2000 BC Book Award (Winner) Author Kuldip Gill was born in the Punjab, India in 1943. She immigrated to Canada as a child and grew up in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. After working in resource industries, she obtained an M.A. in social anthropology in 1982 from the University of British Columbia with a thesis entitled: A Canadian Sikh Wedding as a Cultural Performance. Her Ph.D., also at UBC was granted in 1988. Her thesis is entitled: Health Strategies of Indo-Fijian Women in the Context of Fiji. Gill taught at UBC, Simon Fraser University and at Open Learning Canada in Burnaby, B.C. Her last book of poetry, Valley Sutra, was completed several months before her death in 2009. Rasa theory, part of Indian genre theory and Sanskritic poetics, describes an elaborate typology of nine essences or emotions, ranging from adbhuta (wonder) to raudra (fury) to karuna (sorrow) to santa (serentity). This first collection of poetry by Kuldip Gill is rich with these emotions.