Brandt, Di, 1952-

Di(ane) Brandt (née Janzen) was born on January 31, 1952, in Reinland, a Mennonite farming village in southern Manitoba near Winkler.

She is a Canadian poet, writer, and professor. She was educated at the Canadian Mennonite Bible College (B.A., 1972), the University of Alberta (B.A., 1975), the University of Toronto (M.A., 1976) and the University of Manitoba (Ph.D., 1993). She was poetry editor at Prairie Fire Magazine and Contemporary Verse 2 during the 1980s and 1990s. She also served as Manitoba and Prairie Rep at the League of Canadian Poets National Council and the Writers' Union of Canada National Council. She was an assistant professor of English at the University of Winnipeg (1986-1995), a writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (1995-1996), a resident fellow (1996) and, from 1997, an associate professor of creative writing and Canadian literature at the University of Windsor, Ontario. She has published five collections of poetry, “Now You Care” (2003), “Jerusalem, beloved” (1995), “mother, not mother” (1992), “Agnes in the sky” (1990), and “questions i asked my mother” (1987). Her poetry has been adapted for theatre, radio, and television, and has been set to music and performed in dance. She was awarded A. L. Wheeler Book Prize, 1975; Gerald Lampert Award, and Governor General's Award for poetry shortlist, Canada Council for the Arts, both 1987, and shortlisted for Dillons Commonwealth Poetry Prize, 1988, all for “questions i asked my mother” (1987); McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award, 1990, for “Agnes in the sky” (1990); Canadian Authors' Association National Poetry Award, 1995, and Governor General's Award for poetry shortlist, both 1995, both for “Jerusalem, beloved” (1995); and Silver National Magazine Award, New Quarterly, 1995, for "The Sound the Wind Makes." In 2018, she became the first Poet Laureate of Winnipeg and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by MacEwan University in 2021. Brandt is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada, League of Canadian Poets, Manitoba Writers' Guild, and PEN.