Millicent Travis Lane (known as M. Travis Lane; born 23 September 1934) is an American-born Canadian poet based in
Fredericton
Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...
,
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
.
Early and personal life
Millicent Travis was born into a military family in
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
on 23 September 1934. Her father,
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
Colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
graduate who won the Distinguished Flying Cross during World War II. Her mother was Elsie Ward Travis. Millicent had one sister. During her childhood the family moved often because of her father's military postings. Her parents introduced her to poetry at an early age and she began writing poems as a young child.
She attended
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
and graduated with 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 ...
degree in 1956. In 1957 she was awarded a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degree by
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
for her thesis ''The Fences of Robert Frost: The Changes in his Ways of Approaching Philosophical Problems''. She earned a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
from Cornell in 1967 for her dissertation on
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...
's poetic style entitled ''Agnosticism as Technique''.
She and her husband Lauriat Lane Jr. moved to Fredericton in 1960 with their one-year-old daughter. Their second child, a son, was born in Canada. In 1973 M. Travis Lane, her husband and her two children became Canadian citizens. Lauriat Lane Jr. taught English at the
University of New Brunswick
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...
until 1990 and was named an
emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
In some c ...
professor on his retirement. He died in 2005.
Since 1967 M. Travis Lane has been an honorary
research associate
Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Bachelor's degree such as a master's degree or a PhD.
In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical Scho ...
in the English department of the University of New Brunswick. She has taught courses in contemporary American poetry and West Indian writing, as well as English survey courses, and has been an external reader for several theses. She has also been a prolific and respected reviewer for periodicals, particularly ''
The Fiddlehead
''The Fiddlehead'' is a Canadian literary magazine, published four times annually at the University of New Brunswick. It is the oldest Canadian literary magazine which is still in circulation.
History and profile
''The Fiddlehead'' was establ ...
''. She belongs to the
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (), also known as the Voice of Women or VOW, is a Canadian anti-nuclear pacifist organization that was formed in 1960. The organization was created in response to an article in which Lotta Dempsey, a journalist f ...
M. Travis Lane has said that she "always intended to be a poet" and that she decided after completing her PhD to "take myself seriously as a poet" rather than pursuing a career as a university professor. Between 1969 and 2015 she has published 15 solo books and chapbooks, and her work has appeared in more than 30 anthologies. Her 1980 book ''Divinations and Shorter Poems'' won the inaugural
Pat Lowther Award
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is an annual Canadian literary award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the year's best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. The award was established in 1980 to honour poet Pat Lowther, who was murdered by ...
for the year's best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. Her other awards include the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award for her poem "The Safety Net". In 2003 she was awarded the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in English Literature for "outstanding contribution to the arts in New Brunswick by a native or resident New Brunswicker".
Lane's output is various in form. Her fellow poet, editor and critic Jeanette Lynes lists "long narrative poems..., dialogic poems composed in dramatic structures; spare, epigrammatic poems;
ekphrasis
Ekphrasis or ecphrasis (from the Greek) is a rhetorical device indicating the written description of a work of art. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. Thus, "an ekphrastic poem ...
poems; and open-form lyrics", along with "visual poems and
epistolary
Epistolary means "relating to an epistle or letter". It may refer to:
* Epistolary (), a Christian liturgical book containing set readings for church services from the New Testament Epistles
* Epistolary novel, a novel written as a series of lette ...
forms" among the forms her work has taken. Lynes notes that Lane's "primary compositional investment" is in "the sonic elements of language—noise, the play of sound" rather than in the subject matter of the poem. In response to an interviewer's question about her writing process, Lane has said "I think a lot about how it he poem/nowiki> sounds, and I revise a great deal to get the sound right for the subject". Lynes identifies the main broad concerns of Lane's work as "aesthetic, ethical/political, and environmental". Lane herself has said that she is inspired to write by "everything: nature, science, the news, art, music, something someone has said, most of all, other poetry". Spirituality is also an important aspect of Lane's poetry. Her work has been compared with that of
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
and
Margaret Avison
Margaret Avison, (April 23, 1918 – July 31, 2007) was a Canadian poet who twice won Canada's Governor General's Award and has also won its Griffin Poetry Prize.Michael Gnarowski,Avison, Margaret" ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (Edmonton: Hurtig ...
Lane has said that
Alden Nowlan
Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright.
History
Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windso ...
was the most influential of the
Maritime provinces
The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of ...
poets on her work.
M. Travis Lane is Honorary President of the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick and was a founding member of the organization. She is a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets.
Pat Lowther Award
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is an annual Canadian literary award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the year's best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. The award was established in 1980 to honour poet Pat Lowther, who was murdered by ...
Fiddlehead
Fiddleheads or fiddlehead greens are the furled fronds from a fledgling fern, harvested for use as a vegetable.
Left on the plant, each fiddlehead would unroll into a new frond ( circinate vernation). As fiddleheads are harvested early in ...
Poetry Prize
* 1994: winner, Writers' Federation of
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
Alden Nowlan
Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright.
History
Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windso ...
Award for Excellence in English Literature
* 2006: winner, Banff Centre
Bliss Carman
William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.
In Canada, Car ...