Roberta Rees (born 1954 in

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

)"Author finds voice in elements". ''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The Ca ...

'', November 4, 1994. is a

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writer from

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Career

Rees was raised primarily in Crowsnest Pass,

, and has been based in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

since moving there at age 19 to attend the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being inst ...

. She has also taught English and creative writing at the high school and university levels. To date, she is most noted for her short story collection ''Long After Fathers'', which won the ReLit Award for short fiction, and was a finalist for the

Danuta Gleed Literary Award The Danuta Gleed Literary Award is a Canadian national literary prize, awarded since 1998. It recognizes the best debut short fiction collection by a Canadian author in English language. The annual prize was founded by John Gleed in honour of his ...

, in 2008.

Awards

In 1993, she won the

Gerald Lampert Award The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is made annually by the League of Canadian Poets The League of Canadian Poets (LCP), founded in 1966, is a national non-profit arts service organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The organization acts as t ...

and the Alberta Literary Awards' Stephan G. Stephansson prize for poetry for her poetry collection ''Eyes Like Pigeons'', and her novel ''Beneath the Faceless Mountain'' won the Alberta New Fiction Competition for unpublished manuscripts in 1993. Following the publication of ''Beneath the Faceless Mountain'' in 1994, the book was co-winner, with

Richard Wagamese Richard Wagamese (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017) was an Ojibwe Canadian author and journalist from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in Northwestern Ontario."Indian Horse is a dark ride". ''Calgary Herald'', February 28, 2012. He was be ...

's ''Keeper 'n Me'', of the Georges Bugnet Award for Novel at the 1995 Writers' Guild of Alberta's Alberta Literary Awards."Rees, Wagamese share novel win at Writers Guild of Alberta gala". ''

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'', May 14, 1995. Her collection of short fiction ''Long After Fathers'' won the Howard O'Hagan Award at the Alberta Literary Awards in 2008. Rees has twice won the James H. Gray Award for short nonfiction, an Alberta Literary Award, in 2018 for "Evie's Massage Parlour" (Writing Menopause, Inanna Publications and Education Inc., 2017) and again in 2019 for "Bones, Honey" ( Waiting: An Anthology of Essays, The University of Alberta Press, 2018).

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Eyes Like Pigeons'' (Brick Books, 1992)

Fiction

*''Beneath the Faceless Mountain'' (

Red Deer Press Red Deer Press is a Canadian book publishing company located in Leaside, Ontario. It publishes trade titles in children's fiction, literary fiction, poetry, drama, belles-lettres, and creative nonfiction focusing on the Canadian prairies. Red ...

, 1995) *''Long After Fathers'' ( Coteau Books, 2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Roberta 1954 births 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian short story writers Canadian women novelists Canadian women poets Canadian women short story writers University of Calgary alumni Living people People from New Westminster Writers from British Columbia Writers from Alberta 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian women writers