Stanley Louis Dragland CM (December 2, 1942 – August 2, 2022) was a Canadian novelist, poet and literary critic.[1] A longtime professor of English literature at the University of Western Ontario,[2] he was most noted for his 1994 critical study Floating Voice: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Literature of Treaty 9, which played a key role in the contemporary reevaluation of the legacy of poet Duncan Campbell Scott in light of his role as deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs.[3]

Stan Dragland

BornStanley Louis Dragland
(1942-12-02)December 2, 1942
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
DiedAugust 2, 2022(2022-08-02) (aged 79)
Trinity, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
Alma mater
GenreFiction, poetry, literary criticism, essays
Notable works
  • Floating Voice: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Literature of Treaty 9
  • Peckertracks
  • Apocrypha: Further Journeys
Notable awardsNewfoundland and Labrador Rogers Cable Non-Fiction Award

Career

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Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Dragland was educated at the University of Alberta and Queen's University.[1] While teaching at Western, he was a founder of the poetry publisher Brick Books and the literary magazine Brick.[4]

His first novel, Peckertracks, was a shortlisted finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award.[1] He won the Newfoundland and Labrador Rogers Cable Non-Fiction Award in 2005 for his memoir Apocrypha: Further Journeys,[5] and he was a shortlisted finalist for the E. J. Pratt Poetry Award in 2007 for Stormy Weather: Foursomes.[1]

He wrote the forewords for the New Canadian Library editions of Scott's In the Village of Viger and Other Stories and Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers.

Personal life

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During his academic career he was married to Marnie Parsons, a fellow professor at Western.[6] The couple later separated. After his retirement, Dragland moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador,[7] where he continued his writing career and remarried to Beth Follett, the publisher of Pedlar Press.[8]

Dragland was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2021.[9] Dragland died in Trinity, Newfoundland and Labrador during a hike on August 2, 2022, at the age of 79.[10]

Books

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  • Wilson MacDonald's Western Tour, 1923-4 (1975)[1]
  • Peckertracks (1978)[1]
  • Approaches to the Work of James Reaney (1983)
  • Simon Jesse's Journey (1983)[11]
  • Journeys Through Bookland (1985)[12]
  • The Bees of the Invisible (1991)[11]
  • Floating Voice: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Literature of Treaty 9 (1994)
  • New Life in Dark Seas (2000)
  • 12 Bars (2002)[11]
  • Apocrypha: Further Journeys (2003)[5]
  • Stormy Weather: Foursomes (2005)[13]
  • Hard-Headed and Big-Hearted: Writing Newfoundland (2006)[14]
  • The Drowned Lands (2008)[15]
  • Deep Too (2013)
  • The Bricoleur and His Sentences (2014)
  • Strangers & Others: Newfoundland Essays (2015)[16]
  • Witness: Poetry and Prose of Joanne Page (2015)
  • Gerald Squires (2017)[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Stanley Louis Dragland". The Canadian Encyclopedia, November 15, 2009.
  2. ^ "Stan Dragland: Ontario writer also juggles careers as English professor and poetry editor". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, June 22, 1996.
  3. ^ "Film on natives focuses on poetic contradiction". Windsor Star, January 18, 1995.
  4. ^ "Brick celebrates 25th in its eclectic tradition". The Globe and Mail, May 31, 2003.
  5. ^ a b "Book Award winners announced". The Western Star, April 22, 2005.
  6. ^ "Academic retreats to cottage to focus on writing projects". Waterloo Region Record, July 13, 1996.
  7. ^ "The province that was a country; A place apart: The abiding power of Newfoundland's fierce spirit of separateness". Halifax Chronicle-Herald, September 6, 2016.
  8. ^ "'Spiritual aspects of my life relate to being a renter' Life-long renter: Author and small-press publisher divides her time between Toronto and St. John's". Toronto Star, May 29, 2010.
  9. ^ Canada, Governor General of. "Governor General Announces 61 New Appointments to the Order of Canada". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  10. ^ Adina Bresge (August 8, 2022). "Writer and editor Stan Dragland, who co-founded poetry press Brick Books, dies at 79". Toronto Star.
  11. ^ a b c "3 Canadian writers reading at St. Jerome's". Waterloo Region Record, October 11, 2003.
  12. ^ "Fictions imitating art: Not all work". Toronto Star, September 8, 1985.
  13. ^ "Taking the emotional temperature on both coasts". The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2005.
  14. ^ "Writings rescued". The Telegram, December 3, 2006.
  15. ^ "In the shadow of catastrophe". The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2008.
  16. ^ "A place apart: The abiding power of Newfoundland's fierce spirit of separateness". Canadian Press, September 4, 2016.
  17. ^ "Of rocks and roots: Exploring the life and work of Newfoundland artist Gerald Squires". The Globe and Mail, July 8, 2017.