Vol 4 No 1 2010

Memorial Tribute

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of author Kuldip Gill on Sunday, May 10, 2009. Gill was a contributor to the 2004 Mansfield collection Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women Poets (eds Rishma Dunlop and Priscila Uppal).Gill had recently authored Valley Sutra, a collection of poetry published by Caitlin Press in fall 2009.

Kuldip Gill was an active member of the British Columbia writing community. Remembered as a gracious and elegant woman with a passionate exuberance for life, Kuldip Gill died May 10 in Abbotsford at the age of 75.

Kuldip Gill, Ph.D., was born in Faridkot District, Punjab India in 1934. She immigrated to Canada at the age of five and then attended school in the Fraser Valley. Gill worked in the forestry and mining industries for twenty years and then received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in social anthropology from the University of British Columbia. She also received an MFA in Theatre, Film and Creative Writing from UBC and was the recipient of the Norman Rothstein Memorial Scholarship at UBC in recognition of scholarly achievement.

In 2005, The University College of the Fraser Valley bestowed Gill with an honorary doctor of letters (D.Litt). Gill taught at UBC, Simon Fraser University, the Open Learning Agency and the University of the Fraser Valley. She served as the president of the Immigrant and Visible Minority Women of BC, and spent time on the boards of the Vancouver YWCA and the Vancouver Chief Constable's Diversity Advisory Committee.

Gill's first book, Dharma Rasa (Nightwood Editions, 1999), intertwined English and Punjabi, life in Canada and life in India, past and present, myth and imagination. It won a BC 2000 Book Award and received much acclaim. Gill also wrote short fiction, non-fiction and reviews of poetry and fiction, and served on the editorial board of Prism International and the advisory council of Event.

Friends and colleagues speak of her talents and her generosity in sharing her time to support others. She is remembered for her grace, generosity, compassion, and activism. She was beloved to her students and a mentor to many young writers. She will be missed.

We include in this issue of Studio two poems from the Red Silk anthology by Kuldip. The last line of “Four O’Clock Tea at Harrison Springs Hotel” inspired the title of the editors’ introductory essay for Red Silk, “Travelers, like us.” The second poem, “Almost a Glosa, for Jim,” was written for her husband of 44 years, Jim McIntosh.

Ned BalboAnn Fisher-WirthKuldip Gill
Diane LockwardCatherine StrisikKathleen Winter

Four O’clock Tea at Harrison Hot Springs Hotel

Almost a Glosa—for Jim

Kuldip Gill