Archives West Finding Aid

Madeline DeFrees is a noted author of poetry and short fiction who has taught creative writing at the elementary, high school, and college levels for over fifty years. She was born in Ontario, Oregon, in 1919, and moved to Hillsboro in 1923. She graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in Portland and entered the Sisters of Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, where she was known as Sister Mary Gilbert. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Maryhurst College and a Master of Arts from the University of Oregon. She taught at Holy Names College in Spokane, Washington, from 1950 to 1967. While still a nun, she taught at the University of Montana, in Missoula, from 1967 to 1979. She was dispensed from her religious vows in 1973. She taught at the University of Massachusetts from 1979 to 1985, after which she retired to Seattle, Washington.

DeFrees has penned seven poetry collections, including Blue Dusk: New and Selected Poems, 1951-2001 (Copper Canyon Press, 2001). She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry and a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts.