Dorothy Livesay

Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay was a pioneering figure in Canadian modern poetry. Educated at the University of Toronto and the Sorbonne, Livesay became a committed social activist during the Great Depression, documenting industrial struggles and the plight of working women in powerful documentary poems such as "Day and Night."

She won the Governor General's Award for Poetry twice (for Day and Night in 1944 and Poems for People in 1947). In her later decades, Livesay was an outspoken feminist pioneer, exploring female sexuality, aging, and pacifism, and co-founding the literary journal Contemporary Verse.