Sandra Djwa

Who is Sandra Djwa?

Sandra Djwa, FRSC, is a Canadian writer, critic and cultural biographer. Originally from Newfoundland, she moved to British Columbia where she obtained her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1968. In 1999, she was honored to deliver the Garnett Sedgewick Memorial Lecture in honor of the department's 80th anniversary. She taught Canadian literature in the English department at Simon Fraser University from 1968 to 2005 when she retired as J.S. Woodsworth Resident Scholar, Humanities. She was part of a seventies movement to establish the study of Canadian literature and, in 1973, cofounded the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures. She was Chair of the inaugural meeting of ACQL. She initiated textual studies of the poems of E.J. Pratt in the eighties, was editor of Poetry, "Letters in Canada" for the University of Toronto Quarterly, and Chair of Canadian Heads and Chairs of English.

She is best known for articles on Canadian poets like Margaret Atwood and for her biographies of distinguished Canadians including F.R. Scott, and Roy Daniells. A biography of the poet PK Page, Journey With No Maps, was released in 2012.