Gladys Hindmarch

Born in 1940 to parents Taimi (Aho) and Robert Hindmarch, Gladys Maria Hindmarch became known as a central figure in the TISH community and the Vancouver literary scene in the 1960s and 1970s. As an editor, she was involved in the little magazine Motion (a prose companion to TISH); the second editorial phase of TISH, which she co-edited with Peter Auxier, David Cull, David Dawson, Daphne Marlatt, and Dan McLeod; and issues 7–9 of The Capilano Review. She attended and participated in major literary events including the Vancouver Poetry Conference (1963), the Berkeley Poetry Conference (1965), and Women & Words (1983). Her writing has appeared in a number of local and national journals and little magazines dedicated to innovative prose, Canadian literature, and women’s writing, including Iron, Imago, Periodics, boundary 2, Writing, and The Capilano Review and anthologies Cradle and All: Women Writers on Pregnancy and Birth (1989), Words We Call Home (1990), and Islands West: Stories From the Coast (2001). She is the author of three books of prose: A Birth Account (New Star, 1976), The Peter Stories (Coach House, 1976) and The Watery Part of the World (Douglas & McIntyre, 1988). An active member of Vancouver’s literary, academic, and activist communities, Hindmarch taught English at Capilano College from 1974 to 2002. Until the late 1990s she wrote under the name Gladys Hindmarch, but since then prefers to use her middle name, Maria, pronounced the Finnish way with emphasis on the first syllable.