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 two poetry collections: None of This Belongs to Me (Nightwood Editions, 2021) and Hottest Smartest Self (ECW Press, forthcoming 2028), winner of the 2026 Pamela Paige Porter Prize, through the League of Canadian Poets.
She works as a freelance writer & editor and is founder & 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.
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. Ellie is a past winner of CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award. Her work is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council.