Claudia Casper
Encyclopedia
Claudia Casper is a Canadian
writer. She is best known for her bestselling novel The Reconstruction, about a woman who constructs a life-sized model of the hominid
Lucy
for a museum diorama
while trying to recreate herself.
, Ontario
in 1957. She was her parents’ only child, but she now has ten half-siblings. She says that her “siblings ... who often spoke no common language and three parents who couldn’t be further apart on the introversion/extroversion continuum,” helped her develop “an early ability to bridge realities.” As a result of her diverse family, she learned German
, Spanish
, French
and some Hebrew
.
Casper attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute
in Toronto
, but then transferred to SEED Alternative School, one of Toronto’s first free schools
, which she describes as seeming like “a slightly scary hotbed of creativity, drugs and sex,” where she learned at her own pace and chose her own curriculum
.
Her first job in the literary
world was at the age of 16, dust
ing books at Coles
bookstore near Yonge
and Bloor
in Toronto
. Casper used the earnings from this job to go on a solo bike trip in Germany
on a three-speed bicycle
. (Cycling continues to be a large part of her life. In 2010 she participated in the first Gran Fondo
ride from Vancouver
to Whistler
, British Columbia
.)
While completing her Bachelor of Arts
at the University of Toronto
, where she studied under Northrop Frye
, Casper worked in the circulation
department at The Globe and Mail
.
After graduation, she applied for a copy-editing
job with a Toronto
publisher
but failed their in-house test, so she moved to Vancouver
and “crashed on the warehouse floor” of a small publisher, Pulp Press (now Arsenal Pulp Press
). Stephen Osborne
, co-founder of Pulp Press and founder of Geist
magazine, taught Casper to typeset
, and for the next ten years she made a living freelance
typesetting
and being a foster parent for at-risk teenagers.
.
Claudia’s second husband is James Griffin, the founder and president of Vancouver Film School
. They have two sons together, Henry, born in 1992, and George, born in 1996.
’ short fiction competition, which she also won.
With the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts
, Casper wrote her first novel, The Reconstruction, about a woman who is hired to construct a life-sized model of Lucy
—the hominid
whose fossil
ized skeleton and footprints are human
kind’s link to the other primate
s in the evolution
ary chain—while trying to recreate herself after separating from her husband. Casper says The Reconstruction was “sparked by a desire to explore what it meant to be a woman living today who is descended from Lucy.”
After a bidding war, The Reconstruction was published in 1996 by Penguin
and became a bestseller. The New York Times
called it a “probing book,” and The Globe and Mail
said, “The writing is beautiful, with passages of dazzling poetic intensity on nearly every page.” It was optioned for a film and published in the United States
, the United Kingdom
and Germany
.
While writing her second novel, The Continuation of Love by Other Means, Casper also wrote book reviews for The Globe and Mail
and The Vancouver Sun
. She also published two short pieces, “Dad’s Place” in Geist
magazine, which also appeared in Best Canadian Stories 96, edited by Douglas Glover
and published by Oberon Press in 1996, and “Victory,” which appeared in Dropped Threads: What We Aren’t Told alongside Margaret Atwood
and Miriam Toews
, edited by Carol Shields
and Marjorie Anderson
and published by Vintage Canada in 2001.
Along with Anne Giardini, Carol Shields
’ daughter, Casper created the Carol Shields
Labyrinth
, an interactive
labyrinth website that honours Shields
’ life.
Casper’s second novel, The Continuation of Love by Other Means, explores gender
conflict through the relationship of a right-leaning
father and left-wing
daughter in Argentina
during the Dirty War
. It was published by Penguin
in 2003 to critical acclaim (Quill & Quire
called Casper a “brave, subtle writer”) and short-listed for the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize
.
She is currently working on a third novel with the working title The Last Murder: The Journals of Allen Quincy, which she describes as “Cinderella
and Goldilocks meet Cain and Abel
in 2042.” She sees her three novels as “a trio about our species: evolution, reproduction and war—light topics, every one.”
Casper has also taught writing for the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, founded by Betsy Warland
.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
writer. She is best known for her bestselling novel The Reconstruction, about a woman who constructs a life-sized model of the hominid
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
Lucy
Lucy (Australopithecus)
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...
for a museum diorama
Diorama
The word diorama can either refer to a nineteenth century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum...
while trying to recreate herself.
Early life
Claudia Casper was born in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
in 1957. She was her parents’ only child, but she now has ten half-siblings. She says that her “siblings ... who often spoke no common language and three parents who couldn’t be further apart on the introversion/extroversion continuum,” helped her develop “an early ability to bridge realities.” As a result of her diverse family, she learned German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and some Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
Casper attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute
Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute
Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute is a high school in the Lawrence Park neighbourhood of Toronto. It is a non-semestered school and focuses mainly on academics, drama, music, and visual arts, featuring strong French extended and immersion streams....
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, but then transferred to SEED Alternative School, one of Toronto’s first free schools
Democratic education
Democratic education is a theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy...
, which she describes as seeming like “a slightly scary hotbed of creativity, drugs and sex,” where she learned at her own pace and chose her own curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
.
Her first job in the literary
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
world was at the age of 16, dust
Dust
Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere that arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind , volcanic eruptions, and pollution...
ing books at Coles
Coles (bookstore)
Coles is a Canadian bookstore chain owned by Indigo Books and Music. Coles currently serves as Indigo's brand for small-scale bookstores in locations such as shopping malls...
bookstore near Yonge
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
and Bloor
Bloor Street
Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct westward into Mississauga, where it ends at Central Parkway. East of the viaduct, Danforth Avenue continues along the same...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Casper used the earnings from this job to go on a solo bike trip in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on a three-speed bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
. (Cycling continues to be a large part of her life. In 2010 she participated in the first Gran Fondo
Cyclosportive
A cyclosportive, or often simply sportive, is a short to long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling event, typically held annually....
ride from Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
to Whistler
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
.)
While completing her Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, where she studied under Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
, Casper worked in the circulation
Newspaper circulation
A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...
department at The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
.
After graduation, she applied for a copy-editing
Copy editing
Copy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication...
job with a Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
publisher
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
but failed their in-house test, so she moved to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and “crashed on the warehouse floor” of a small publisher, Pulp Press (now Arsenal Pulp Press
Arsenal Pulp Press
Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, and is noted for founding the annual Three-Day Novel Contest .Authors who have been published by Arsenal Pulp ...
). Stephen Osborne
Stephen Osborne (writer)
Stephen Osborne is a Canadian writer and editor. He is the author of Ice & Fire: Dispatches from the New World, and since 1990 has been the editor of Geist magazine.-Life and work:...
, co-founder of Pulp Press and founder of Geist
Geist (magazine)
Geist is Canada's most widely read literary magazine. Geist is published four times a year in Vancouver since 1990. The magazine takes its name from the German word geist, meaning "mind" or "spirit."...
magazine, taught Casper to typeset
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
, and for the next ten years she made a living freelance
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
and being a foster parent for at-risk teenagers.
Personal life
Inspired by Rabbi Daniel Siegel, Casper and her first husband, Bryan Wert, converted to JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
.
Claudia’s second husband is James Griffin, the founder and president of Vancouver Film School
Vancouver Film School
Vancouver Film School is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition. The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around Downtown Vancouver and comprises six buildings...
. They have two sons together, Henry, born in 1992, and George, born in 1996.
Works
With the moral support of her second husband, James Griffin, Casper submitted her writing to Event magazine’s creative non-fiction competition, where she shared first prize, and the Federation of BC WritersFederation of BC Writers
The Federation of BC Writers is the largest writers organization in British Columbia, Canada. Its stated goals are to foster the art and profession of writing in British Columbia; to generate a sense of community among British Columbia writers; to provide support for writers at all stages of their...
’ short fiction competition, which she also won.
With the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
, Casper wrote her first novel, The Reconstruction, about a woman who is hired to construct a life-sized model of Lucy
Lucy (Australopithecus)
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...
—the hominid
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
whose fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
ized skeleton and footprints are human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
kind’s link to the other primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
s in the evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary chain—while trying to recreate herself after separating from her husband. Casper says The Reconstruction was “sparked by a desire to explore what it meant to be a woman living today who is descended from Lucy.”
After a bidding war, The Reconstruction was published in 1996 by Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
and became a bestseller. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it a “probing book,” and The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
said, “The writing is beautiful, with passages of dazzling poetic intensity on nearly every page.” It was optioned for a film and published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
While writing her second novel, The Continuation of Love by Other Means, Casper also wrote book reviews for The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
and The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
. She also published two short pieces, “Dad’s Place” in Geist
Geist (magazine)
Geist is Canada's most widely read literary magazine. Geist is published four times a year in Vancouver since 1990. The magazine takes its name from the German word geist, meaning "mind" or "spirit."...
magazine, which also appeared in Best Canadian Stories 96, edited by Douglas Glover
Douglas Glover (writer)
Douglas Glover BA, M.Litt., MFA is a Canadian writer. He was raised on his family's tobacco farm just outside Waterford, Ontario...
and published by Oberon Press in 1996, and “Victory,” which appeared in Dropped Threads: What We Aren’t Told alongside Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
and Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer of Mennonite descent. She grew up in Steinbach, Manitoba and has lived in Montreal and London, before settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She moved to Toronto in 2009....
, edited by Carol Shields
Carol Shields
Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
and Marjorie Anderson
Marjorie Anderson
Marjorie Anderson was a leading BBC radio broadcaster for over thirty years. From 1940 to 1945 she presented Forces Favourites on the World War II BBC Forces Programme and BBC General Forces Programmes and then its peacetime successor Family Favourites on the BBC Light Programme...
and published by Vintage Canada in 2001.
Along with Anne Giardini, Carol Shields
Carol Shields
Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
’ daughter, Casper created the Carol Shields
Carol Shields
Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
Labyrinth
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
, an interactive
Interactivity
In the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels:...
labyrinth website that honours Shields
Carol Shields
Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
’ life.
Casper’s second novel, The Continuation of Love by Other Means, explores gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
conflict through the relationship of a right-leaning
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
father and left-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
daughter in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
during the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
. It was published by Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in 2003 to critical acclaim (Quill & Quire
Quill & Quire
Quill & Quire, a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry, was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, but its publisher claims a readership of 25,000...
called Casper a “brave, subtle writer”) and short-listed for the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, established in 1985 as one of the BC Book Prizes, is awarded annually to the best work of fiction by a resident of British Columbia, Canada....
.
She is currently working on a third novel with the working title The Last Murder: The Journals of Allen Quincy, which she describes as “Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
and Goldilocks meet Cain and Abel
Cain and Abel
In the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam only....
in 2042.” She sees her three novels as “a trio about our species: evolution, reproduction and war—light topics, every one.”
Casper has also taught writing for the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, founded by Betsy Warland
Betsy Warland
Betsy Warland is a Canadian writer and poet.- Life :Betsy Warland obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Education at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Warland studied at Pennsylvania's State College before immigrating to Canada in 1972. In 1975, she initiated the Toronto Women's Writing...
.