A poet’s reflection on voice, feminism, and the space women occupy
In a lecture that blurred the line between poetry and conversation, Lorna Crozier offered a powerful reflection on feminist storytelling, the legacies writers inherit and the courage it takes for women to take up space.
Poet Lorna Crozier sits in conversation with Alice Major following the Monica Miller Memorial Lecture, reflecting on women’s voices, creativity and the question of space in literature. (Pic: Viktorya Gyulinyan/Edmonton Edge)
It wasn’t a lecture filled with academic jargon or literary theory. Instead, it unfolded like an intimate conversation between friends, one that seemed to stretch across generations of women writers.
On Oct. 8, renowned Canadian poet and memoirist Lorna Crozier delivered the Monica Miller Memorial Lecture, offering a warm and reflective meditation on feminism, creativity and the legacies women leave behind.
Crozier, an Officer of the Order of Canada, has spent decades shaping the country’s literary landscape. Over her career, she has received five honorary doctorates and multiple honours, including the Governor General’s Literary Award and three Pat Lowther awards for poetry.
Her acclaimed titles include After That, What the Soul Doesn’t Want and Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things, which was named one of The Globe and Mail’s top 100 books of 2012.
“I’ve always had a love of the way words are put together… a love of the sound of words,” Crozier said. “A love of what words say to you, how they pull you in, how they make you feel less alone as a human being.”
During her talk, she explored how biblical stories can be retold through a feminist lens, reading from her poem Eve’s Kind of Naming, a reimagining in which Eve, not Adam, names the animals.
The poem, she explained, offers a woman’s understanding of nature and self, grounded in a recognition of equality rather than dominance.
“Of course, her openness to their own naming is a metaphor for equality, and for the dangers of human hegemony,” she said.
Crozier said she dedicated this version of Eve to women writers who have brought feminist perspectives into literature, mentioning figures such as George Meredith and Virginia Woolf.
Following the lecture, Crozier sat down for a conversation with Edmonton’s first poet laureate, Alice Major, a prominent literary voice and former president of the Writers’ Guild of Canada.
The two poets reflected on age, impact and success, and the lingering question of space in the literary world.
Major asked whether Crozier had “taken up enough space” at this point in her career, and whether continuing to write might limit opportunities for emerging voices.
Crozier responded: “I don’t feel like my continuing is going to silence anyone else. Maybe that’s a female thing you’ve got to overcome.”
She added that her goal has always been to elevate unheard voices while maintaining her own.
Many women, Crozier said, wrestle with feelings of guilt or reluctance around success, and the fear of being “too much.” Through her poetry, she hopes to dismantle those constraints and validate women who share such insecurities.
“I think every time we write a poem that honours something that is not usually given tribute, we are adding a luster to that topic,” she said. She said that this kind of work can also function as a form of artistic resistance, especially when centred on women’s stories.
