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Pamela Porter
Born Pamela Paige Porter
(1956-07-14) July 14, 1956 (age 67)
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Occupation Writer
Nationality Canadian
Period 2002 – present
Genre Poetry, children’s fiction
Notable works The Crazy Man
Spouse Rob Porter
Children 2

Pamela Paige Porter (born July 14, 1956) is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has also lived in Texas, Louisiana, Washington, and Montana. She emigrated to Canada with her husband Rob Porter, from the fourth generation of a Saskatchewan farm family, and resides in North Saanich, British Columbia. She has received praise for her young adult novels, especially The Crazy Man. Her poetry has won the Prism International Poetry Prize and the Vallum Magazine Poetry Prize, and has appeared in literary magazines in Canada and the United States.

Biography

Early life

Porter lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico until halfway through kindergarten. Her father, who worked for an insurance company, was transferred, and then the family moved to Dallas, Texas. When Porter was 12 years old, her father was transferred to Monroe, Louisiana, where she attended Robert E. Lee Junior High. She remembers her school as being very strict; she had to address all her elders as "Yes, Ma'am, No, Ma'am, Yes, Sir, No, Sir." She was first introduced to racism at her school when everyone treated the African American staff with no respect by calling them by their first names and playing around with them. She recalls becoming very interested in world politics and the civil rights movement by watching the evening news every day.

Porter was first introduced to poetry while flipping through the back of her English language arts book in class. She picked up books from the library, books of poetry and pieces that usually were short, the length she felt she could read. She was also introduced to poems by Robert Frost, particularly "Desert Places". She believed she was always destined to be an author, and remembers always wanting to play the game "Authors" instead of "Scrabble" as a child.

Later life

Porter finished her undergraduate degree at Southern Methodist University. She holds an MFA in poetry writing from the University of Montana. When she first entered university, she was very interested in languages. She studied the German language for a few years and was interested in becoming fluent in some other languages and becoming a translator.

Porter also is an accomplished musician, noted particularly for her abilities in piano, guitar, and singing, and was encouraged by university faculty to major in music.

Porter was 19 years old when she took her first writing course with John Skoyles. Other teachers were Jack Myers, Richard Hugo, and later Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. Soon after earning her MFA, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference in Vermont.

Porter met her husband in a bell choir. She and Rob traveled a lot together before having children; they lived in Sunspot, New Mexico, and then moved to Seattle before moving to Ulm, Montana to be closer to Rob's family, who were in Calgary. The family now resides near Sidney, British Columbia.

Porter has been a professor at the University of Victoria as a sessional instructor.

For generations, Rob’s family has gone to Saskatchewan every summer to work on the farm.

Works

Children’s fiction

  • Sky (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2004)
  • The Crazy Man (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2005)
  • I’ll Be Watching (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2011)

Children’s picture books

  • Yellow Moon, Apple Moon, illustrated by Matt James (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2008)

Poetry

  • Poems for the Luminous World (Victoria, BC: Frog Hollow Press, 2002)
  • Stones Call Out (Regina, SK: Coteau Books, 2006)
  • The Intelligence of Animals (Omaha, NE: The Backwaters Press, 2008)
  • Cathedral (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2010)
  • No Ordinary Place (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2012)
  • Late Moon (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2013)
  • House Made of Rain (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2014)
  • Defending Darkness (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2016)
  • Likely Stories (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2019)

Translations of her works

  • 노란 달, 사과 달 (Seoul: Glbburi, 2008) (a translation of Yellow Moon, Apple Moon)
  • 어느 날 그가 왔다 (Seoul: Sanha Publishing Co., 2012) (a translation of The Crazy Man)
  • Lune jaune, à bientôt (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2014) (a translation of Yellow Moon, Apple Moon)

Awards

For The Crazy Man

For other works

  • 2009 New Mexico Book Award for Yellow Moon, Apple Moon
  • 2010 Vallum Magazine Poem of the Year Award
  • 2011 Prism International Grand Prize for Poetry
  • 2011 Pat Lowther Award in Poetry finalist for Cathedral
  • 2012 FreeFall Magazine Poetry Award
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