For this week’s spotlight, we present Ann Elizabeth Carson. Ann is a poet, writer, sculptor, feminist, and one of “Toronto’s Mille Femmes” (2008 Luminato Festival), which paid tribute to women who have made a contribution to the arts. She has devoted her career and her work to understanding those in our society who are silenced, attempting to give them voice.
Born in 1929, Ann is as involved and vibrant as ever. Mother of four children (three surviving), grandmother to seven, and a retired psychotherapist, she has spent a lifetime learning, teaching, and sharing her experiences in many published works. She reads and shows in Toronto and on Manitoulin Island at multi-media events, working across artistic boundaries with writers, musicians, dancers, and painters. Ann is also a member of the League of Canadian Poets, the Ontario Poetry Society, the Manitoulin Writer’s Circle, the Canadian Author’s Association, and the Older Women’s Network. Her sixth and latest book, Filling the Ark (Nomad Art Press), is described by author Donna Langevin as “rich in sensuous detail and meticulously observed … her incisive, sometimes disturbing essays, stories, and mediations … command our attention and response … this book is a treasure.”
To learn more about Ann’s remarkable life, read excerpts from her books, and order copies of them, please visit her website at http://www.anncarson.com.
Here is a video of Ann reading from her latest work, Filling the Ark: https://youtu.be/6OPNd8uFeHQ