Ruth Roach Pierson, professor emerita of the University of Toronto/ Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, taught women’s history, feminist studies, and post-colonial studies at OISE/UT from 1980 to 2001, and European history and women’s history at Memorial University of Newfoundland from 1970 to 1980. Her poems have appeared in ARC, Event, The Fiddlehead, The Literary Review of Canada, The Malahat Review, Pagitica, Pottersfield Portfolio, Prism International, Queen’s Feminist Review, Quills, Room of One’s Own and Vallum as well as a number of anthologies. She won first place in the Third Annual Poetry contest (2002) of Word: Toronto’s Literary Calendar, was a finalist in the poetry category of the 2003 Pagitica Literary Contest; and received an honourable mention in Fiddlehead’s 2003/2004 Ralph Gustafson Contest for Best Poem. After her retirement from academe, she published two books of poems with Buschek Books of Ottawa: Where No Window Was (2002) and Aide-Mémoire (2007). The latter was named a finalist for the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. In March of 2011 she launched her third poetry collection CONTRARY with Tightrope Books of Toronto.