Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1926-2005, predominant 1980 – 2005 (Creation)
- Creator
- Skarstedt, Sonja
Physical description area
Physical description
- 6.11 m of textual records
- 5 cm of drawings
- 2 photographs
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Sonja Skarstedt (1960-2009) was born on October 2, 1960 in Montreal, Quebec. She graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from McGill University. Skarstedt was the founder, publisher, and editor of the literary review Zymergy (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 Empyreal Press a small Canadian publishing company 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 Sonja also worked as a freelance editor and graphics 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 also 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 four books: Mythographies (1990), A Demolition Symphony (1995), Beautiful Chaos (2000), Saint Francis of Esplanade (2001), 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 in 2009 after succumbing to cancer.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of records from Skarstedts various writing and publishing activities, as well as her personal life. The records contained in this fonds span Skarstedt's years as a secondary student up until the end of her life in 2009. Fonds consists of one sous-fonds - the Zymergy fonds - which contains records that reflect Skarstedt's involvement with the Zymergy literary magazine. Fonds consists of six series: Correspondence (1926-2005), Diaries (1977-1999), Notebooks (1946 - 1987), Artwork (1980 - [after 1996]), Photographs (1973 - [ca. 1995]), Manuscripts and Poems (1975 - 2005). The fonds encompasses analog and written communication (printed off e-mails) from Skarstedt
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Material was donated by Sonja's widow, Geof Isherwood, to the Mount Saint Vincent University Archives in February, 2011.
Arrangement
Original order was maintained with most of the correspondence. Some of Skarstedt's manuscripts were incorporated into the Empyreal Press Fonds and Zymergy Fonds. Because Skarstedt self-published, layouts for her titles were kept with the Empyreal Press fonds.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script note
Some material contained in the fonds is in French
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright is held by Geof Isherwood, for published and unpublished manuscripts series. No reproduction is permitted without consent from copyright holder.
Finding aids
Associated materials
Records pertaining to Skarstedt’s Empyreal Press activities can be found in the Empyreal Press Fonds, also held by the Mount Saint Vincent University Archives.