Liz Zetlin

Liz Zetlin was born in Norfolk, Virginia and has lived in Canada since 1969. She holds degrees in visual arts from York University and modern languages and literature from Antioch College. Zetlin's poetry collections are often collaborations with visual artists. Said the River (with Janis Hoogstraten) is a search for poet Isabella Valancy Crawford. Connections, a self-published chapbook and audio tape (with Jane Garland), pays tribute to the power and strength of eight Grey County women.

Zetlin also works as a visual artist, creating installations such as ornamental gourds inscribed with words or images. She has been known to plant tulips that bloom into the shape of a tai chi move or hundreds of garlic cloves that mature into a word. Her latest project is the Punctuation Field, both a meadow (mown into commas, parentheses, the @ symbol, the emoticon for irony) and a manuscript in progress.

 

Awards
Ontario Arts Council Venture Fund, 1993.
Ginger Ink Poetry Contest, First Prize, 1994.
Honourable Mention, Eden Mills Festival's Writers' Contest, short fiction,1995.
Carousel Magazine, first prize, 1998.
Stephen Leacock Award for Poetry, second prize, 1998.

Canadian Poetry Association Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award, 1999 for The Gourd Poems
Virginia Centre for the Book Literary Award 2002, nominated for Taking Root

 

Selected Publications
Said the River (Penumbra Press, 1995).
Connections (chapbook and audio tape). (Always Press, 1995) ISBN 0-9698563-0-X
Ghost of Glenelg (Always Press, 1995) ISBN 0-9698563-1-8

The Gourd Poems (Canadian Poetry Association, 1999) ISBN 0-9686018-0-4

Taking Root (Seraphim Editions, 2001) ISBN 0-9689723-0-6

The Thing With Feathers, chapbook (Always Press, 2003) ISBN 0-9698563-3-4
The Thing With Feathers (BuschekBooks, 2004) ISBN 1-89454323-8.
Limestone Ghazals, chapbook; DVD (Always Press, 2004).

Selected Anthologies
Saugeen Stories. (Brucedale Press, 1996).
Portraits. sound. (Always Press, 1996).
Spring Fever. (Your Scrivener Press, 1997).

Waging Peace: Poetry and Political Action (Penumbra, 2002).
Line by Line: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry. Ed. and with drawings by Heather Spears (Ekstasis Editions, 2002).
The Limestone Barrens Project, "The Limestone Ghazals" (co-published by Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery (Newfoundland); the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Ontario); Model Arts and the Niland Gallery (Ireland) 2005) ISBN 0-929021-41-X.

 

Books in Print
Zetlin, Liz
Said The River (Poetry & Drawings) Penumbra Press, 1995. $14.95 ISBN 0-921254-72-5.

Connections Poetry (chapbook and audio tape). (Always Press, 1995) ISBN 0-9698563-0-X

Taking Root (Seraphim Editions, 2001), ISBN 0-9689723-0-6, $14.95 

The Thing With Feathers Poetry (chapbook) Always Press, 2003 ISBN 0-9698563-3-4, $15.
The Thing With Feathers, Poetry (BuschekBooks, 2004) ISBN 1-89454323-8, $15.
Limestone Ghazals, Video-poems, DVD (Always Press, 2004).
Limestone Ghazals, Poetry chapbook (Always Press, 2004).

Liz Zetlin, RR #1, Markdale ON N0C 1H0, (519) 986-4073 & 1267 Lansdowne Ave., Toronto, ON 416-651-4107
e-mail: zetlin@bmts.com
http://www.seraphimeditions.com
http://www.penumbrapress.com
http://www.tomthomson.org/exhibitionsexhibitions.cfm?ExhibitID=46

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