Writers' Trust of Canada - Programs - Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture

Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture

The Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture series was created in memory of the late Margaret Laurence (1926-1987), a celebrated novelist and short story writer. The annual lecture series has invited some of Canada's most prominent authors to discuss the theme of “A Writer's Life” in front of their peers since 1987. Notable names such as Hugh MacLennan, Mavis Gallant, Timothy Findley, W.O. Mitchell, Pierre Berton, P.K. Page, Dorothy Livesay, Alistair MacLeod, and Margaret Atwood, among others, have shared the personal challenges they faced in forging their own paths as writers. Approximately 45 minutes in length, the lectures are meant to provide a unique account of a period when a national writing community was just being formed. The series offers insight into the work of Canadian literature’s heroes and heroines, the profession of writing as a whole, and Canada’s unique cultural history. The Writers’ Trust provides a CAD5,000 honorarium to each speaker; an anthology of the lecture series was published in May 2011 by McClelland & Stewart to coincide with the 25th anniversary lecture.

The 26th annual Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dionne Brand on May 25, 2012 in the Vancouver Public Library's Alice MacKay Room. The 2013 lecture will be given by Poet Lorna Crozier in Ottawa on May 31.