GREENTREE, Leslie 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born 1966, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Education: University of Lethbridge, B.A., B.Ed.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Red Deer Public Library, Downtown Branch, 4818-49 St., Red Deer, Alberta T4N 1T9, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Poet, freelance writer, and librarian. Red Deer Public Library, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, marketing assistant, information services assistant. Crossing Place: Red Deer Writers' Festival, organizer. Featured reader at Moose Jaw Festival of Words, South Country Fair, and Word on the Street Festival.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Finalist, Griffin Poetry Prize, 2004, for Go-Go Dancing for Elvis; Finalist, Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) Poetry Face-Off, 2004, for "A Fraud Confessing."

WRITINGS:

Guys Named Bill (poems), Frontenac House (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), 2002.

Go-Go Dancing for Elvis (poems), Frontenac House (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), 2003.

"Fargo's, Whyte Avenue," originally published in Go-Go Dancing for Elvis, is included in Writing Alberta: An Anthology, edited by Robert Stamp. The poem "Stranger" from Guys Named Bill was featured on Edmonton City Transit Buses as part of the "Writers' Guild of Alberta Take the Poetry Route" series, 2002. Also associate editor of Artichoke.

ADAPTATIONS:

"Charcoal Drawing," originally published in Guys named Bill, has been made into a short film for CBC's ArtSpots.

SIDELIGHTS:

Canadian poet Leslie Greentree is a prize-winning author known for her straightforward, accessible poetry. Greentree has been invited to read at numerous festivals, and her work has been featured on city buses in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Harry Vandervlist, writing in Calgary's News & Entertainment Weekly, described Greentree's work as having "an appealing, sometimes self-mocking voice." Lethbridge Insider critic Rick Stevenson noted her "stand-up comic's sense of understatement, wit, and timing."

Greentree's first book of poetry, Guys Named Bill, was accepted by the first publisher she contacted. The poems follow the narrator's passage from childhood into adulthood. Men named Bill show up at various turning points, indicating the ordinariness of the daily experiences that shape character. Richard Stevenson of the Danforth Review noted that these "anti-Kens or Prince Charmings … represent various way stations along a path of emotional and spiritual growth." Vandervlist praised Greentree's ability to "catch a mood … while keeping an ironic distance."

Greentree's second volume of poetry, Go-Go Dancing for Elvis, tells the story of two sisters, one a conventional housewife who thinks herself dull, the other a back-up dancer for an Elvis impersonator. Rick Stevenson, writing in Lethbridge Insider, commended the book's "easy lope of the line … self-deprecating wit, and subtle humour." Stevenson also noted that Go-Go Dancing for Elvis discusses "the dance of human relationships, [and] the nuances of communication" with "irony and wit."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, Alberta, Canada), April 3, 2004, Penny Caster, "Local Poet Has Shot at Prizes."

ONLINE

Calgary's News & Entertainment Weekly, http://www.ffwdwweekly.com/ (July 22, 2004), Harry Vandervlist, review of Guys Named Bill.

Danforth Review,http://www.danforthreview.com/ (July 22, 2004), Richard Stevenson, review of Guys Named Bill.

Lethbridge Insider,http://lethbridgeinsider.com/ (July 22, 2004), Rick Stevenson, "Frontenac Series Three: Quartet 2003," review of Go-Go Dancing for Elvis.