POETRY & PHOTOGRAPHY
Photograph by Bill Almond
Diana Hayes was born in Toronto in 1955 and has lived on both coasts of Canada. She studied at the University British Columbia and Victoria, receiving a B.A. and M.F.A. in Creative Writing. She was Poetry Editor for Prism international while at U.B.C. from ’80 – ’82. Her poetry, articles and fiction have appeared in various journals include CVII, Descant, Event, From An Island, Island, The Malahat Review, Poetry Canada Review, and has been broadcast on the CBC. Her published books include Two of Swords (co-editor), Moving Inland, The Classical Torso In 1980, The Choreography of Desire, and Coming Home (anthology). Her play Islomania: Saga of the Settlers was produced by Salt of the Earth Productions and for the Salt Spring Festival of the Arts. She is currently Production Manager for Salt Spring’s Theatre Alive.
Over the past decade, Diana Hayes has expanded her poetic vision into the realm of photographic dream and narrative sequences and her work as art photographer has been shown through the Vancouver Association of Photographic Arts and the Exposure Gallery. Her photo-sequence entitled “Delphinium’s Transubstantial Dream” was chosen as promotion images for the “Unseen Light II” show in April ’96, and her dream sequence entitled “Of Bodies Changed To Other Forms I Tell” was featured at the Hong Kong Bank Atrium for the Vancouver Photo Festival group exhibit in November ’96. Her photographs have also been featured in the First and Second Annual Show of Salt Spring Photographers at Artspring 2001/2002, and in the annual “Photosynthesis” shows at Artspring, from 2002 to 2006. A selection of her photographs was also chosen for the Fine Arts 2004 Sooke Region Museum show.
Her book "The Choreography of Desire" combines poetry and photography, and was published by Rainbow Publishers in March 1999. Since 1981, she has made her home on Salt Spring Island where she divides her time between writing, photography, theatre and literary production, working as an administrative assistant at the Lady Minto Gulf Islands Hospital, and when possible, travel.
Photograph by Bill Almond