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Pat Lowther




It wasn't until 1968 that she published her first collection, ''This Difficult Flowring'', with Very Stone House , a small Canadian poetry press. In 1972 , "The Age of the Bird", a long poem inspired by revolutionary politics in South America , was published as a broadside by Blackfish Press . Its companion poem, "Regard to Naruda", was written for Pablo Neruda , one of Lowther's political and literary inspirations.

''Milk Stone'', published in 1974 by Borealis Press , became Lowther's breakthrough into Canadian mainstream literature. ''A Stone Diary'' was submitted to Oxford University Press in 1975 . In late September of that year, Lowther disappeared. Three weeks later, her body was found in a Creek near Squamish , British Columbia . Her second husband Roy Lowther, whom she had married in 1963 , was convicted of the murder in June 1977 . He died in prison in 1985 .

Two years after the poet's murder, Oxford published ''A Stone Diary''. In 1980 , a collection of Lowther's early and unpublished poems, ''Final Instructions'', was also published. Also that year, the League Of Canadian Poets established the Pat Lowther Award , a prize awarded annually to a book of poetry by a Canadian woman.

Lowther's life and death have served to inspire a number of works, including he daughter Christine Lowther’s first poetry collection, ''New Power'' ( 1999 ), and the novels '' Swann '' ( 1987 ) by Carol Shields and ''Furry Creek'' by Keith Henderson ( 1999 ). The title of her ''A Stone Diary'' may also have inspired the title of Shields' Pulitzer Prize -winning novel '' The Stone Diaries '' ( 1993 ).

To date, two studies of her work have been published: ''Pat Lowther's Continent: Her Life and Work'' by Toby Brooks ( 2000 ) and ''The Half-Lives of Pat Lowther'' by Christine Wiesenthral ( 2005 ).


BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • ''This Difficult Flowring'' - 1968

  • ''The Age of the Bird'' - 1972

  • ''Milk Stone'' - 1974

  • ''A Stone Diary'' - 1977

  • ''Final Instructions'' - 1980

  • ''Time Capsule'' - 1997