Skarstedt, Sonja

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