CREDIT: JASON GRAHAM
Fanshawe prof Laurie Graham's poem Settler Education was shortlisted for a CBC Poetry Prize. This is the third time the writer has been listed for a CBC writing prize.

Laurie Graham says she doesn’t remember how she first got into writing.

But at some point in her early 20’s, she realized it was something she wanted to pursue.

“I just found myself doing it as a young person,” Graham said. “It was an automatic thing.”

The new Fanshawe College writing professor is now 37, and her four-part poem sequence Settler Education has just been shortlisted for the 2014 CBC Poetry Prize. It’s the third time the Alberta native has been listed for a CBC writing prize.

Graham’s first success as a writer came when she entered a poetry contest held by the now defunct Edmonton literary magazine Other Voices when she was younger.

She won. But she says she didn’t really know what she was doing.

“I was writing and not really knowing what I was doing and entered and won and got a little cheque in the mail and my first publication,” she said.

Some of her influences at the time included Canadian poet Al Purdy and American poets Emily Dickinson and Allen Ginsberg.

“I read fairly recklessly and widely [at the time],” she said. “I read fiction and poetry at will.”

From there, Graham went to study writing at the University of Victoria where she graduated with a bachelor of fine arts. She then went to the University of Guelph for her master of fine arts degree.

Her influences then were writing professors and poets Tim Lilburn, Lorna Crozier and Dionne Brand.

“The three of them were pretty significant teachers when I was in school,” she said. “They taught me a lot.”

Since then, Graham has taught writing at Humber College in Toronto. She’s also published a book of poetry last year called Rove. The book was shortlisted for a Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, which is awarded for the best first book of poetry by a Canadian writer.

She started teaching at Fanshawe this September – she’s teaching two classes at the downtown campus and one at the main campus.

“It’s good to be downtown and close to the market, the Fire Roasted Coffee down there, and all those essential things,” she said. “It’s been good. It’s been really good.”

As for her poem being shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, she says she’s happy the judges saw something in her work.

“I’m very proud of Laurie’s work,” said her partner, Mark Jull. “I think that what she’s doing is very important, and I hope that this nomination and hopefully a win will bring some more readers to her work.”

Graham says the poem was inspired by the stories of the land of Alberta and Saskatchewan – where her parents are from – and the people that were on it.

“Not the story that you get taught in school,” she said – the stories of the Métis and First Nations rebellions of the 19th century.

“As a white person in public school, you don’t get told the stories about the places where you come from,” she said. “I needed to write down in some way what these stories were.”

Graham is now working on a second poetry book, which will include the shortlisted poem.

“I hope to get that done and have that look like something worth reading,” she said.

“That’s the most I can really hope for – that I keep writing, keep producing things.”