Keating, Diane (Margaret) 1940-

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KEATING, Diane (Margaret) 1940-

PERSONAL: Born July 20, 1940 (some sources cite 1943), in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; daughter of Ernest Sidney (a teacher) and Muriel Beatrice (a teacher; maiden name, Dudley) Heys; married Christopher Keating (in business), August 13, 1967; children: Stephanie, Justin. Education: University of Manitoba, B.A., c. 1962. Politics: None.

ADDRESSES: Home—55 Heath St. W., Toronto, Ontario M4V 1T2, Canada. Offıce—P.O. Box 630, Station Q, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

CAREER: Freelance travel writer in Rome, Italy, 1962-64; Hudson Bay Co., Montreal, Quebec, Canada, fashion writer, 1965-67; Keating Educational Tours, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, director, 1968-78, and vice president. Poet; gives readings from her works.

MEMBER: League of Canadian Poets.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Chris Keating) Montreal, McGraw/Ryerson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1967.

In Dark Places (poetry), Black Moss Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1978.

No Birds or Flowers (poetry), Exile Editions (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1982.

The Optic Heart (poetry), illustrated by Ingrid Style, Exile Editions (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1984.

The Salem Diary (novel), c. 1989.

The Salem Letters (novel), Exile Editions (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1992.

The Year One: New and Selected Poems, Exile Editions (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Contributor to anthologies, including Lords of Winter and of Love, edited by Callaghan, Exile Editions (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1983; Full Moon: An Anthology of Canadian Women Poets, edited by Cabalte and Luxton, Quadrant Editions (Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada), 1983; Canadian Poetry Now: Twenty Poets of the Eighties, edited by Ken Norris, House of Anansi Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1984; Canadian Travellers in Italy, 1989; and Journey Prize Anthology, 1989. Contributor of poetry to magazines, including Antigonish Review, Malahat Review, Northern Lights, Quarry, and CV/II. Founding editor of Anthol.

SIDELIGHTS: Diane Keating once commented to CA: "The underlying motivation of all my writing is to come to terms with the childhood loss of innocence and with the opposing forces of mind and feeling. I've always been intrigued with words. As a child, rather than count sheep on nights I couldn't sleep, I made up rhyming couplets. After years of producing the glossy language of fashion and travel, I woke up one morning and found myself on the bottom of a black hole—thankfully I hadn't been metamorphosed into Kafka's beetle. When I finally dug my way out, I had completed twelve poems (the spine of my first poetry volume, In Dark Places) and knew the truth of Tolkien's words, 'without darkness there can be no light.'"