Di Brandt, award-winning poet, essayist, teacher and editor holds a prestigious Canada Research Chair in English/Creative Writing at Brandon University, Manitoba, since 2005. She has taught Canadian Literature and Creative Writing the Universities of Windsor, Manitoba, Winnipeg and Alberta, where she was Writer-in-Residence in 1995-1996. She has given readings, workshops and guest lectures in the US, England, Scotland, Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Austria, Spain, Palestine, Japan and Colombia.

Di has received numerous prizes for her poetry; her work has been widely anthologized and is taught in universities around the world. She has published 10 books of poetry and creative essays, and has collaborated extensively with artists in other media, including installation artist Aganetha Dyck and her honeybees (Working in the Dark, 1999); musicians Rebecca Campbell and Carol Ann Weaver, with poetry by Dorothy Livesay (Awakenings, CD 2003): and composer Jana Skarecky (Emily, The Way You Are, a chamber opera about the life and works of Emily Carr, 2007). Di also teaches courses in Canadian Literature, Creative Writing, Ecopoetics and Multimedia Poetry production at Brandon University. Her most recent book is So this is the world & here I am in it (NeWest Writers as Critics X, ed. Smaro Kamboureli, 2007), a collection of ecopoetic essays on indigenosity, place, farming, twins, maternity, paternity, Anabaptists and honeybees.

Di’s recent poetry collection, Now You Care (Coach House 2003), has been widely celebrated in Canada and internationally. The Griffin jury, which shortlisted the book for the Griffin Poetry Prize, commented as follows: “Di Brandt manages beautifully the difficult job of producing poems that are socially conscientious without being didactic. She knows that the best poetry rests on the authority of the heart. Thus, she makes her readers care not only through the pleasures of form and crafted language, but also through the risky honesty of her articulations.”

So this is the world & here I am in it. Creative essays. 246 pages
NeWest Writers As Critics X, ed. Smaro Kamboureli
Edmonton, Canada
(780) 432-9427
ISBN-13: 978-1-897126-09-7
ISBN-10: 1-897126-09-3

Now You Care. Poetry. 108 pages
Coach House Books, Toronto, Canada
(416) 979-2217 / fax: (416) 977-1158
ISBN 1 55245 127 5 / $17.95 Canada $14.95 USA