About

Since bursting onto the East Coast music and arts scene in 2006, Tanya has garnered praise from industry, audience, and peers alike, while building an impressive and eclectic resume of artistic work and accomplishments. With 4 albums, two books, numerous collaborations, and countless performances, she has stepped across genre and back again. Her videopoem, How to be Alone – a collaboration with filmmaker Andrea Dorfman – has had more than 8 million views on youtube, attracting international media and blogger attention, a publishing deal with Harper Collins, and new fans the world over. She tours regularly as a performance poet, musician and public speaker, was the 2011/12 Halifax Poet Laureate and the 2016 Artist in Residence at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Known for her soothing voice, her musical cadence, and a compelling way with words, Tanya has been bringing poetry to unsuspecting places, merging powerful yet simple language with a desire to honestly explore, and articulate, the human experience. She frequently takes commissions to pen poems and verse and has done so for the likes of The 2011 Canada Games, The National Film Board of Canada, and CBC Radio. She has written and staged solo shows as well as a multidisciplinary production called Mass, exploring the complexity of faith. She picked up her first film credit as the leading actor in Andrea Dorfman’s feature film, Heartbeat, which premiered at TIFF in 2014. She co-scored the soundtrack with Halifax legend Charles Austin and later released it as album entitled, ‘Fervour: Songs from Heartbeat the Movie’

With an ever-growing collection of works, a passion for expression, and a penchant for change, Tanya continues to expand as an artist and creator. She recently relocated to Epekwitk / Prince Edward Island, where she is learning and unlearning things, and staring at the sea.