Marlatt, Daphne, 1942- : Daphne Marlatt (née Buckle) was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1942 to English parents who were evacuated from Malaya as a result of the Japanese occupation. She spent her early childhood in Penang, Malaysia. In 195l, her family immigrated to Vancouver. She studied English literature at the University of British Columbia (B.A., 1964) where she participated in a variety of literary activities and contributed poetry and editorial expertise to the experimental periodical "tish". She completed her M.A. in Comparative Literature at Indiana University in 1968, and for her thesis she translated and wrote a critical essay on Francis Pongé. That same year Ryerson Press published her first book of poetry "Frames: Of a Story", written in experimental language and form.
Marlatt's development as a writer is closely related to her other occupations and preoccupations, such as her involvement in oral-history projects in Steveston and Vancouver's east end. The CBC adapted her documentary publication "Steveston Recollected: A Japanese-Canadian History" (1975) as a radio drama and asked her to write the script. She was poetry editor for "Capilano Review" (1973-1976), co-editor for the prose magazine "Periodics" (1977-1980), "Island" magazine, and founding co-editor of "Tessera", a feminist journal. Her many published titles and numerous contributions to Canadian anthologies and periodicals have given Marlatt a strong and recognizable voice in West Coast literature in particular and in Canadian literature in general. Her published works include "Rings" (1971), "Vancouver Poems" (1972), "Steveston" (1974), "Our Lives" (1975), "Zocalo" (1977), "What Matters" (1980) and "Here & There" (1981). Her "How Hug a Stone" (1983) chronicles the journey she took with her son, Kit, to England to explore her mother's roots. In this work, as in "Touch to My Tongue" (1984), Marlatt articulates her own consciousness in the making through the writing process. Other notable works include the partly-autobiographical "Ana Historic" (1988), "Salvage" (1991), "Taken" (1996) and "Readings from the Labyrinth" (1998), a collection of her essays. Marlatt edited "Mothertalk" (1997), Roy Kiyooka's biographical work about his mother's experience as an immigrant to Canada. Marlatt was instrumental in organizing the Canadian literary conference "Women and Words / Les femmes et les mots" held at the University of British Columbia in 1998.
