Erin McGregor
Biography
E. McGregor is a Euro-Settler/Metis writer currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in numerous magazines including Room, The Dalhousie Review, CV2, The Fiddlehead, and others. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia in 2022. Her first collection of poetry, What Fills Your House Like Smoke (Thistledown Press, 2024) was longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, shortlisted for an Indigenous Voices Award, and was a finalist for a High Plains International Book Award.
Micro-interview
In junior high, I had an English teacher who introduced us to Earl Birney’s “David" and Alfred Noyes’ "The Highwayman". Both these poems drew me into their worlds in a strange and powerful way. Up to that point, my love for poetry was wrapped up in music lyrics; those two poems were the first poems that I fell in love with on the page alone.
In grade five. I wrote a poem about horses that surprised my teacher and everyone else because despite the fact that it didn’t rhyme and was only two short stanzas, it was actually good (for a ten year old). I fed off the praise I received for it and in grade six I wrote a poem about drunk driving that won a regional competition and I haven’t stopped writing poems since. I don’t think I actually considered myself “a poet” until I published my first book but writing poems was just something I always did - sometimes for an audience/reader but often just for myself.
A poet’s job is to hold up a mirror. The poem’s job is to be a reflection.
