Kuldip Gill was born in the Punjab, India in 1943. She immigrated to Canada as a child and grew up in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. After working in resource industries, she obtained an M.A. in social anthropology in 1982 from the University of British Columbia with a thesis entitled: A Canadian Sikh Wedding as a Cultural Performance. Her Ph.D., also at UBC was granted in 1988. Her thesis is entitled: Health Strategies of Indo-Fijian Women in the Context of Fiji. Gill taught at UBC, Simon Fraser University and at Open Learning Canada in Burnaby, B.C. Her last book of poetry, Valley Sutra, was completed several months before her death in 2009.
Poetry
Cornelian, Turquoise & Gold
Vancouver: Colophon Books, 2003.
Limited first edition of 50 copies, individually numbered.
Poetry
Dharma Rasa
Roberts Creek, B.C.: Nightwood Editions, 1999.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Rasa theory, part of Indian genre theory and Sanskritic poetics, describes an elaborate typology of nine essences or emotions, ranging from adbhuta (wonder) to raudra (fury) to karuna (sorrow) to santa (serenity). This first collection of poetry by Kuldip Gill is rich with these emotions.
… This is a poetics that intertwines English and Punjabi, life in Canada and life in India, past and present, myth and imagination. …
Awards and Honours
2000 BC Book Award (Winner)
Poetry
Ghazals: Rai and Sohni
Victoria, B.C.: Frog Hollow Press, 2003.
Limited ed. of 100 signed and numbered copies.
Poetry
Valley Sutra
Halfmoon Bay, B.C.: Caitlin Press, 2009.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
This posthumous publication is Gill’s tribute to India and Canada–her two beloved homelands–and offers a mixture of smells, tastes and textures: the steam of hot rotis rising from metal lunchboxes at the mill; the lush flesh of mango offered by a gentle grandfather; and the sensual feeling of a silk sari.