An Introduction
to Ann Elizabeth Carson

Ann Elizabeth Carson, poet, writer and artist, was born in 1929 in Toronto, Ontario, the third generation daughter of a family rooted in small town Ontario, and later in depression torn Toronto. She is the author of Shadows Light, a book of poetry and sculptures, and My Grandmother’s Hair, a multigenre autobiography in images, poetry and prose narrative. Reviews of her work have appeared from Maine to Manitoulin Island. Ann is working on a collection of conversations with older people. She has thought of calling it They Had a Hard Row to Hoe and They Hoed It because she likes the physicalness of the title and its reference to the past and to the now.

Ann has written from an early age but came to publishing later in life, after several other careers. She spent twenty-two years as a lawyer’s wife and chatelaine of a busy household, decided it was time for a change, and applied for a scholarship to graduate school. She earned a Master’s in Adult Education and Counselling at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto in 1970, and then worked for the Ontario government in developing the first employee assistance program in the province. Having had her fill of working within government’s restraints she exchanged bureaucracies and became a counselor and group leader at York University’s Counselling and Development Centre where she also supervised graduate students doing a practicum in clinical psychology. As well, she taught adult learning theory for “The Ulyssean Adult”, a course she designed to meet the needs of mature students returning to the university. During this time she raised four children to adulthood and now takes great pleasure in spoiling six grandchildren.

Having helped other people get their advanced graduate degrees for fifteen years, Ann took a leave of absence from York, returned to graduate studies herself, became a landlady, and opened a private practice in psychotherapy and family counselling. Combined with graduate studies, she explored art as a therapeutic discipline with Regine Kurek in her two year course, Art as a therapeutic Discipline, and expanded her private practice to include various forms of expressive therapies.

Inspired by her clients work, Ann took her own creativity more seriously and devoted regular attention to her writing, both poetry and prose, and to her work with clay and water colour. Finding she could not do it all, Ann retired from both York and graduate school, and devoted herself to private practice, sculpture and writing.

In 2005 Ann published her book of poetry, Shadows Light, a collection of early and new poems, illustrated with colour photographs of her sculptures. This collection has been reviewed by Jan Bailey, American poet, as “confronting the silences; through poignant images grounded in daily life we fall wholly into uncensored emotion.” Ann has read and performed with other writers, poets and artists such as Karen Manitowabi, a poet and drummer from the Wikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island, and author of Two Standing Bears, on Manitoulin, and in an afternoon of poetry, drumming and dance with dancers from The Pia Bouman School of Ballet and Creative Movement in Toronto.

Selections and/or reviews of Shadows Light have appeared in Monhegan’s Poet’s Cove Anthology; Toronto’s Beach Metro News; The Sudbury Star; The Manitoulin Expositor; “See it Made: Pottery and Poetry on Manitoulin,” a performance and exhibit; and Canadian Women’s Studies.

In the autumn of 2006 Ann launched My Grandmother’s Hair at The Toronto Women’s Book Store with Pam Mordechai, author of Pink Icing, and Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes, author of traveling light. My Grandmother’s Hair is a social memoir that grew from the stories of people Ann interviewed for her research on sensory memory into a first person narrative layered with poetry, visual images and myth. The book is an intimate picture and graphic depiction of how our character is molded by family and social contexts, highlighting the uses and abuses of power in intimate and public places. “A moving multigenerational and multigenre autobiography, it offers a view of woman’s life cycles in epic survey, and in the detail of a moment. (Toronto Women’s Book Store). Ann’s readings from My Grandmother’s Hair are a multimedia presentation - spoken word accompanied by projected images of her drawings, paintings and sculptures.

Ann Elizabeth Carson enjoys the rich social and cultural life of Toronto in the winter where she gives readings from her work, and writes during her wonder-filled summers on Manitoulin Island.