The Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series

The Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series, proposed by Regina poet Paul Wilson in 2001 and approved by the League's National Council the same year, commemorates the award winning Saskatchewan poet, who died a few years earlier. Szumigalski was a mentor to numerous prairie poets and much loved in the literary community, especially in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. She was a founder of both the Saskatchewan and Manitoba Writers Guilds, and helped establish the literary magazines, Grain and Prairie Fire.

The lecture series was modeled after the Margaret Laurence series of lectures by distinguished Canadian writers, long held as part of the Writers' Union of Canada's annual general meetings.

2002- The First Lecture
The first Szumigalski Lecture was delivered at the League's annual general meeting in Saskatoon in 2002 by local poet Tim Lilburn. He went on the win the Governor General's Award for Poetry the following year. He is the author of six books of poems, including Kill-site, To the River, and Moosewood Sandhills. He has been nominated for the Governor General's Award in Literature twice: in 1989, for Tourist to Ecstasy, and in 2003, when he received the award for Kill-site. In addition to the Governor General's Award, Lilburn's work has received the Canadian Authors Association Award, the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award, and the Saskatchewan Nonfiction Award.

2003- Dionne Brand delivered the lecture in Ottawa. Dionne Brand won the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Literature in 1997 for Land to Light On, her seventh book of poetry. Her fiction includes the acclaimed novels In Another Place Not Here and At the Full Change of the Moon as well as Sans Souci and Other Stories. Her most recent non-fiction book, A Map to the Door of No Return, was published by Doubleday Canada. Her Griffin-shortlisted book of poetry, thirsty, won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and was also nominated for the Trillium Book Award.

2004- Anne Carson, inaugural Griffin Poetry Prize winner, presented the lecture in Montreal. Anne Carson lives in Montreal, where she is Director of Graduate Studies, Classics, at McGill University. Her first book published in Britain, Glass and God, was shortlisted for the 1998 Forward Prize; her second, Autobiography of Red, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. She has been the recipient of the Lannan Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the MacArthur Fellowship, and was named a member of the Order of Canada in August, 2005. Her recent works include Decreation, which combines poetry with opera libretto, oratorio, essays and more, published by Knopf, and her translation of Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides, published by New York Review Books Classics.

2005- George Elliott Clarke delivered the lecture in Toronto. The work of George Elliott Clarke has won awards in addition to critical recognition among these are the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement from the Nova Scotia Arts Council, a Bellagio Center Fellowship (1998), the Outstanding Writer in Film and Television Award (2000) and three honorary doctorates: a Doctor of Laws degree (Dalhousie University, 1999) a Doctor of Letters degree (University of New Brunswick, 2000) and Doctor of Letters from the University of Alberta (2005). He was given the Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award in 2004, and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, Montreal, 2005. He earned the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Black Alumni Association, Faculty Achievement Award and the Undergraduate Teaching Award, all at the University of Toronto in 2005. Planet Africa TV gave him the Planet Africa Renaissance Award, Toronto, 2005. George Elliott Clarke has been an invited speaker to conferences and universities around the world.

2006- Margaret Atwood presented the lecture in Ottawa. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939 and grew up in Northern Quebec and Ontario. One of Canada's most prominent writers, she has published over twenty books including poetry, novels, short story collections, and non-fiction.

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