Anne Compton

1947-

Dr. Hazel Anne Compton was born December 1947 in Bangor, Prince Edward Island. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969 at Prince of Wales College (now University of Prince Edward Island), majoring in English Literature & History. Compton completed her Masters at York University in Toronto in 1971, focusing on Canadian and American Literature. She received an O’Brien Foundation Fellowship in 1986, graduating from University of New Brunswick in 1988 with a PhD in Canadian Literature from the Department of English. Her thesis was titled A J M Smith: Canadian Metaphysical, and was the basis for her first book, which was published in 1994 by ECW Press. Compton became a professor at UNB’s Saint John campus, winning numerous teaching awards including both the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Faculty of Arts at UNB Saint John and the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Department of Humanities and Languages, also at UNB Saint John, in 2008. She taught literature and creative writing for the Department of Humanities and Languages until her retirement in 2012. She was the Director of the Lorenzo Reading Series [1998-?] and was the first and only Writer-In-Residence at UNBSJ from 2008-2010.  In 2000 she published two anthologies, New Canadian Poetry and Following the Plough: Recovering the Rural, followed by Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Poetry (2001). In 2002 Compton published one more anthology, Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada  as co-editor. She edited The Edge of Home: Milton Acorn from the Island (2002) and published her first book of poetry, Opening the Island (2002), which won the Atlantic Poetry Prize in 2003. Compton published her second poetry collection, Processional, in 2005. Processional won the Governor General’s Award in Poetry in 2005 and the Atlantic Poetry Prize in 2006. During this time and the preceding several years, Compton had also conducted a series of interviews with noted Atlantic Canadian writers, culminating in the publication of Meetings with Maritime Poets: Interviews in 2006. Her third poetry collection, Asking Questions Indoors and Out (2009), was followed by the anthology Modern Canadian Poets (2010), the poetry collection Alongside (2013), essay collection Afterwork: essays on literature and beauty (2017), and her fifth book of poetry, Smallholdings (2019). Alongside was awarded the Raymond Souster Award from the League of Canadian Poets in 2014.  Compton has lived in Rothesay, NB for approximately forty years.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Saint John

Archival Material

• Anne Compton fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  University of New Brunswick Archives & Special Collections

  Website/Catalogue Record

  View Archival Record

  Retrieval Number

  MG L 59

  Date Range of Material

  [ca.1984]-[ca. 2017]

  Extent

  2.25 m textual records and other material

  Scope and Content Note

  Fonds consists of manuscripts and other related material of Compton's work as an author and poet. There are five series:  A J M Smith: Canadian Metaphysical; The Edge of Home: Milton Acorn from the Island; Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada; Meetings with Maritime Poets – Interviews; and, Afterwork: Essays on Literature and Beauty.