Former Poets Laureate
John Steffler, 2006-2008
About John Steffler
Excerpt from Letter of Nomination for John Steffler
John Steffler has lived in Corner Brook since 1974, when he began teaching at the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campus of Memorial University. Since then, he has been a vital contributor to the provincial literary community, both as a practicing and published poet, and as a teacher of English and Creative Writing. It is on the basis of both his literary work and his role as teacher and mentor that the Writers’ Alliance and Newfoundland and Labrador is nominating him.
The author of seven books, John Steffler is a talented and broadly gifted writer. His five books of poetry are highly regarded and have been well received in both Newfoundland and Canada. His writings have been published by some of Canada’s most respected publishers and journals, both large and small, and he has received a wide range of grants and prizes. As well, he is the author of the novel The Afterlife of George Cartwright, which won the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Thomas Raddall Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book.
Besides his own creative work, John Steffler has been a major impetus in the province’s literary community as a teacher and a mentor. Since coming to Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, he has imbued many of Newfoundland and Labrador’s future writers and readers with a love and appreciation for the beauty and power of poetry. His poetry has been inspirational to the new generation of talented and successful writers, including Lisa Moore, Michael Crummey, and Alison Pick. He has led numerous writing courses and workshops over the years, and has lent his expertise and judgment to a number of prestigious awards juries, including the Governor General Awards, Canada Council for the Arts, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards. In many ways, John Steffler has a long-standing reputation as a talented and respected member of the literary community.
While John Steffler was born in Ontario and adopted Newfoundland and Labrador as his home over 30 years ago, his writings about this province reflect a most Canadian occupation with discovery and exploration. This is well exemplified in his seminal work The Grey Islands, which describes a sojourn on an isolated island off the coast of Newfoundland. His experience reflects a desire to commune with the “spirit” of Newfoundland and to understand the history, the culture, and the inheritance of that history at a time when traditional ways of life are disappearing from many non-central areas. This is not mere sentimentalizing, but a way of reconciling the dreams and aspirations of the past with present reality. In a profound way, John Steffler’s poetry is concerned with cultural identity and memory, and provides a touchstone for Canadians seeking a way to move forward as a nation.
Because of the diversity of cultures in Canada and the range of people’s experiences being “Canadian,” it is often thought we can no longer expect a single figure to be representative of the entire country. Whether from Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec City or St. John’s, all poets are regional, and whether the poet has lived in the same place his entire life or been a nomad, is a woman or man, young or old, all poets will speak from a particular experience of being Canadian. What makes John Steffler’s poetry so valuable is that his consideration of the philosophical problems of memory, history and identity speaks directly to key preoccupations in Canadian culture today.
John Steffler has made, and continues to make, a valuable contribution to the cultural life of both this province and Canada.