LORNA CROZIER says that Sinclair Ross' novel, As For Me and My House, was the most "important influence" in her writing career. "It was the first book I read that was set in the landscape where I grew up," says the poet. "It made me realize that someone from my area could actually be a writer and, in some ways, it gave me the courage to try."

Lorna was born in 1948 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. She attended the University of Saskatchewan where in 1969 she received her B.A. She also attended the University of Alberta and in 1980 she received her M.A.

A former high school English teacher, Lorna has also been the writer-in-residence at a number of different colleges and universities, and online with Canada's schools in the Writers In Electronic Residence program. She has also been a member of the League of Canadian Poets, vice-president of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, and committee president of the Saskatchewan Artists' Colony.

Her books of poetry include: Inside Is The Sky (1975), Crow's Black Joy (1978), No Longer Two People (1979), Humans and Other Beasts (1980), and The Weather (1983). The Garden Going on Without Us (1985) and Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence (1988) were both nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry. In 1992 Lorna won the Governor General's Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award and the Pat Lowther Poetry Award for her collection of poems titled Inventing The Hawk (1992).

Lorna currently resides near Victoria, B.C., and teaches in the Creative Writing program at the University of Victoria.