P. K. Page- Brief Bio

Patricia Kathleen Page also known as P.K.Irwin was born on 23 November 1916 in Swanage in Dorset, England and brought up on the Canadian prairies. She was a poet, novelist, playwright, prose writer, script writer, essayist and visual artist. Her poems first appeared in periodicals in the late 1930s, and later in Ronald Hambleton’s anthology Unit of Five (1944). Her first book was a romantic novel, The Sun and the Moon (1944), which she published under the pseudonym Judith Cape. She published her first solo book of poetry, As Ten, as Twenty (1946), under her real name.

Her visual art is exhibited in several permanent collections in Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery on Ontario as P.K.Irwin. Throughout her career page has maintained a style of poetry in keeping with the modernist influences developed during her association with the Montreal Preview group of poets in the 1940s. During that time Montreal was the center of Canadian literary activity.

Page also reaches out for a reality beyond the visible world. In an interview Page responds to the suggestion that her work expresses a belief in “multiple selves”. She received numerous awards, including the Oscar Blumenthal Award for Poetry (1944, Chicago), the Governor General’s Award for Poetry (1954), the Terasen Life time Achievement Award (2004). The National Film Board of Canada produced a film on her poetry, Still Waters – The Poetry of P.K.Page (1991). Page died on the 14th January, 2010 in Oak Bay, British Columbia.