Person

Livesay, Dorothy

1909-1996

Dorothy Livesay was a Canadian poet who work spanned over five decades. She was born in Winnipeg in 1909 and moved to Toronto with her parents at the age of ten. Her father, J.F.B. Livesay, was the first general manager of the Canadian Press, a war correspondent during World War I, and author of Canada's Hundred Days (1919). Her mother, Florence Randal Livesay, was a poet of distinction and a pioneer in the field of translating verse from Ukrainian into English. Dorothy Livesay studied at the University of Toronto and the Sorbonne, afterwards becoming a welfare worker, then a newspaper reporter, and finally a teacher. She taught Canadian Literature at the University of Victoria for two years. At the University of Alberta, she taught Canadian Literature and Creative Writing. She also taught in the United States and Zambia, the latter as a UNESCO field specialist. Known chiefly as a poet, Dorothy Livesay won the Lorne Pierce Medal in 1947 for distinguished service to Canadian literature. During the 1940s, she was twice honoured with the Governor-General's Award for Poetry. Some of her best-known poetry publications include Green Pitcher (1928), Call My People Home (1950), Ice Age (1975), Right Hand Left Hand (1977), The Woman I Am (1977), The Phases of Love (1983), and Journey With My Selves: a Memoir, 1909-1963 (1991). She died on December 29, 1996.

Winnipeg, Manitoba
Toronto, Ontario

Draft

Partial

Revised by N. Courrier (July 2019).