Biography

Geography is a powerful influence on New Brunswick author Lynn Davies’s work, whether she is charting the tides of the Bay of Fundy or drawing on her remembrance of the isolation of northern Norway, where she worked milking cows for a summer during her extensive travels after school. As a result, her poems are filled with descriptions of place, down to the minutiae of local plants. Much of her work includes influences from her close relationship with nature through poetry about hiking and camping. Davies was born in 1954 in Moncton, but also grew up in Newcastle. After living in Dartmouth for 16 years, which included studying English at the University of King’s College in Halifax, she returned to New Brunswick to McLeod Hill. When she is not writing, she tutors children with learning problems, and conducts creative writing and book-making workshops at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. She has published two collections of poetry, The Bridge That Carries the Road (1999) and Where Sound Pools (2005). The Bridge That Carries the Road was nominated for the 1999 Governor-General’s Award and the 1999 Gerald Lampert Award. The poem “The Flamingo,” included in The Bridge That Carries the Road, won the Lina Chartrand Poetry Award from Contemporary Verse. Her work has aired on CBC Radio, and numerous anthologies have also published her children’s poetry and short stories. Her essays and non-fiction pieces have been printed in a variety of magazines and newspapers across Canada, including Canadian Geographic, the Globe and Mail, and The Fiddlehead

Bibliography

  • The Bridge that Carries the Road. London, ON: Brick Books, 1999.
  • Where Sound Pools. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2005.
Selected Overviews
The Bridge that Carries the Road
Where Sound Pools

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Critical Sources

  • Compton, Anne. “Poetry, Coast to Coast.” Rev. of The Bridge That Carries the Road, by Lynn Davies. Canadian Literature 173 (2002): 133-6.
  • Glenn, Lorri Neilsen. Rev. of Where Sound Pools, by Lynn Davies. Atlantic Books Today 51 (Spring 2006): 28-29.
  • Lynes, Jeanette. “Lynn Davies, Traveller.” Words out There: Women Poets in Atlantic Canada. Lockeport, NS: Roseway Publishing, 1999. 186-90.
  • Thorpe, Michael. “Women Poets En Route: Lynn Davies, Governor-General's Award Nominee, Has An Eye for The Natural World; Heather Pyrcz, An Ear on the Darker Side.” Rev. of The Bridge that Carries the Road, by Lynn Davies. Atlantic Books Today 27 (1999): 13.