Sina Queyras

Sina Queyras

Sina Queyras, poet, editor, teacher, web blogger (b at Thompson, Man 1963). Sina Queyras is the award-winning author of 4 books of poetry and one book of nonfiction, and is the editor of an anthology of contemporary Canadian experimental writing. Her writing explores the limits of individual expression and sensual experience in a landscape that is densely marked by politics and ideology. Through her critical writing, reviews and web commentary Queyras has worked diligently to create an encouraging and challenging environment for writers, especially Canadian women writers.

Although born in Thompson, Manitoba, Sina Queyras was raised in British Columbia and has lived in numerous cities in Canada and the United States. She pursued undergraduate studies at Malaspina College, the UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA and the UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, where she received a BFA (1991). She also completed an MA in creative writing at CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY (1995). She has taught in the US, at Rutgers University in New Jersey and at Haverford College in Philadelphia. In 2007-2008 she was the Markin-Flanagan Writer-in-Residence at the UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY. She has also done artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, where she held the Dodge Fellowship (2003), and at the BANFF CENTRE FOR THE ARTS (2006). She co-curated the belladonna* reading series in New York from 2005 to 2007. She teaches creative writing in the Department of English at Concordia University in Montreal.

Sina Queyras's poetry books include Slip (2001), Teethmarks (2004), Lemon Hound (2006) and Expressway (2009). Lemon Hound won the Lambda Literary Award and the Pat LOWTHER Award for poetry, while Expressway was shortlisted for the GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S AWARD for Poetry. One of the poems from the latter title, "Her Dreams of the Expressway," was first published in The Malahat Review and won a Gold National Magazine Award. Queyras was the editor of Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets (2005), an influential publication that has been widely used in classrooms across Canada and beyond. It is the first anthology of Canadian poetry published by an American press in a generation. She also edits "Canadian Strange," an ongoing series of contemporary Canadian writing for the American small press publication Drunken Boat, for which she is a contributing literary editor as well.

For her extensive online activities, Sina Queyras was awarded the honourary position of 2010 Co-Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere by bloggingpoet.com. The populist prize was given as recognition for her work at Lemon Hound, which presents a rich tapestry of ongoing discussions, reviews and commentary on contemporary writing. Queyras edited the popular web blog by herself from 2005 to 2009, after which she invited Canadian poets Nick Thran, Kaplan Harris, Ray Hsu, Sachiko Murakami, Nikki Reimer and Helen Hajnoczky to guest-edit the blog. A selection of Queyras' posts to the blog have been published under the title Unleashed (2010).