Photo credit: Emily Haibeck
“Ellie Sawatzky’s lines are precise and coiled, catching and unravelling like breath”
—2019 Bronwen Wallace Award Jury
Ellie Sawatzky (@elliesawatzky) is a poet, writer, editor, and teacher-facilitator who grew up in the territory of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty 3 (Kenora, Ontario), and who currently lives, works, and plays on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver).
A University of British Columbia MFA alum, she is the author of the poetry collection None of This Belongs to Me (Nightwood Editions, 2021) and the founder and facilitator of the Strathcona Poetry Studio, an open-hearted poetry community that supports writers at all stages through generative writing sessions, accountability, and a commitment to curiosity, self-expression, and mutual care.
Ellie is a past winner of CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award. Her poetry and fiction have been published widely in literary magazines, with recent poems appearing in The Walrus, The Fiddlehead, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, and SAD Mag.