Dorothy Livesay - Life

Life

Livesay was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her mother, Florence Randal Livesay, was a poet and journalist; her father, J.F.B. Livesay was the General Manager of Canadian Press.

Livesay moved to Toronto, Ontario, with her family in 1920. She graduated with a BA in 1931 from Trinity College in the University of Toronto and received a diploma from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Social Work in 1934. She also studied at the University of British Columbia and the Sorbonne.

In 1931 in Paris, Livesay became a committed Communist. She joined the Communist Party of Canada in 1933, and was active in a number of its front organizations: the Canadian Labour Defense League, the Canadian League Against War and Fascism, Friends of the Soviet Union, and the Workers’ Unity League.

In 1937 she married Duncan Macnair, they had two children Peter Macnair and Marcia.

In the early 1940s Livesay suggested to Anne Marriott, Floris McLaren, and Doris Ferne that they start a poetry magazine which would serve as a vehicle for poets outside the somewhat closed Montreal circle. Alan Crawley agreed to edit the magazine, and the first issue of Contemporary Verse appeared in September 1941,

After Macnair died in 1959, Livesay worked for UNESCO in Paris, and then in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) as a field worker from 1960 to 1963.

Between 1951 and 1984, she was an instructor and a writer-in-residence at many Canadian universities, including the University of British Columbia (1951–53 and 1966–68), University of New Brunswick (1966–1968), University of Alberta (1968–1971), University of Victoria (1972–1974), University of Manitoba (1974–76), Simon Fraser University (1980–82), and University of Toronto (1983–84).

In 1975 Livesay founded the journal Contemporary Verse 2 (CVII).

She died in Victoria, British Columbia.