Laurie D. Graham grew up in Treaty 6 territory (Sherwood Park, Alberta), and she currently lives in Nogojiwanong, in the treaty and traditional territory of the Mississauga Anishinaabeg (Peterborough, Ontario), where she is a writer, an editor, and the publisher of Brick magazine. Her first book, Rove (Hagios Press, 2013), was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry in Canada. Her second book, Settler Education (McClelland & Stewart, 2016), was nominated for Ontario’s Trillium Award for Poetry. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, won the Thomas Morton Poetry Prize, and appeared in the Best Canadian Poetry anthology.
A collaborative chapbook with artist Amanda Rhodenizer called The Larger Forgetting was published in 2018, and recent work can also be found on The Scales Project, The VIDA Review, and in the anthologies Rising Tides: Reflections for Climate Changing Times and Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis.
She holds a BA in English from the University of Alberta, a BFA in writing from the University of Victoria, and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph. She currently sits on the boards of Oskana Poetry & Poetics, the Public Lending Right Commission, and the Magazines Canada Arts & Literary Magazines Committee.
Laurie’s maternal family comes from around Derwent, Alberta, by way of Ukraine and Poland, and her paternal family comes from around Semans, Saskatchewan, by way of Ireland and Scotland. She has about a century of history in Canada. Laurie acknowledges that she is an invader on this continent, that theft of land is what has allowed her and her family’s presence here, and that settlers don’t have permission to be here in this way. It’s time for us to think about returning what we’ve taken.
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