Angela Rawlings (known as a.rawlings) is a Canadian poet, editor, and multidisciplinary artist who has presented and/or published work in Canada, Belgium, Iceland, and the United States. Her poetry has been translated into French, Icelandic, Korean, and Spanish.

In 2001, Rawlings received the bpNichol Award for Distinction in Writing when she graduated from York University. Since then, she has worked with a variety of literary organizations, including The Mercury Press, The Scream Literary Festival, Sumach Press, Word: Canada’s Magazine for Readers + Writers, and The Lexiconjury Reading Series. In 2005, Rawlings hosted the poetry documentary series Heart of a Poet. She is also co-editor of Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press, 2005), an anthology featuring over forty emerging poets from across the country.

As an arts educator, rawlings has led creative writing workshops for Ryerson University, terminus1525.ca, Learning through the Arts, League of Canadian Poets, Ontario Arts Council's Artists in Education Program, the Toronto District School Board, Writers in Electronic Residence, and theToronto Public Library system. She occasionally co-facilitates with Ciara Adams sound/text/movement workshops.

Rawlings' first book, Wide slumber for lepidopterists was published in spring 2006 by Coach House Books. In November 2006, Theatre Commutiny staged a full-length performance of the book as part of Harbourfront Centre's Hatch: Emerging Performance Projects series; Rawlings performed in and co-produced the show. In April 2007, Wide slumber for lepidopterists received a nomination for the Gerald Lampert Award for Best First Book of Poetry. The book was also awarded Alcuin Award for Book Design, and was listed in The Globe and Mail's top 100 books of 2006. In Autumn 2008, Belgian composer Sebastian Bradt created a choral score entitled X Our Rotten Beauties that uses text from Wide slumber for lepidopterists.

Rawlings also works in theatre, music, and dance. She taught ballroom, Latin, and swing dances from 2001-3. In 2005, she co-produced On the Money for Toronto's Fringe Festival, a play awarded the festival's Patron's Pick. She has also worked with Toronto's Theatre Gargantua, is the president of the board of directors for bluemouth inc., and is a board member for Susanna Hood's hum dansoundart. Rawlings has collaborated with improvising musicians in Toronto and Vancouver; sound poets such as Jaap Blonk, Maja Jantar, and Paul Dutton; Belgian dancer Sarah Janssens; and has performed with the Logos Foundation's invisible and robotic instruments. She is a member of Christine Duncan's Element Choir.

Rawlings recently received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and is currently working on literary projects called EFHILMNORSTUVWY, Rule of Three, and Cochlea. She spends 2009 and 2010 creating and developing work in Belgium, Canada, and Iceland.

Bibliography

Anthologies

• 131.839 slög með bilum. Helsinki: Ntamo, 2007 (includes translated excerpt from WSfL).
• A Sing Economy. New York: Flim Forum Press, 2008 (contributor with François Luong).
• Af steypu. Reykjavík: Nýhil, 2009 (includes excerpt from ljóðapoems).
• Desire, Doom, & Vice, a Canadian Collection. Stratford: Wingate Press, 2005 (contributor).
• New Icelandic Poetry in Translation. Toronto: BookThug, 2009 (includes translated excerpt from EFHILMNORSTUVWY).
• Pissing Ice: An Anthology of ‘New’ Canadian Poets. Toronto: BookThug, 2004 (contributor).
• Regreen: New Canadian Ecological Poetry. Sudbury: Your Scrivener Press, 2009 (includes excerpt from EFHILMNORSTUVWY).
• Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry. Toronto: Mercury Press, 2005, second printing (editor).
• Strong Words: Year Two. Toronto: Indiepolitik, 2007 (contributor).
• The Common Sky: Canadian Writers Against the War. Toronto: Three Squares Press, 2002 (contributor).

Books

• Wide slumber for lepidopterists. Toronto: Coach House, 2006, third printing (author).

Chapbooks

• ljóðapoems. Edmonton: Olive Reading Series, 2008 (author).
• W I D E R: B-sides, rarities, and remixes. New York City: belladonna*, 2006 (author).
• [a,r] [s'c]. Calgary: housepress, 2002 (co-written with Stephen Cain).

This biography appears on Wikipedia and is used here with permission of the author.