Canadian Poet Nellie McClung Dead at 80

Nellie McClung, a talented and eccentric Canadian poet, died recently in Vancouver. She would have been 80 on March 21st.

McClung was the granddaughter of the Canadian feminist of the same name who played such an important role in fighting for women’s right to vote and who was also the first woman to serve on the Canadian legislature.

McClung’s best known work is probably My Sex is Ice Cream (Ekstasis Editions), a 1996 book of poems based on the life of McClung’s hero, Marilyn Monroe. Her most recent book was I Hate Wives! a “short collection of terse verse and aphorisms on sexual politics” published by Ekstasis Editions in 2003.

McClung died of conditions resulting from lung cancer at Mount St. Joseph’s Hospital in Vancouver on February 13th.