Artist Statement

Laurie Brinklow's creative practice is a mix of personal and professional, as she takes her passion for islands and "islandness" and turns it into poetry as a way of "re-presenting" her research, all the while "writing the island." She is particularly interested in the intersection between literature and geography, like how the geography of a place (mostly islands or the ocean, of course) can become characters unto themselves. She also writes academic papers about islandness and art.

 

Biography

Currently Co-ordinator of the Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) program and Chair of the Institute of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, Dr. Laurie Brinklow is a writer, editor, and former book publisher, founding Acorn Press in 1993. Herself a 2007 graduate of UPEI’s MAIS program, she has a PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Tasmania.

As Assistant Professor, she teaches in the MAIS program at UPEI and is particularly interested in the power of place and story, and their impact on identity. She has published in several academic journals, and has written and edited several books,  including two books of poetry: Here for the Music (Acorn, 2012) and My island's the house I sleep in at night (Island Studies Press/Walleah Press, 2021), which won the PEI Book Award for Poetry. She is the Government of Iceland’s Honorary Consul for Prince Edward Island and is President of the International Small Island Studies Association (ISISA).