National Poetry Month Launch

Pat Lowther

Pat Lowther, born Patricia Louise Tinmuth in 1935, grew up in North Vancouver and spent her life on the west coast.

Pat Lowther's first poetry collection, This Difficult Flowering, was published in 1968. Lowther's precision with image and language earned her work praise, and anticipation of greater work.

In the early '70s her work continued to earn her an appreciative audience, and her stature as a poet grew. Her poems were being anthologized, she was on the Canada Council grant list, had joined the League of Canadian Poets, and was teaching Creative Writing at UBC.

In 1974, Milk Stone was published and, with these sensuous poems of love, motherhood, and the essence of human nature, Pat Lowther's reputation was confirmed. By 1975, a new collection of poems, A Stone Diary, had been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press.

In late September 1975, Pat Lowther disappeared; her body was discovered three weeks later in Furry Creek, near Squamish, BC. Her husband, Roy Lowther, was convicted of her murder in June 1977.

A Stone Diary was published posthumously by Oxford in 1977.

In 1980, the League of Canadian Poets established the Pat Lowther Award, an annual prize to honour a new book by a Canadian woman poet.

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is given in the memory of Gerald Lampert, an arts administrator who organized authors' tours and took a particular interest in the work of new writers. The award recognizes the best first book of poetry published by a Canadian in the preceding year. The Award carries a prize of $1,000 and is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets.