Warland, Betsy, 1946- : Writer, editor, teacher and mentor, Betsy Warland was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1946. She studied at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and at State College in Pennsylvania before immigrating to Canada in 1973. Her active participation in and coordination of various literary events and organizations led her to become a significant figure in the feminist and lesbian writing scene in Canada. She initiated and organized the Toronto Women's Writing Collective (1975-1981) and she helped conceive and coordinate the "Women and Words/ Les femmes et les mots" conference held at the University of British Columbia in 1983. She participated in the Federation of B.C. Writers, the Special Council Committee of the Arts for the Vancouver City Council and was writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library. Warland has helped to publish the writings of many feminist writers through her work as editor of "Telling It: Women and Language across Cultures" (1990), "InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers and Lesbians" (1991), and through the journals "(f)lip" and "Herizons".
Her first poem appeared in an issue of "Waves" in 1976 and by 1981, she had published her first volume of poetry, "A Gathering Instinct". This was followed by "Open is Broken" (1984), "Serpent (w)rite" (1987), Proper Deafinitions: Collected Theorograms (1990), The Bat Had Blue Eyes (1993), What Holds Us Here (1998), Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss (2000), "Only This Blue: A Long Poem with an Essay" (2005) and Breathing the Page - Reading the Act of Writing (2010). Warland also collaborated with Daphne Marlatt on two works, "Double Negative" (1986) and Two Women in a Birth (1994). Many of Warland's poems, essays, reviews and interviews have appeared in Canadian and international journals and anthologies.
Warland's dedication to emerging writers is emphasized by her former role as the director of The Writer's Studio Program (2000-2012), part of the Simon Fraser University's Writing and Communications Program. She has led many writing workshops at schools and retreats such as Booming Ground, Sage Hill and Goddard College. Alongside Myrna Kostash, Warland co-founded the Creative Nonfiction Collective and has been an active member of The Writers' Union of Canada and served on the National Council (2010-2012).
Warland currently lives in Vancouver and since 2007 has been a director and a mentor in her own manuscript development program, the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive.
