National acclaim for Sask. poet
Saskatchewan poet Louise Bernice Halfe is this year’s winner of the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize.
The award, which comes with $25,000, is given to a mid-career poet in Canada with a remarkable body of work.
Reached at her Toronto hotel room before the formal ceremony, Halfe said “I hope I’ve gotten over all the tears because I’m a crier when it comes to these events.”
Halfe is a former poet laureate of Saskatchewan who was recently honoured at the Indigenous Writers’ Gathering for lifetime achievement.
She was born in Two Hills, Alberta. Her Cree name is Sky Dancer. She was raised on the Saddle Lake Indian Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. She’s earned praise for her powerful writing on residential schools, most recently with the collection Burning in this Midnight Dream. It is Halfe’s personal response to the Truth and Reconciliation process and how the experiences of residential schoolchildren continue to haunt those who survive, and how the effects are passed down for generations. The book won three Saskatchewan Book Awards and the League of Canadian Poets Raymond Souster Award.
“We talk about the alcoholism, we talk about the sexual abuse. But we don’t talk about what really is going on in the psyche of the individual, that may have led to the alcoholism or maybe why they were subject to sexual abuse. Those are the digging places that I go to. It’s very difficult,” Halfe said.
Among their comments, the three-person jury said “Halfe’s poems are highly attuned to speech, silence and stillness; to breath, to incantation; creating a taut, resonant relationship between the page and the reader.”
Halfe started writing at 16 but put it aside. Then, in her 20s, she had a series of prophetic dreams.
“When I went into ceremony on my home reserve, the elders confirmed those prophetic dreams.”
She dedicated herself to reading literature and journaling. Her journal evolved into writing poetry.
Writing is cathartic, she allows, but it’s not healing in itself.
“I think the process reveals what work needs to be done by the individual. It helps problem solve. I went into therapy when I was quite young with a wonderful psychologist and a wonderful psychiatrist and with the elders of my community.
“Because of that early process toward healing. I’m able to write what needs to be said.”
Because of her poetry, people might have a misconception about her, Halfe says.
“I mean, my work is so dark, I think, ‘oh god, people might think I’m depressed!’ I am a happy and content person,” she laughs.
Halfe has no formal plans for her next work but says “I’m trying to find some humour in my writing now and I’m compiling a book of essays.
“We’ll see what happens, I don’t know where it’s going to go.”
Halfe has a bachelor of social work and received a honorary degree of letters from Wilfrid Laurier University.
She works with elders in Opiki-nawasowin (“raising our children”). She lives outside of Saskatoon with her husband.