Pamela Porter

Pamela Paige Porter (born July 14, 1956) is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has also lived in Texas, Louisiana, Washington and Montana. She emigrated to Canada with her husband Rob Porter, from the fourth generation of a Saskatchewan farm family, and resides in North Saanich, British Columbia. She has received praise for her young adult novels, especially The Crazy Man. Her poetry won the Prism International Poetry Prize, the Vallum Magazine Poetry Prize, and has appeared in literary magazines in Canada and the U.S.

Biography

Early life

Pamela lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico until half way through kindergarten. Her father, who worked for an insurance company, was transferred, and then the family moved to Dallas, Texas. When Pamela was 12 years old her father was transferred to Monroe, Louisiana, here she attended Robert E. Lee Junior High. Pamela remembers her school as being very strict, she had to address all her elders as "Yes, Ma'am, No, Ma'am, Yes, Sir, No, Sir." Pamela was first introduced to racism at her school when everyone treated the African American staff with no respect by calling them by their first names and playing around with them. Pamela recalls becoming very interested in world politics and the Civil Rights movement by watching the evening news every day. Pamela was first introduced to poetry while flipping through the back of her English Language Arts book in class. Pamela would collect little pithy things, pick up books from the library, books of poetry and pieces that usually were short, the length she felt she could read. Pamela was also introduced to poems by Robert Frost, particularly "Desert Places". Pamela believed she was always destined to be an author, she remembers always wanting to play the game "Authors" instead of "Scrabble" as a child.

Later life

Pamela finished her undergraduate degree at Southern Methodist University. She now holds an MFA in poetry writing from the University of Montana. When Pamela first entered university, she was very interested in languages. She studied the German language for a few years and was interested in becoming fluent in some other languages and becoming a translator. Pamela also is an accomplished musician, noted particularly for her abilities in piano, guitar, and singing, and was encouraged by university faculty to major in music. Pamela was 19 years old when she took her first writing course with John Skoyles. Other teachers were Jack Myers, Richard Hugo, and later, Lorna Crozier, and Patrick Lane, and soon after earning her MFA she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference in Vermont. Pamela met her husband in a bell choir. Pamela and Rob traveled a lot together before having children; they lived in New Mexico at the National Solar Observatory near Cloudcroft,and then moved to Seattle before moving to Ulm, Montana to be closer to Rob's family who were in Calgary at that time. The family now resides near Sidney, British Columbia. Pamela has been a professor at the University of Victoria as a sessional instructor. For generations, her family has gone to Saskatchewan every summer to work on the farm.

Analysis

Influences

Pamela Porter stated that her first influence was the Bible. She was raised in a family of stalwart Presbyterians that were strict followers of their religion. Pamela Porter learned to read at the age of five as her father held his finger beneath the words in the hymn book. Pamela has early memories of hearing the King James Bible read aloud; it gave her an introduction to literature and diverse vocabulary at a young age. Pamela's second influence was Robert Frost. She stated that The Complete Poems of Robert Frost was the only book of literature in her house; her mother received it as a gift. No one had opened it until she pulled the book down from a high shelf and began to read it. Other notable influences of Pamela porter include Li-Young Lee, Carolyn Forche Lorna Crozier, and Patrick Lane, while stating that her influences are many and varied. She leans towards "poets who make effortless music with language while still holding their humanity close."

Cultural impact

Pamela Porter's work has a great impact on juvenile audiences, as young readers voted her book The Crazy Man across Canada as their favorite book of the year. Her books are distinguishable from other children books as the themes of the book deal with real life issues and are often based on serious subjects for young people, and are written in verse, rather than conventional prose. They involve difficult and challenging experiences that children have encountered or will encounter in their lives and are stories that many children can relate to. A prime example is the book The Crazy Man, as this story deals with the abandonment of one parent or another or sometimes both, thus, telling the story of how people heal from tragedy and what they do to arrive at the point of healing, and even of gratitude. However, first and foremost a poet, her adult poetry is gaining a wider and more expansive readership. She has also been deeply involved with rescuing animals—dogs, cats, horses, and a rabbit—and taking them in as her own. Porter claims her love for animals was always in her but she began to adopt animals while living on a ranch in Montana and Saskatchewan.

Selected works

Porter is the author of four published collections of poetry.

• Sky (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2004)
• The Crazy Man (Groundwood, 2005)
• Stones Call Out (Regina, SK: Coteau Books, 2006), poems
• Yellow Moon, Apple Moon (Groundwood, 2008)
• The Intelligence of Animals (Omaha, NE: The Backwaters Press, 2008), poems
• 노란 달, 사과 달 (Seoul: Glbburi, 2008)
• Cathedral (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2010), poems
• I'll Be Watching (Groundwood, 2011)
• No Ordinary Place (Ronsdale, 2012), poems
• 어느 날 그가 왔다 (Seoul: Sanha Publishing Co., 2012)

• ^ "Patrick Lane Launches New Collection". Harbour Publishing. Retrieved November 17, 2011. 

Awards

• Governor General's Award, Children's Literature for The Crazy Man (2005)
• Texas Institute of Letters, Friends of the Austin Public Library Award for Young Adult Book for The Crazy Man (2006)
• Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children (2006)
• Jane Addams Foundation Honor Book for The Crazy Man (2006)
• Geoffrey Bilson Historical Fiction Award for Children (2006)
• TD Canadian Literature Award (2006)
• Hackmatack Award (2007)
• OLA Golden Oak Award (2007)
• Rocky Mountain Book Award (2007)
• Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award (2007)
• Red Cedar Award (2008)
• New Mexico Book Award (2009) for Yellow Moon, Apple Moon
• Pat Lowther Award in Poetry (2011) finalist, Cathedral

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