Joy and Power


Celebrating Canadian Women
Prose and Poetry By and About Women

Review by Maureen Shaw

Edited by Greta Hofmann Nemiroff. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1989. $35, 406 pp.

Because several well-known Canadian writers are women - Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro - many believe that the status of Canadian women writers is good; that Canada gives equal opportunity and voice to its women writers. In fact, the reverse is true.

To find works
by Canadian
women
writers is
difficult and
to find
anthologies
of their
writing has
been almost
impossible.

Male writers receive most of the grants, support, and publication; the publishing industry is male dominated; English and Creative Writing departments in colleges and universities are staffed largely by men. Anthologies of Canadian literature and reading lists in English courses comprise mostly male writers. And while the reading audience in Canada is overwhelmingly female, to find works by Canadian women writers is difficult and to find anthologies of their writing has been almost impossible.

Celebrating Canadian Women: Prose and Poetry By and About Women, edited by Greta Hofmann Nemiroff, fills that void. In her introduction, Nemiroff refers to "the near invisibility of women writers and artists in the curricula of schools and universities" as one of the motivations for compiling this anthology. She is to be celebrated herself for the success she has achieved in bringing together these women's voices that express in diverse ways the intricacies of women's experiences and perceptions.

The book contains short stories and poems from countless Canadian women, grouped under ten thematic headings from Growing Up Female to Power and Transcendence. Our most famous - Atwood, Laurence, Munro - are represented as are other well-known writers such as Dorothy Livesay, Audrey Thomas, Leona Gom, Aritha Van Herk, Ann Cameron, and Sandra Birdsell. But one of the book's strengths is its inclusion of the work of relatively unknown writers such as Lori Weber, Sandra Hartline, Sharon Carlson, Susan Glickman, and Frances Davis. Sadly, several notables are missing - Carol Shields, Jane Rule, Mavis Gallant - but perhaps Nemiroff did not receive submissions from them. Some of the entries are of questionable merit but the strengths of the rest overshadow the deficiencies of weaker ones. The final section, Biographical Notes on the Contributors, is helpful and enlightening, although a few of the writers are, unfortunately, omitted.

Au Canada, le monde de la littérature comptant plusieurs écrivaines connues, on a souvent tendance à croire que ces dernières jouissent d'une situation enviable, qu'elles ont les mêmes chances et autant voix au chapitre que les hommes. Or, rien n'est plus faux. Si, au Canada, l'effectif-lecteurs se compose surtout de femmes, il est en revanche difficile de trouver des ouvrages d'écrivaines canadiennes et presque impossible de dénicher des anthologies de leurs écrits. Le livre Celebrating Canadian Women: Prose and Poetry By and About Women, édité par Greta Hofmann Nemiroff, comble ce vide. Il contient des nouvelles et des poèmes d'innombrables nouvellistes et poètes canadiennes, regroupés sous dix rubriques thématiques. Les écrivaines les plus célèbres (Atwood, Laurence, Munro) y sont citées, ainsi que d'autres bien connues. Toutefois, l'un des atouts de ce livre est de présenter les écrits d'auteurs relativement inconnues.

Les universités et les collèges devraient généraliser l'utilisation de cette anthologie dans leurs cours de littérature de langue anglaise et dans les cours d'études de la femme, car elle propose une vaste gamme de lectures diverses à celles et ceux qui souhaitent être à l'écoute des Canadiennes, qui éprouvent des difficultés à se faire entendre.


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