Roo Borson

Ruth Elizabeth Borson, who writes under the name Roo Borson (born 20 January 1952 in Berkeley, California) is a Canadian poet who lives in Toronto. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia.

She has received many awards for her work, including the Governor General's Literary Award, 2004, and the Griffin Poetry Prize, 2005 for Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida. She currently lives in Toronto with poet Kim Maltman, and with Kim Maltman and Andy Patton is a member of the collaborative performance poetry ensemble Pain Not Bread.

Works

• Landfall (1977), ISBN 0-920110-32-0
• Rain (1980), ISBN 0-920806-19-8
• In the Smoky Light of the Fields (1980), ISBN 0-88823-024-9
• A Sad Device (1981), ISBN 0-86495-011-X
• The Whole Night, Coming Home (1984), ISBN 0-7710-1579-8 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• The Transparence of November / Snow (1985), ISBN 0-919627-30-7 (with Kim Maltman)
• Intent, or, The Weight of the World (1989), ISBN 0-7710-1588-7
• Night Walk (1994), ISBN 0-19-541082-3 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• Water Memory (1996), ISBN 0-7710-1589-5
• Introduction to the Introduction to Wang Wei (2000), ISBN 1-894078-09-8 (by Pain Not Bread)
• Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida (2004), ISBN 0-7710-1591-7 (winner of the 2004 Governor General's Award, the 2005 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize and the 2005 Pat Lowther Award)
• Personal History (2008) ISBN 1-897141-21-1
• Rain; road; an open boat (2012), ISBN 0-7710-1298-5
• Box Kite: Prose Poems by Baziju (2016), ISBN 9781770899629 (with Kim Maltman)

External links

• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
• "Summer Grass" from Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, online at CBC Words at Large
• Roo Borson's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Canadian Poetry Online: Roo Borson - Biography and 6 poems (Camouflage, Ten Thousand, Loyalties, Summer's Drug, Save Us From, Leaving the Island)