Phyllis Webb - Life

Life

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, she attended the University of British Columbia and McGill University. In 1949 she ran as a candidate for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the youngest person to do so.

Her poetry was published in 1954 in Trio, an anthology of poems by Eli Mandel, Gael Turnbull, and Webb published by Raymond Souster's Contact Press.

In 1957 Webb won a grant that allowed her to study theatre in France.

Webb has worked as a writer and broadcaster for the CBC, where in 1965 she created, with William A. Young, the radio program Ideas. From 1967 to 1969, Webb was its executive producer. In 1967, she travelled to the Soviet Union, carrying out research on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and on the anarchist Peter Kropotkin, much of which appears in her serial poem "The Kropotkin Poems".

Webb has taught creative writing at the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and the Banff Centre, and was writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta 1980-1981.

She lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Read more about this topic:  Phyllis Webb

Famous quotes containing the word life:

    ... it is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self—never to be fully possessed by the glory we behold, never to have our consciousness rapturously transformed into the vividness of a thought, the ardour of a passion, the energy of an action, but always to be scholarly and uninspired, ambitious and timid, scrupulous and dim-sighted.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    Those who first introduced compulsory education into American life knew exactly why children should go to school and learn to read: to save their souls.... Consistent with this goal, the first book written and printed for children in America was titled Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either England, drawn from the Breasts of both Testaments for their Souls’ Nourishment.
    Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)

    The child-rearing years are relatively short in our increased life span. It is hard for young women caught between diapers and formulas to believe, but there are years and years of freedom ahead. I regret my impatience to get on with my career. I wish I’d relaxed, allowed myself the luxury of watching the world through my little girl’s eyes.
    Eda Le Shan (20th century)