McMaster came to Ottawa with her family in 1955 and attended First Avenue Public School, Elmdale, Connaught, Lisgar Collegiate (1966), Carleton University (B.A. in English, 1970; graduate studies in journalism), and Ottawa Teachers' College (elementary certificate, 1971).
Editing career
While she taught for a few years, McMaster has spent most of her paid working career as an editor, notably at the National Gallery of Canada from 1989 to 2008 as an editor of some 40 art catalogues and founder of the Gallery magazine Vernissage.
McMaster was the founding editor of the feminist and art magazine Branching Out (1973–1975).
McMaster lives in Ottawa, Ontario. She and her husband Ian spend part of each summer at their cottage in Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy. They have two grown daughters, Morel and Aven, and three grandchildren.
Works
Selected publications
Branching Out Magazine (first Canadian feminist and arts periodical), founding editor. Edmonton, 1973–75, editor 1975–80 Sharon Batt.
Pass this way again (with Andrew McClure and Claude Dupuis, 1983). (Underwhich Editions, 1983).
North/South (with Andrew McClure and Colin Morton). (Underwhich Editions, 1987).
Dangerous Graces: Women's Poetry on Stage (editor). (Balmuir Publishing, 1987).
Wordmusic (audiotape, with Andrew McClure and Colin Morton, and Paula Quick, Lynne Simpson, and Yasmine Malinowski from Open Score). (First Draft, 1986). Reissued with additional tracks by Penn Kemp, Max Middle, and Linsey Wellman as 1981 Wordmusic 2007.
↑Jordan, Tessa (2019). Feminist Acts: Branching Out Magazine and the Making of Canadian Feminism. University of Alberta Press. p.247. ISBN9781772124842.