Dennis Cooley

Last updated
Dennis Cooley
Born1944 (age 79–80)
Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada.
OccupationWriter, editor
LanguageEnglish
EducationBachelor of Education Degree, Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree, Masters of Arts Degree, Ph.D

Dennis Cooley (born 1944) is a Canadian writer of poetry and criticism, a retired university professor, and a vital figure in the evolution of the prairie long poem. He was raised on a farm near the small city of Estevan, Saskatchewan in Canada, and currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Contents

Cooley's self-proclaimed influences in writing are William Carlos Williams, H.D., Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, E.E. Cummings, Eli Mandel, Andrew Suknaski, Daphne Marlatt, bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje, and Robert Kroetsch. [1]

Early life

As a student, Cooley held a variety of different labouring jobs during the summers. [2] First attending secondary schooling at the University of Saskatchewan, Cooley obtained with added Distinction his Bachelor of Education Degree in 1966, a High Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1967 [2] and afterwards upgraded to his Masters of Arts Degree on Stephen Crane's imagery and symbolism in 1968. [3]

Cooley later moved to New York state to attend the University of Rochester. It was there that Cooley prepared the research for his doctorate on the San Francisco-born American poet, Robert Duncan. He received the Ph. D in 1971. [4]

Career

From 1972 to 1973, Cooley was employed within the Blakeney Government in Saskatchewan as an executive assistant. [5] Apart from this, most of Cooley's working life has been teaching English.

He has worked at St. John's College since 1976 as the Organizer of Literary Conferences within the University of Manitoba [6] and taught Early Modern and Contemporary poetry, specializing in Robert Duncan, Dorothy Livesay, Margaret Atwood, Robert Kroetsch, Eli Mandel, Prairie Literature, the Long poem in the Twentieth Century, Canadian Writers in Self-construction, Fundamentals of Literary Theory, American Literature, Creative Writing, Poetry & Media 1994–1995, Narratology & Postcolonialism. [3] He retired from in 2011. [7]

He has since helped start create the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, and is currently President. [4] The Guild, founded in 1981 in Aubigny, Manitoba as a support group for Manitoba writers, offers workshops, conducts local reading groups and a peer support network for enhancing and encouraging other writers of all skill levels. [8]

Cooley is also an editor, and from 1975 to 1976 was the Assistant Editor on the Journal of Canadian Fiction, the Poetry Editor of Arts Manitoba from 1978 to 1979 and 1982–1983, the Contributing Editor to Border Crossings from 1989 to 1993, as well as the Editor at the Pachyderm Press from 1993 onward. He also served as the Workshop Leader at the Sage Hill Writing Experience in 1992, 1998, 1999, and 2000. [3]

Cooley is a founding editor of the Turnstone Press in Winnipeg, Manitoba, [9] which was created in 1976 in a local Winnipeg pub. Turnstone promotes authors who are either landed immigrants or Canadian citizens, with fifty percent featuring local Manitoba content and Manitoban writers. [10]

Writing

Cooley specializes in different genres of poetry; such as literary travel, literary criticism, and the long poem. [5] He shows special interest in Canadian Literature, American Writing, modern and postmodern writing, the languages of orality and print, poetry and politics, and literary theory. [4] To date, Cooley has published a dozen volumes of poetry, and over a hundred various articles, columns, reviews, and interviews. [6]

Cooley has travelled abroad to share his talent by giving workshops, lectures and readings to places such as Ukraine and Russia (Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Moscow) in May 1991, to the World Poetry Conference in Portugal in May 1995 and again in May 2001, Berlin in August 2002, Poland in April 1999, and Spain in December 1998. [3] To benefit those who don't read his native language of English, some of his work has been translated into Portuguese, German, Chinese and Ukrainian. [11]

Cooley gave his time to the University of Augsburg in the summer of 1996 by being the Canadian Studies guest professor. [10]

Cooley is currently keeping busy by working on personal travel journals, poetry books, and a plethora of essays. [10]

Recognition

Cooley is the recipient of twelve Manitoba Book Awards, and the Lifetime Achievement Award. [7] He has also won or been nominated for the following:

Bibliography

Books edited

Related Research Articles

Di Brandt often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Arnason</span> Canadian author and poet

David Arnason is a Canadian author and poet of Icelandic heritage from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Catherine Hunter is a Canadian poet, novelist, editor, professor, and critic.

Robert Paul Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet and nonfiction writer. In his fiction and critical essays, as well as in the journal he co-founded, boundary 2, he was an influential figure in Canada in introducing ideas about postmodernism.

Birk Sproxton was a Canadian poet and novelist who lived in Red Deer, Alberta.

Richard Stevenson was a Canadian teacher and poet. Stevenson taught English at Lethbridge College in Lethbridge, Alberta, and also taught for a couple of years in Nigeria.

Anne Szumigalski, SOM was a Canadian poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Klassen</span> Canadian writer

Sarah Klassen is a Canadian writer and retired educator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Klassen's first volume of poetry, Journey to Yalta, was awarded the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 1989. Klassen is the recipient of Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry and Klassen's novel, The Wittenbergs, was awarded the Margaret McWilliams Award for popular history.

Frederick James Wah, OC, is a Canadian poet, novelist, scholar and former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

Laurie Block (1949–2018) was a Canadian poet and educator. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he studied at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba.

Eli Mandel was a Canadian poet, editor of many Canadian anthologies, and literary academic.

Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.

Douglas Burnet Smith is a Canadian poet. He is the author of fifteen volumes of poetry. His Voices from a Farther Room was nominated for the Governor General's Award, the most prestigious literary award in Canada. In addition to winning numerous poetry awards, in 1989 Mr. Smith won The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize. He has also represented Canada at international writers’ festivals and has served as the President of the League of Canadian Poets and as Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission of Canada. His poetry has also been published in numerous literary periodicals and anthologies. He was twice a member of the Poetry Jury for the Canada Council for the Arts' Governor General's Literary Awards, in 1988 and again in 2011.

Prairie Fire is a Canadian literary journal published quarterly by Prairie Fire Press.

Turnstone Press is a Canadian literary publisher founded in 1976 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the oldest in Manitoba and among the most respected independent publishers in Canada.

Maurice Mierau is an American-Canadian writer of non-fiction and poetry. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Mierau grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas and Saskatchewan and has a Mennonite background. Mierau currently lives with his family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was president of the League of Canadian Poets from 2006-2008. Mierau holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Holeman</span> Canadian author

Linda Holeman is a Canadian author of fiction.

Katherena Vermette is a Canadian writer, who won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 2013 for her collection North End Love Songs. Vermette is of Métis descent and originates from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was an MFA student in creative writing at the University of British Columbia.

Tanis MacDonald is a Canadian poet, professor, reviewer, and writer of creative non-fiction. She is Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University with specialities in Canadian literature, women’s literature, and the elegy. She is the author of four books of poetry and one scholarly study, the editor of a selected works, and the founder of the Elegy Roadshow.

Marvin Francis (1955–2005) was a Cree poet from Winnipeg, Manitoba best known for his book-length poem City Treaty published by Turnstone Press.

References

  1. ↑ http://bookworkpjw.ca/images_book_pdfs/cooley_sample.pdf Archived 2013-10-31 at the Wayback Machine [ bare URL PDF ]
  2. 1 2 "University of Manitoba - Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture - Dennis Cooley". umanitoba.ca. Archived from the original on 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2013-11-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. 1 2 3 "Cooley Dennis | www.poets.ca". Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  5. 1 2 3 "University of Manitoba - Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture - Dennis Cooley". Archived from the original on 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  6. 1 2 "Welcome to the University of Alberta Press". Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  7. 1 2 www.umanitoba.ca https://web.archive.org/web/20131111193900/http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/archives/collections/complete_holdings/ead/html/cooley_d.shtml. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ "FAQ". www.mbwriter.mb.ca. 2017-08-09. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  9. ↑ "Dennis Cooley". www.thistledownpress.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  10. 1 2 3 "CanLit Poets | Canadian Literature". Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  11. ↑ "Thistledown Press". Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  12. ↑ "Departmental Distinguished Lecturer Dennis Cooley | English Language, Literature and Creative Writing - University of Windsor". Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.