Jacqueline
BaldwinJacqueline
BaldwinJacqueline Baldwin, poet, activist, mother, grandmother, actor, organic farmer, winner of ten literary awards for her poetry. Author of Threadbare Like Lace (1997) and A Northern Woman (2003)..
Born and educated in New Zealand, Jacqueline Baldwin spent time in extensive travel before beginning a rural life as an organic farmer in a remote area of the Canadian Rockies, where she raised her children as a single parent. She has won ten literary awards for her poetry, and her book: Threadbare Like Lace (Caitlin Press, 1997) which sold out its first printing in three weeks, is now in its sixth printing. A second edition was published in December 2004 by Smoky River Books. Threadbare Like Lace has been on the UNBC English Department required reading list in some 2003-2005 classes. Her work appears in the anthology Beyond Grief (UNBC, 2001), a collaborative work of five poets from across Canada. A new collection of her poems and essays, A Northern Woman (Caitlin Press, 2003), is now in its second printing.
Jacqueline has performed over three hundred readings of her poetry at public events, and in classrooms at the University of Northern British Columbia, The College of New Caledonia, high schools, and elementary schools. She has designed and facilitated a series of workshops called The Healing Art of Story. In January, 2002, she was a cast member in the Eve Ensler play Vagina Monologues presented at the Canfor Theatre at the University of Northern B.C. In May, 2002, she was a presenter at the Violence Against Women National Symposium in Vancouver as a guest of the Justice Institute of British Columbia. In September, 2002, she presented a reading of her poetry at a Conference of visiting academics in Canadian Studies Departments of American Universities held at Simon Fraser University, and in November 2003 she was a keynote speaker at the B.C. Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counselling Programs Training Forum in Vancouver.
She won the Prince George Woman of Distinction Award for Arts and Culture in l998; earned a place on the British Columbia Poetry in Transit program, 1997/98; her book reached the Vancouver Sun best-seller list in 1998; she was named "Literary Story Of The Year" and chosen as one of the ten people in the community who "make a difference, shake the status quo, and rattle the bars of conformity" by the Free Press in 1998. She won honourable mention for the Laura Jamieson prize awarded by the Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Women in 1999, and her book received the Jeanne Clarke Memorial History Award in February 2000. Her biography now appears in the publication: Who's Who of Canadian Women, and in the millennium edition of Canadian Who's Who. In April, 2001, Jacqueline was the recipient of the Hazel White Award of Courage, for her poem "Contempt of Court" in recognition and appreciation of her strength and courage in the face of adversity. In 2001, an article about her work entitled "The People's Poet" appeared in Airlines, Westjet's inflight magazine distributed across Canada.
Her work has appeared in Geist magazine, in many other publications, and has been widely and favourably reviewed. An interview with two English professors, Drs. Dee Horne and Karin Beeler of the University of Northern British Columbia together with a review of her work by Lynda Williams, appears in an online literary magazine on http://quarles.unbc.ca/precosky_html/winter in It's Still Winter, a web journal of contemporary Canadian poetry and poetics. New work appears in the magazine Interior Woman, in Arts North, Guide to the Goldfields, in the 2003 Federation of B.C. Writers' Anthology published by Anvil Press, and also in Reflections On Water: http://unbc.ca/row. Her poem "Call The Name Gently, Ne-chaaaaako," was featured on the walls of the Prince George Art Gallery and subsequently published in their exhibit catalogue, and a three page prose poem/essay: "It Is Anna Whom We Mourn," exhibited at Art Space Gallery in Prince George, has been accepted for publication in the proposed collection to honour Anna Sorkomova at Yakutsk State University, Siberia. Her poetry has been read on national CBC radio on The Arts Tonight, This Morning, North By Northwest, Richardson's Roundup, and one of her poems: "Whistler's Dog," was read by Stuart McLean on his Vinyl Café program. She has also been featured on local radio and television. A 2005 interview with Dr. Si Transken of the University of Northern British Columbia is on the site: http://ctl.unbc.ca/row/ (Volume 6, No. 1, Interviews).
Jacqueline's volunteer resumé includes: working to stop violence against women, member of the founding board of Theatre Northwest, publicity chair for the Prince George Writers' Association, member of Canadian Voice of Women For Peace, the Loos Community Association, the Stone Creek Volunteer Fire Department, the Prince George Women's Centre, and community liaison for the Regional Women's Health and Wellness program. She is affiliated with the Federation of British Columbia Writers, a member of the Prince George Art Gallery, and in 1993 became one of the "founding students" at the new University of Northern BC.
Jacqueline, who now lives in Prince George, B.C. is the mother of three children: Christopher, Daniel and Morgen, and grandmother of two grand-daughters: Mackenzie and Macaulay.
(updated Oct 3, 2005)
Appearances in Reflections on Water