Poet, author, and editor Jane Ledwell currently serves as Executive Director of the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she worked with the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI.
Daughter of UPEI Professor Emeritus Frank Ledwell, Jane won first prize for both prose and poetry in the Atlantic Writing Awards in 2001 and is a past recipient of the Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts award in PEI. She has also edited scores of manuscripts for several independent publishers, including Island Studies Press and Acorn Press. And, of particular interest for Poetry Month, Jane conducted extensive research on Island literary writing (including a considerable amount of poetry) for the multimedia publication First hand : arts, crafts, and culture created by PEI women of the 20th century (2005; updated 2017).
The following stanza is from her poem Bedsheet, included in her 2006 publication, Last Tomato:
Bedsheet
On the line
the sheet holds the curve
of your back
out of habit (it has held you
all winter)
until a breeze snaps it flat.
Jane’s poetry publications include:
-
Return of the Wild Goose (Island Studies Press, 2019)
- Bird Calls - The Island Responds (Island Studies Press, 2018)
- Elaine Harrison: I am an Island that Dreams (Acorn Press, 2011)
- Last Tomato (Acorn Press, 2006)