Elizabeth Winifred Brewster

Brewster, Elizabeth Winifred
Elizabeth Winifred Brewster, poet, writer (b at Chipman, NB 26 Aug 1922). Elizabeth Brewster grew up in a small New Brunswick lumber town. She won scholarships that allowed her to attend and earn a BA at the University of New Brunswick, an MA at Radcliffe College, a BLSci at the University of Toronto and a PhD at Indiana University. Before she joined the University of Saskatchewan's Department of English in 1972, Brewster was a librarian and cataloguer in New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Elizabeth Brewster has published more than 20 books, most of them poetry collections. She remembers rural eastern Canada and contemplates western Canada, the Old Testament, and the universe in her poetry and prose.

Elizabeth Brewster was one of a handful of modernist female poets published in Canadian magazines in the 1940s. Her first book of poetry was East Coast (1951). The two-volume Selected Poems of Elizabeth Brewster: 1944-1984 was published in 1985. Her collection Footnotes to the Book of Job (1995) was short-listed for the GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD. Collected Poems of Elizabeth Brewster, in two volumes, appeared in 2003 and 2004.

Elizabeth Brewster's prose works include the short-story collections It's Easy to Fall on the Ice (1977), A House Full of Women (1983) and Visitations (1987). Her novels, The Sisters (1974) and Junction (1983), are set in her home province of New Brunswick. The autobiographical works, The Invention of Truth (1991) and Away from Home (1995), are a mix of poetry and prose.

Elizabeth Brewster was a founding member of the important Canadian literary magazine THE FIDDLEHEAD. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and a Member of the Order of Canada.

Author JEAN WILSON