Margaret Avison, was a Canadian poet who twice won Canada's Governor General's Award and has won its Griffin Poetry Prize.
17 Facts About Margaret Avison
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Margaret Avison moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1920, and Calgary, Alberta, a few years later.
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Margaret Avison's family moved again, in 1930, to Toronto, Ontario.
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Margaret Avison attended Alma College, located in St Thomas, Ontario, ca.
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Besides writing poetry, Margaret Avison worked a variety of other jobs, such as working as a file clerk, proofreader, and editor.
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Margaret Avison worked in the Registrar's Office and Library at the University of Toronto.
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Margaret Avison worked as a librarian, was a social worker at the Presbyterian Church Mission in Toronto, and taught at Scarborough College.
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Margaret Avison wrote most of her poetry in her spare time, and chose paying jobs which left her time to write.
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In 1956 Margaret Avison received a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant; she spent eight months in the United States and was able to attend classes at the universities of Chicago and Indiana.
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Margaret Avison was moved by the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and translated eight Hungarian poems that then appeared in The Plough and The Pen - this brought recognition to various twentieth century Hungarian poets.
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Margaret Avison wrote about that experience in her second book of poetry, The Dumbfounding.
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Margaret Avison taught at Scarborough Hall, University of Toronto, between 1966 and 1968, and volunteered at Presbyterian mission named Evangel Hall during this time.
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Margaret Avison was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario for eight months in 1973.
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Margaret Avison became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984.
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Margaret Avison was honoured for her contributions to Canadian literature by various honorary degrees: Acadia University, York University, and Victoria University.
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Margaret Avison died in Toronto on July 31,2007, age 89, from undisclosed causes.
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Margaret Avison's emphasis is on looking at the familiar in new and thought-provoking ways.