Ioannou, Susan 1944–

views updated

Ioannou, Susan 1944–

PERSONAL:

Born October 4, 1944, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; daughter of Frank and Margaret Thomas; married Lazaros Ioannou, August 28, 1967; children: Polly, Stefan. Education: University of Toronto, B.A., 1966, M.A., 1967. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, painting, sewing, geology, dance.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Wordwrights Canada, P.O. Box 456, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2P1, Canada. E-mail—susanio@sympatico.ca.

CAREER:

Writer. Poetry instructor for public school system of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1982-94; Wordwrights Canada, Toronto, founder, director, and literary editor, 1985—. University of Toronto, poetry instructor, 1989-90; also poetry instructor for a Toronto-based poetry tutorial correspondence course, 1988-91, redesigned as the online course Lessons in Writing the Poem, 2001—, and for Ryerson Literary Society, 1993, 1996; Coiffure du Canada, managing editor, 1979-80; Arts Scarborough Newsletter, poetry editor, 1980-85; Cross Canada Writers' Quarterly, associate editor, 1980-89; Poemata, coeditor, 1988-89; ClearTEXT Rewriting and Editing, executive editor, 1995—. Workshop presenter; guest on media programs.

MEMBER:

Plain Language Association International, PEN Canada, Canadian Poetry Association, Editors' Association of Canada, League of Canadian Poets, Writers' Union of Canada, Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Norma Epstein Foundation Award for poetry, University of Toronto, 1965; Mother's Day Poem Award, Book Cellar, 1982; first place, Arts Scarborough City Poetry Contest, 1987; Memorial Award for nonfiction, Media Club of Canada, 1990; Okanaga Short Story Award, 1997; grants from Ontario Arts Council.

WRITINGS:

Spare Words (poetry), Pierian Press (Brandon, Manitoba, Canada), 1984.

Motherpoems (poetry), Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1985, revised digital edition, 2005.

The Crafted Poem: A Step by Step Guide to Writing and Appreciation, Wordwrights Canada, (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1985.

Familiar Faces/Private Griefs (poetry), Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1986, revised digital edition, 2005.

Ten Ways to Tighten Your Prose: A Systematic Approach to Improvement, Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988, revised digital edition, 2004.

Writing Reader-Friendly Poems: Over Fifty Rules of Thumb for Clearer Communication, Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

Clarity between Clouds: Poems of Midlife, Goose Lane Editions (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1991.

Polly's Punctuation Primer (juvenile), Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1991, revised edition, 2004.

Read-Aloud Poems, Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992, revised edition, 2001, revised digital edition, 2005.

Where the Light Waits (poetry), Ekstasis Editions (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), 1996.

A Real Farm Girl (juvenile novel), illustrated by James Rozak, Hodgepog Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1998.

A Magical Clockwork: The Art of Writing the Poem (literary criticism), Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

(With Lenny Everson) Who Would Be a God? A Debate in Poetry, (poetry) Passion among the Cacti Press (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Coming Home: An Old Love Story(poetry), Leaf Press (Lantzville, British Columbia, Canada), 2004.

The Merla Poems, Wordwrights Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Looking through Stone: Poems about the Earth, Your Scrivener Press (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

Work represented in thirty anthologies, including The Canlit Food Book, Totem Books (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 1987; Celebrating Canadian Women, Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 1989; Vintage '94, Quarry Press (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 1995; Canadian Poems for Canadian Kids, Subway Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2005; Gendered Intersections, Fernwood Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2005; Myth Weavers, serengti Press (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), 2007. Columnist, Cross-Canada Writers', 1980-89. Contributor to dozens of periodicals, including Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, Prism International, Antigonish Review, Canadian Woman Studies, Room of One's Own, Other Voices, Poetry Canada, Descant, Malahat Review, and West Coast Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

"I began writing in grade two," Susan Ioannou told Rand Bellavia in an Ink Spot online interview, "as soon as I had mastered enough words and approximate spelling to get my ideas across." She added, "To me, creating another world out of words was fun. It still is…. Writing makes me happy."

Ioannou began her literary career in the mid-1980s with various works of poetry, including Motherpoems, which Louise Longo, in a Books in Canada appraisal, described as a work that "successfully explores both sides of [motherhood]." Longo, while reporting that "many of the poems are in need of ruthless editing," noted "the range of emotional responses to motherhood that Ioannou captures," and she concluded her review by commenting that Motherpoems expresses "something that needs to be said." A later collection, Clarity between Clouds: Poems of Midlife, was described by Jon Kertzer in a Canadian Literature review as a book that "celebrates the power of light and sight." He added: "Rooms, memories and events compose themselves like works of art. In each case the moment inspires a luminous apprehension associated with love, grace, ease, or certainty." In Where the Light Waits, meanwhile, Ioannou presents what Chris Knight appraised in Canadian Book Review Annual 1997 as "wide-ranging poems" on subjects such as nature, natural phenomena, and the cosmos. Knight acknowledged the contents of Where the Light Waits as "thought-provoking" poems.

Ioannou's other verse collections include Read-Aloud Poems, intended for students from the elementary grades to high school. Canadian Review of Materials reviewer Maryleah Otto observed that the book "contains a wide range of styles and themes." Of Ioannou's children's novel, Karen Shewbridge wrote in the St. John's Telegram: "A Real Farm Girl is a glorious reading experience for a young girl or boy."

Ioannou has also produced various works in which she offers instruction on writing. Among these volumes is The Crafted Poem: A Step by Step Guide to Writing and Appreciation. Canadian Review of Materials reviewer Gail Lennon observed that "The Crafted Poem offers a host of excellent ideas," and she called it "a must for every budding writer." Another volume, Writing Reader-Friendly Poems: Over Fifty Rules of Thumb for Clearer Communication, received a recommendation from Canadian Review of Materials reviewer Louise Reimer, who stated, "Even experienced writers will benefit from Ioannou's concrete suggestions."

Another book, A Magical Clockwork: The Art of Writing the Poem, was also well received by critics. In Word Rob Thomas wrote of Ioannou: "She is a wonderful instructor: her tone is familiar rather than academic, her analysis is fluid and clear, and examples are brief and apt…. Perhaps most importantly, Ioannou lives up to her own principle—inherited from the Imagist tradition—that ‘precise, concrete language is the foundation of vivid writing.’"

Ioannou once told CA: "Whenever I write poetry, I am relentlessly dissatisfied. Again and again, I try (and fail) to reach one ideal: In the largest meaning of the word, to be true. I admire any poet who can teach me how to give words a nugget's solid brilliance, how to make lines stretch or snap, how to lift a poem on a shout or a song. I am always searching for the poem that can instruct and amaze me. This search drove my literary study A Magical Clockwork."

More recently Ioannou commented: "The Merla Poems is a limited-edition chapbook created to honor a friendship of more than three decades between two women for whom finding beauty is essential. Art, architecture, travel, or simply the sharing of intimate conversation over a glass of wine in a cosy café—these have remained their inspiration and solace. While the poems stand on their own, for readers who are curious about the where and why of composition, an introduction provides the requisite glimpses into two private lives.

"Looking through Stone: Poems about the Earth marks a new thematic direction for Ioannou: poems on geology and mining." Her comments in the preface to the collection describe the poetry and her purpose in composing it.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books in Canada, October, 1985, Louise Longo, review of Motherpoems, p. 26.

Canadian Author, fall, 1992, Gordon E. Symons, "Reader Friendly: Profile of Susan Ioannou"; fall, 1995, "A Patchwork Quilt of Imagination: What Poetry Means to Me: Profile of Susan Ioannou."

Canadian Author and Bookman, spring, 1986, Sheila Martindale, review of The Crafted Poem: A Step by Step Guide to Writing and Appreciation, p. 47.

Canadian Literature, spring, 1993, Jon Kertzer, "Clarity and Tumult," pp. 150-152.

Canadian Review of Materials, July, 1986, Barbara J. Graham, review of Familiar Faces/Private Griefs, p. 187; November, 1989, Louise Reimer, review of Writing Reader-Friendly Poems: Over Fifty Rules of Thumb for Clearer Communication, p. 273; September, 1993, Maryleah Otto, review of Read-Aloud Poems, p. 150; September, 1994, Gail Lennon, review of The Crafted Poem, p. 109.

People's Poetry Letter, fall-winter, 1996, Ted Plantos, review of Where the Light Waits, p. 14.

Poemata, April-May, 1997, Sheila Hyland, review of Where the Light Waits, p. 5; January-February, 1999, Anthony Chalk, reviews of The Crafted Poem and Writing Reader-Friendly Poems, p. 6.

Resource Links, February, 2001, Margaret Mackey, review of A Magical Clockwork: The Art of Writing the Poem, p. 34.

St. John's Telegram (St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada), February 7, 1999, Karen Shewbridge, review of A Real Farm Girl, p. 18.

Word, February, 2001, Rob Thomas, review of A Magical Clockwork, p. 3.