BC Writers and garden designer, she has taught writing at North Island Community College and at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She now lives on North Pender Island.
Landale has edited and contributed to Shop Talk: An Anthology of Poetry (Pulp Press, 1985) for the Vancouver Industrial Writers' Union.
Landale's 'Once a Murderer: Poems for Three Voices' won the $6,000 first prize at the 2003 CBC Literary Awards. Five years later, when she was teaching at Kwantlen College, her collection Once A Murderer was released as a series of poems arising from her research for a crime novel, exploring love, criminal behaviour and poetry. It was followed by a wide-ranging poetry collection, Einstein's Cat.
AWARDS:
Second prize in Prairie Fire's Creative Non-Fiction competition, 1998.
Awarded best poem published by The Canadian Church Press for work originally published in Grail: An Ecumenical Journal, 1997.
National Magazine Award Gold for creative documentary originally published in Saturday Night, 1994.
Winner, Stony Brook University Short Fiction Competition, 1993.
Winner, Event magazine's Creative Non-fiction competition, 1992.
BOOKS:
Harvest of Salmon: Adventures in Fishing the B.C. Coast (Hancock House, 1976) 0919654754
Shop Talk (Pulp Press, 1985)
Colour of Winter Air (Sono Nis, 1990) 9781550390070
Burning Stone (Ronsdale, 1994) 9780921870319
The Rain is Full of Ghosts (River Books, 2000) 9781895836813
Once A Murderer (Wolsak & Wynn, 2008) 9781894987233
Einstein's Cat (Wolsak & Wynn, 2012) $17 9780894987233
Orchid Heart Elegies (MQUP, 2023) $19.95 9780228014393
[BCBW 2023]
Women have long been integral in the labour force of the commercial fishing industry. Zoë Landale, after seven years in that industry, beginning when she was 17, recorded her experiences in her first book, Harvest of Salmon, and again in Colour of Winter Air. Her first novel The Rain is Full of Ghosts is about a woman who leaves Denmark to work on West Coast fishing boats.
Landale was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1952. She has a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, where she studied Creative Writing. A former president of the Federation of BC Writers and garden designer, she has taught writing at North Island Community College and at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She now lives on North Pender Island.
Landale has edited and contributed to Shop Talk: An Anthology of Poetry (Pulp Press, 1985) for the Vancouver Industrial Writers' Union.
Landale's 'Once a Murderer: Poems for Three Voices' won the $6,000 first prize at the 2003 CBC Literary Awards. Five years later, when she was teaching at Kwantlen College, her collection Once A Murderer was released as a series of poems arising from her research for a crime novel, exploring love, criminal behaviour and poetry. It was followed by a wide-ranging poetry collection, Einstein's Cat.
AWARDS:
Second prize in Prairie Fire's Creative Non-Fiction competition, 1998.
Awarded best poem published by The Canadian Church Press for work originally published in Grail: An Ecumenical Journal, 1997.
National Magazine Award Gold for creative documentary originally published in Saturday Night, 1994.
Winner, Stony Brook University Short Fiction Competition, 1993.
Winner, Event magazine's Creative Non-fiction competition, 1992.
BOOKS:
Harvest of Salmon: Adventures in Fishing the B.C. Coast (Hancock House, 1976) 0919654754
Shop Talk (Pulp Press, 1985)
Colour of Winter Air (Sono Nis, 1990) 9781550390070
Burning Stone (Ronsdale, 1994) 9780921870319
The Rain is Full of Ghosts (River Books, 2000) 9781895836813
Once A Murderer (Wolsak & Wynn, 2008) 9781894987233
Einstein's Cat (Wolsak & Wynn, 2012) $17 9780894987233
Orchid Heart Elegies (MQUP, 2023) $19.95 9780228014393
[BCBW 2023]