Alice Major

Alice Major was born in Scotland and somehow ended up in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta and the most northerly of Canada's major cities. Here, she has published nine books of poetry and became Edmonton's first poet laureate. During her term, she wrote poems on subjects from potholes to hockey playoffs and served as an ambassador for her art form.

She has performed her work in Australia and Britain as well as across Canada. Her eighth poetry collection, "The Office Tower Tales", won the prestigious Pat Lowther award (given annually for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman) and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta's Trade Fiction Book of the Year Award. (Talk about genre-bending!) Her tenth book, "Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science" shifts genres again. This collection of essays has received rave reviews in publications as diverse as American Scientist and the Malahat Review.

Alice is past president of the League of Canadian Poets and the Writers Guild of Alberta, and also past chair of the Edmonton Arts Council.