Sonja Skarstedt Fonds

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Sonja Skarstedt Fonds

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    Fonds

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    Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

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    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

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    Archival description area

    Name of creator

    (1960-2009)

    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

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        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.

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