Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta. She has published 12 collections of poetry and a collection of essays on poetry and science. Her work has received multiple awards, most recently an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.

Biography

Major emigrated from Scotland at the age of eight, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario before working as a weekly newspaper reporter in central British Columbia. She has lived in Edmonton, Alberta since 1981. She has a BA (English, history) from Trinity College, Toronto at the University of Toronto. Her first book was a prize-winning YA fantasy novel. Since then she has published 12 books of poetry and an essay collection on poetry and science. She is past-president of both the Writers' Guild of Alberta and the League of Canadian Poets, as well as former chair of the Edmonton Arts Council. In 2005, she was appointed to a two-year term as the first poet laureate for the City of Edmonton, and then went on to receive the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award in 2017. During her tenure as poet laureate, she founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival in 2006. In November 2019 she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Alberta.

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