Person

Skarstedt, Sonja A.,1960-2009

1960-2009

Sonja Ann Skarstedt was born on October 2, 1960, in Montreal, Quebec.

She was a Canadian poet, writer, playwright, painter, and illustrator. In 1982, she graduated from McGill University with B.A. in English Literature. She was the founder, publisher, and editor of the literary review Zymergy from 1987 to 1991. This bi-annual periodical was the recipient of many Canada Council grants. As the creator, she was involved in all aspects of the printing process, from editing the content, layout and design, typesetting and paste-ups, and promotion. She has published book reviews pseudonymously for Zymergy and The Montreal Gazette. In 1990, she founded a small Canadian publishing company Empyreal Press, focused on poetry and short fiction. She was also a writer for the comic book Lincoln-16, with her husband Geoff Isherwood as the illustrator. Along with her written material, Skarstedt also worked as a freelance editor and graphic illustrator. Her poetry was published in a variety of publications, including Scrivener (1981), The Antigonish Review (1983), Rolling Stone (1986), Poetry Canada Review (1986) and Canadian Literature (1991). Some of her illustrations were featured in such publications as Poetry Canada Review (1989) and a portrait of Phyllis Webb on the cover of West Coast Line (1991). Additionally, she published several books, e.g., “Mythographies” (1990), “A Demolition Symphony” (1995), “Beautiful Chaos” (2000), “Saint Francis of Esplanade” (2001) and “In the House of the Sun” (2005). In 2007, she created the Skarwood Channel on the internet social media site YouTube, featuring a series of short video productions.

She died on July 31, 2009, in Montreal, Quebec.