Margaret Avison

Margaret Avison, (April 23, 1918 – July 31, 2007) was a Canadian poet who twice won Canada's Governor General's Award and has also won its Griffin Poetry Prize.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "Her work has been praised for the beauty of its language and images."

Avison, the daughter of a Methodist minister, was born in Galt, Ontario, in 1918.

She moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1920, and Calgary, Alberta, a few years later.

Her family moved again, in 1930, to Toronto, Ontario.

She attended Alma College, located in St. Thomas, Ontario, ca. 1935.

As a teenager she was hospitalized for anorexia.

She attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto, entering in 1936 and getting her B.A. in 1940 (and returning to pick up her M.A. in 1965).

Before she finished her B.A. she was a published poet; the poem "Gatineau" appeared in the Canadian Poetry Magazine in 1939.

Additionally, she began publishing poetry in the college magazine, Acta Victoriana.

Besides writing poetry, Avison worked a variety of other jobs, such as working as a file clerk, proofreader, and editor.

She also worked in the Registrar's Office and Library at the University of Toronto.

Avison worked as a librarian, was a social worker at the Presbyterian Church Mission in Toronto, and taught at Scarborough College.

She wrote most of her poetry in her spare time, and chose paying jobs which left her time to write.

She didn't apply for a Canada Council grant.

As mentioned previously, Avison's poem "Gatineau" appeared in Canadian Poetry Magazine in 1939.

In 1943, anthologist A.J.M. Smith included her poetry in his Book of Canadian Poetry.

(In her autobiography, she mentions a "chaste skinny dip" with Smith.)

In 1951 Avison's junior high school textbook, History of Ontario, was published.

In 1956 Avison received a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant; she spent eight months in the United States and was able to attend classes at the universities of Chicago and Indiana.

Avison was moved by the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and translated eight Hungarian poems that then appeared in The Plough and The Pen - this brought recognition to various twentieth century Hungarian poets.

Avison successfully completed her M.A. at the University of Toronto, but while she began a Ph.D. she did not matriculate as she did not write a thesis.

She ghostwrote a book entitled A Doctor's Memoir and wrote her first book of poetry, Winter Sun. It was published in 1960 and won the Governor General's Award.

Avison converted to Christianity (from agnosticism) in 1963.

She wrote about that experience in her second book of poetry, The Dumbfounding (1966).

Avison taught at Scarborough Hall, University of Toronto, between 1966 and 1968, and also volunteered at Presbyterian mission named Evangel Hall during this time.

Avison was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario for eight months in 1973.

From 1973 to 1978 she worked in the archives division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

In 1978 she joined Toronto's Mustard Seed Mission as a secretary, and worked there until her retirement in 1986.

Avison was honoured for her contributions to Canadian literature by various honorary degrees: Acadia University (1983), York University (1985), and Victoria University (1988).

Avison became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984.

Her fourth collection of poems, No Time, came out in 1990, and won her a second Governor General's Award.

In 2003 Avison's Concrete and Wild Carrot won the Griffin Poetry Prize.

"Lauding Avison as 'a national treasure,' Griffin Poetry Prize judges praised the 'sublimity' and 'humility' of her poetry -- which they described as 'some of the most humane, sweet and profound poetry of our time.'"

Margaret Avison died in Toronto on July 31, 2007, age 89, from undisclosed causes.

Avison can be considered a spiritual or metaphysical poet; "her work is often described by reviewers as introspective, observant, and deeply spiritual."

"Many critics compare her work to the great metaphysical poets of the 17th century."

The Encyclopædia Britannica describes her as a "Canadian poet who revealed the progress of an interior spiritual journey in her three successive volumes of poetry," referring to her first three books, Winter Sun, The Dumbfounding, and sunblue.

With Winter Sun, "Avison established herself as a difficult and introspective poet given to private images and subtle shadings of emotion that challenge and frustrate the reader" (says The Canadian Encyclopedia).

"These complexities in her writing conceal a deeply religious and vulnerable sensibility."