Tanya Davis

Shortly after moving to Halifax, Tanya began performing spoken word poetry at various cafés in the city. She soon recorded an album, Make a List, which was nominated for Female Recording of the Year, Alternative Recording of the Year and Album of the Year at the Nova Scotia Music Awards, along with a nomination for Davis herself as New Artist of the Year, as well as four nominations for the Music PEI Awards. 

She was named poet of the year in The Coast‘s annual year-end reader’s poll for 2007 and followed up with Gorgeous Morning in 2008.

Tanya has also toured across Canada and internationally as a poet and musician, both as a solo artist and with Jenn Grant.

Davis attracted international press attention in 2010 when a performance video of her poem “How to Be Alone,” directed by Andrea Dorfman, became popular on YouTube and she subsequently released her third album, Clocks and Hearts Keep Going.

Tanya authored a book of poetry titled At First, Lonely in 2011, published by Canadian publisher The Acorn Press, and served as poet laureate of Halifax from 2011 to 2013.

In 2013, she wrote the poetic narration to Millefiore Clarkes’ Island Green, a short documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada about organic farming in PEI.

The following year, she appeared in her first acting role, starring in Andrea Dorfman’s film Heartbeat.

In 2020 Dorfman and Davis again collaborated on the short film How to Be At Home, based on another poem by Davis about coping with isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival’s year-end Canada’s Top Ten list for 2020.