Scheier, Libby

Libby Scheier (1946-2000) was a writer, social activist, critic and educator. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she received a BA in philosophy and French from Sarah Lawrence College in 1968 and an MA in English literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1971. During her years as a university student, Scheier was politically active with socialist groups including the Spartacist League. She moved to Toronto in 1975 after living in France, California and Israel and became affiliated with the Trotskyist League of Canada. Scheier’s other social activism included involvement with the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, the Cross-Cultural Communication Centre, the Writers’ Union of Canada, the feminist caucus of the League of Canadian poets, and Women and Words.

Scheier is the author of four books of poetry, “The Larger Life” (1983), “Second Nature” (1986), “Sky: A Poem in Four Pieces” (1990) and “Kaddish for my Father: New and Selected Poems” (1999), and a book of short fiction, “Saints and Runners” (1993). She contributed book reviews and articles to publications including the “Globe and Mail”, “The Toronto Star”, “This Magazine”, “Books in Canada” and “Quarry Magazine”. Her writing also appeared in anthologies “Women on War” (1988), “Poetry by Canadian Women” (1989) and “Language in her Eye” (1993).

In addition to her work as a writer, Scheier worked as an editor and copy editor for science and literary journals in the 1970s and 1980s, including “Paragraph” and “Poetry Toronto”. She taught creative writing, Canadian literature and women's studies courses at York University from 1988 to 1994 and was the founder/director of the Toronto Writing Workshop in 1994.

Libby Scheier died in Toronto on Nov. 14, 2000.

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Updated by J. Grant on 3 Oct. 2017.