• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 9 to 12

This inventive collection of literary and visual oddments embodies the creative spirit of Marie Elyse St. George at its wicked, witty, and sometimes wise best. Eight decades have passed since she held up an armful of kittens to the camera, and she continues to entertain with An Assortment of stories, poems, illustrations, and undefinables—meticulously drawn, at times tragic, and often darkly humorous.

Marie Elyse St. George was born in Merritton (St. Catharines), Ontario, in 1929, and she has lived and worked in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, since 1973. Elyse is a visual artist and writer who works from the interaction between word and image. She has studied and exhibited in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, winning awards in both disciplines. In 1995, she and poet Anne Szumigalski collaborated in an exhibition, Voice, at the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. The success of this exhibition led to the publication of a book of the same name (Voice, Coteau Books / Mendel Art Gallery, 1995), which won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1995. In 1996, Elyse was named “Woman of Distinction” by the Saskatchewan YWCA. In 1998, her poem “Blue Moon” was chosen co-winner of Poem of the Year by the League of Canadian Poets. Her memoir, Once in a Blue Moon: An Artist’s Life (Coteau Books, 2006) won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2006. Her poems and short stories have also been broadcast on CBC Radio.

Marie Elyse St. George's profile page