Susan McCaslin, Faculty Emerita, Douglas College and Ph.D. English, is a prizewinning Canadian poet and educator who taught English and Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C. from 1984-2007. Her work has appeared in literary journals across Canada and the States. She has published eleven volumes of poetry, eight poetry chapbooks, academic articles, essays, and a children's book. Her most recent volume of poetry is Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press, April 2011). Her other poetry books include Lifting the Stone (Seraphim Editions, 2007) A Plot of Light (Oolichan Press, 2004), and At the Mercy Seat (Ronsdale Press, 2003). Susan has edited two anthologies on sacred poetry, A Matter of Spirit and Poetry (Ekstasis Editions) and Poetry and Spiritual Practice (The St. Thomas Poetry Series), and is on the editorial board of Event: the Douglas College Review. She is an editorial consultant for The Journal of Feminist Studies in Reli!gion (Harvard Divinity School). She was the first-place winner of the Mother Tongue Chapbook competition for Letters to William Blake, judged by P.K. Page in 1997; the first-place winner of The Federation of B.C. Writers' Literary Writes in 2006; and the grand prize winner in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction's annual poetry contest in 2006. Susan lives in Fort Langley, British Columbia with her husband. She has a book of essays, Arousing the Spirit: Provocative Writings, forthcoming from Wood Lake Books in 2011. www.susanmccaslin.ca
Awards
First Place in The Burnaby Writers' Society Annual Poetry Contest, 1995, for "Celeste."
First place in Mother Tongue's Annual Chapbook Competition, 1997, for "Letters to William Blake."
First prize winner for the poem "Faith Is the Evidence" in the Burnaby Writers' Society 2005 Poetry Competition.
Grand prize for "A Dream of Thomas Merton" the second annual poetry contest sponsored by Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction for 2006. The poem was published in their journal in Sept. 2006.
First place winner for "Radiant Body" in the 18th Annual Literary Writes Poetry Competition sponsored by the Federation of BC Writers, 2006.
Selected Publications
Demeter Goes Skydiving
(University of Alberta Press,
2011)
ISBN: 13: 978-0-88864-551-7
Lifting the Stone (Seraphim Editions,
2007)
ISBN: 978-0-9735487-8-5
A Plot of Light
(Oolichan Books,
2004)
ISBN: 0-88982-197-6
At the Mercy Seat (Ronsdale
Press, 2003) ISBN 1-55380-003-6.
Common Longing: The Teresa Poems
and
a Canticle for Mary and Martha (Mellen Poetry Press, 2001) ISBN
0-7734-3424-0.
The Altering Eye (Borealis Press, 2000) ISBN 0-88887-232-1
(bound)l ISBN 0-8887-230-5 9 (paper).
Flying Wounded (The University
Press of Florida, 2000) ISBN 0-8130-1796-3 (cloth); ISBN 0-8130-1797-1
(paper).
Into the Open (Golden Eagle Press, 1999) self-published,
ISBN 0-920871-05-4.
Oracular Heart (Hawthorne Society, Reference West, 1999). ISBN
1-894010-36.
Veil/Unveil (St. Thomas Poetry Series, 1997) ISBN 0-9697802-4-9.
Letters to William Blake. (Mother Tongue Press, 1997).
Light Housekeeping. (Ekstasis Editions, 1995) ISBN
1-896860-14-1.
Locutions. (Ekstasis Editions, 1995) ISBN 0-921215-88-6.
Thinking about God. Illustrated children's book. (Twenty-Third
Publications: Mystic Connecticut, 1994). ISBN 0-89622-615-8.
The Visions of the Seven Sleepers
(The Iona Press, 1979), printed on hand-set press, available from the
author.
Kindling (Arion Press, 1979),
self-published, available from author.
Motions of the Hearts
(self-published, 1978), available from the author.
Selected Anthologies
Editor, Poetry and Spiritual Practice
(The St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2002) ISBN 0-9685339-7-3.
Editor, A Matter of Spirit: Recovery of the Sacred in
Contemporary
Canadian Poetry. (Ekstasis Editions, 1998) ISBN 1-896860-24-9.
Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam Era (Seraphim Editions,
2008)
ISBN: 978-0-9808879-1-4
Books in Print
McCaslin, Susan
Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press,
2011)
ISBN: 13: 978-0-88864-551-7, $19.95
E-mail: smccaslin@shaw.ca
Website: www.susanmccasllin.ca