Gillian Jerome is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

ist, editor, university instructor and high-school educator. She won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2009 and the ReLit Award for Poetry in 2010. Jerome is a co-founder of Canadian Women In Literary Arts ''(CWILA),'' and also serves as the poetry editor for ''

Geist ''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. ''Geist'' can be roughly translated into three English meanings: ghost (as in the supernatural entity), spirit (as in the Holy Spirit), and mind or int ...

''. She is a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in literature at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and also runs writing workshops at the Post 750 in downtown Vancouver. Her work has been published by ''

'', ''

Canadian Literature Canadian literature is written in several languages including Canadian English, English, Canadian French, French, and various Indigenous Canadian languages. It is often divided into French- and English-language literatures, which are rooted in th ...

'', '' The Malahat Review'', '' The Fiddlehead'', ''

Grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

'' and the ''

Colorado Review The ''Colorado Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University. History and profile The magazine was established in 1956. It presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fict ...

''.

Personal life and education

Jerome was born in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, and lives in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. She received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the University of Victoria and a Masters of Fine Arts in writing at the University of Arizona where she studied

American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

. She has two children from her marriage to fellow writer Brad Cran. The two were divorced in 2014.

Career

Jerome has taught

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

at the University of British Columbia, the University of Arizona and Douglas College. She co-edited an oral history project in the

Downtown Eastside The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a list of neighbourhoods in Vancouver, neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportio ...

, in association with Pivot Legal Society who started the community-based photography project Hope In Shadows. She has published poems, essays, book reviews and two books of her own, Jerome has participated for many years in judging the ''Poetry in Voice'' contest and the Vancouver Writers Festival. She teaches life writing workshops at the Post at 750 for people who don't consider themselves professional writers but have something meaningful to say. She has also participated in the UBC's Robson Reading Series, as well as an event that was part of the literary series Open Word: Readings and Ideas at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

, where she read from her past works and poems she was working on at the time. Jerome's work touches on many subjects including sexuality, friendship, community, ecological exigencies, and the local, particularly the people and places of her East and South Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Canadian women in literary arts

Gillian Jerome founded CWILA in 2012 as a response to what she saw as unequal representations of gender and race in literary communities in Canada. CWILA produces an annual count of participating publications and their number of books or reviews written by women, as well as how many women authors they have reviewed. CWILA strives to quantify the barriers that exist for women in literary culture, Their findings aim at enabling discussion and inspiration for action in the literary community in Canada. The non-profit organization works to instill motivation in the literary and review community to create equal coverage and representation. Jerome left her position at Canadian Women in Literary Arts in 2015 to focus on teaching and writing.

''Geist'' magazine

'' is a Canadian magazine that brings together fiction and non-fiction, poetry, essays, comics, reviews and photography. The magazine is explained as a mix of ideas and culture. Jerome taught writing workshops at ''Geist'' and is a participating editor and writer for the magazine. Jerome has published 14 pieces with ''Geist.'' including poetry, essays and book reviews. The themes that come up in her writing include

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, motherhood, environmentalism, women's rights, housing politics,

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

and community.

Hope in Shadows

In 2003 Pivot Legal Society started Hope in the Shadows, a photo contest in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Pivot Legal Society asked participants to photograph things that were important to them, with the intent that this would give the participants a voice and recognition for their efforts. The initial contest led to the creation of a yearly calendar project where each year's winners are asked to share their story along with their image. This calendar is released in October of every year, and contains the winning photos of the participants chosen by local artists in the city. The calendars are sold through ''Megaphones'' vendor program which hires 200 people from low-income backgrounds each season, each vendor keeps half of their sales. There have been 75,000 calendars sold since 2003. In 2008 the book ''Hope in Shadows'' by Jerome and Brad Cran was released through Arsenal Pulp Press and the Pivot Legal Society that compiled 35 different stories attached to winning images from the photo contest. Their book took the stories associated with the winning photographs and expanded them with interviews of the photographers from the photo contest. They wrote about the traumas, abuse and mental illness but also friendship, laughter and love, which were reoccurring themes in the stories of the images. The stories capture the lives of First Nations people who survived residential schools, individuals coping with addictions, and others overcoming loss of loved ones. ''Hope in Shadows'' was published in 2009 and soon after this date the calendar sold 5000 more copies. ''Hope in Shadows'' won the City of Vancouver Book Award, was shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, and was longlisted for the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.

University of British Columbia

Jerome has been teaching narrative, research writing and literature in the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia since 2004.

''EVENT'' magazine

Jerome was an editor and author for the ''EVENT'' magazine, a literary magazine that has been publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction for 46 years in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. Event is published by Douglas College, a public

post-secondary Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

institution 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 cap ...

, British Columbia, Canada. Jerome started working as Event's Poetry editor in 2010.

Awards

* City of Vancouver Book Award, 2008. * ReLit Award, 2009 for her poetry collection ''Red Nest''

Works

* ''Midsummer'' (2008) * ''Hope in the Shadows'' (2008) Arsenal Pulp Press * ''Red Nest'' (2009) Harbour Publishing * ''Nevertheless: Walking Poems'' (2022) Harbour Publishing

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jerome, Gillian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian agnostics Canadian feminist writers Canadian literary critics Canadian women literary critics Canadian women academics Canadian women novelists Canadian women poets Postmodern writers Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Poets from Ottawa Poets from Vancouver University of Victoria alumni University of Arizona alumni Canadian women non-fiction writers Novelists from Ottawa Novelists from Vancouver