Betsy Warland

“Writing is a deeply solitary act, yet we need the company of other writers.”
(from Betsy’s Being With Writers)

Betsy Warland has published 12 books of poetry, creative nonfiction, and lyric prose including her best-selling 2010 book of essays on writing, Breathing the Page—Reading the Act of Writing. In 2013, Warland created a new publishing template: an interactive salon that features excerpts from her manuscript Oscar of Between, guest writers' and artists' work and lively comments from salon readers. In March of 2016, Oscar of Between—A Memoir of Identity and Ideas launched Caitlin Press’s new imprint, Dagger Editions.

Warland has been teaching creative writing workshops and courses for the past 35 years. She initiated and coordinated Women and Words—les femmes et le mots (Vancouver 1983), a conference of 1,000 women from across Canada involved in all aspects of contemporary literature. Warland co-founded the national Creative Writer Nonfiction Collective in 2004. Designer and director of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser from 2001-2012 and TWS Mentor in 2001-2003, 2005, she remains on TWS teaching faculty. While on the National Council of The Writers’ Unison of Canada, Warland chaired The Writers’ Union AGM in Vancouver in 2012. In 2007, she founded the six-month Vancouver Manuscript Intensive program, which she directs and mentors in. A professional manuscript consultant/editor for the past 25 years, Warland works with writers from across Canada.