Alice Azure
Alice Azure (born July 30, 1940 in North Adams, Massachusetts) is an American poet and writer. She is a member of the "Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers" and the "St. Louis Poetry Center". Biography. Azure's father, Joseph Alfred Hatfield, was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, but grew up in northern Maine and New Hampshire. Azure has stated he was of French, Dutch, and Mi'kmaq descent. Azure's mother, Catherine Pedersen, was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, but spent her formative years in Mandal, Norway from about 1924 to 1934. At the age of eleven, family  strife sent Azure and her siblings to live in the Cromwell Children's Home in Connecticut. Azure lived there from 1951 to 1959. She attended the University of Iowa, earning an M.A. degree in urban and regional planning. Azure has been married twice. She married Tom Liljegren in 1960, and they had three children, Kathryn, Michael, and Patti. After twenty years of marriage, they divorced. Her second husband, Alec Azure, died after only two and a half years of marriage. Through her grief, Azure devoted more of her time to writing. Before she began writing, Azure worked for the United  Way, starting as a volunteer in 1975, then as a professional in 1979. Except for a four-year period from mid-1990 to 1994, she remained a community planner in various local United Ways until her retirement January 2006. She currently lives in Maryville, Illinois. Ancestry. Azure was, for a long time, unclear about her familial roots. In her memoir, "Along Came A Spider," she writes that she "searched and struggled" for 35 years to do genealogical research on her family, including taking a visit to Nova Scotia. Azure is a member of Association des Acadiens Metis-Sourquois ("salt water people ), a controversial social group located in Saulnierville, Digby County, Nova Scotia. Featured writing. Azure's work has been featured in many journals and magazines, including