Fonds MsA 1 - Robin Blaser fonds

Robin Blaser (born 1925, Denver, Colorado) is an internationally renowned poet, with a strong influence both in Canada (particularly B.C. and the west coast) and the USA. Blaser grew up in rural Idaho and studied at the University of California at Berkeley, where together with his close associates Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer, he was a central figure in the postwar Berkeley [Poetry] Renaissance, and later the San Francisco Renaissance of the 1950s and early 1960s. He also had close ties with the Black Mountain poets, including Charles Olson and Robert Creeley. In 1966 he immigrated to Canada to accept a position at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., where he taught English Literature for two decades. Since retiring he has continued to be very active as a teacher and writer of both poetry and criticism. In 1993 Coach House Press (Toronto) published his major work THE HOLY FOREST. In 1995 a major international conference was held in Vancouver in his honour, participants including writers Michael Ondaatje, Daphne Marlatt, Michael McClure, and numerous other Canadian, American and international writers and scholars As a teacher and writer Blaser has had a strong influence on many important Canadian writers, including Sharon Thesen, Brian Fawcett, Stan Persky, Geroge Bowering, and Lisa Robertson. As a poet, he has international status. His work was selected for inclusion in the landmark 1960 anthology, THE NEW AMERICAN POETRY (ed. Donald Allen). In 2006 he was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize for his lifwetime achievement; in 2008 he again received the Griffin, this time for his magnum opus THE HOLY FOREST (Rev. & exp. ed. University of California Press, 2007). He is a Canadian citizen and a longtime resident of Vancouver.