Margo Button

Margo (Bartlett) Button is a retired French and Spanish teacher who taught high school in Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, and Canada. The Unhinging of Wings, her first book, recounts the death of her son, who suffered from schizophrenia. It won the B.C. Book Prize/Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry in 1996, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and was later adapted for the stage. Button’s poetry has won national and international awards, including Arc’s Confederation Poets Prize and the Petra Kenney Poetry Award. “Blue Dahlias” co-won The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize and was awarded Gold in the poetry category of the 2006 National Magazine Awards. Her other books of poetry include The Shadows Fall Behind and The Elders’ Palace (in English and Inuinnaqtun). She makes her home in Victoria, B.C.