Earle Birney

While writer-in-residence at the English Department of the University of Alberta , MA contributed to the department's short-lived periodical called The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1969-71. Other contributors included Bert Almon , Douglas Barbour

Critical reception of PJ 's writing has been uneven, ranging from outright dismissals to celebrations. These responses clearly illuminate the preoccupations of critics, many of whom were primarily interested in constructing narrow versions of Canadian...

The early 1950s were a pleasurable time for EW , who enjoyed creative success in addition to the improved health of her husband. Furthermore, she now became more active in the Canadian literary scene. Since...

EW 's refined taste, propriety and conservative political sensibility led to some conflict with Earle Birney . His approach to poetry and art was political, but often socialist. EW was uncomfortable with what she saw...

Although EW later claimed that during the war she stopped writing stories, she nonetheless published two during these years, for the first time in Canadian publications. On Nimpish Lake appeared in Canadian Forum in July...

EW expressed to John Gray some self-doubt as to whether she was truly qualified to speak to a university audience: How pretentious of me [to speak], who have [sic] nothing but a very treasured conferred...

The article put great strain on her friendship with Earle Birney , who was fighting to keep creative writing courses alive at the University of British Columbia . As an explanation she wrote to Birney,...