Rina Lasnier, daughter of Moise and Laura Galipeau Lasnier, was born on 6 August 1915, in Saint-Grégoire d'Iberville, Quebec. Educated at the Collège Marguerite Bourgeoys and the University of Montreal, she received degrees in French literature, English literature, and library science, although she has never used the last professionally. She has also worked as a journalist.

Before entering the university she was, most unusually for her time and provincial milieu, sent to a private school in England (Palace Gate, Exeter), an experience which profoundly influenced the direction of her poetic sensibilities by widening the scope of her reading in poetry as well as making her virtually bilingual. She has written poems in English in addition to her voluminous output in French, which includes two poetic dramas and two short stories as well as more than thirty volumes of verse.

A member of the Académie...