Person

Geddes, Gary, 1940-

1940-

Gary Geddes was born on June 9, 1940, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He is a Canadian poet, writer, and professor. He studied at the University of British Columbia (B.A.) and the University of Toronto (M.A., Ph.D.). Geddes founded two literary presses in Ontario, Quadrant Editions, in 1981 and Cormorant Books, in 1986. He taught English and Creative Writing at Concordia University, Montreal, for twenty years (1978–1998). Then he returned to the West Coast, where he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University (1998–2001). He also taught English at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of Victoria, as well as serving as a writer-in-residence at Green College (UBC) and the Vancouver Public Library. In 2007, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Royal Roads University and, in 2008, the fifth annual Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. In 2018, he received Freedom to Read Award presented annually by The Writers Union of Canada in recognition of work that is passionately supportive of free expression. The literary critic George Woodcock described him as Canada's best political poet. Geddes has written and edited over thirty-five books, including seventeen books of poetry, as well as fiction, non-fiction, drama, translation, criticism, and anthologies, e.g., "Snakeroot" (1973), "Sailing Home: A Journey through Time, Place & Memory" (2001), and "Medicine Unbundled: A Journey through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care" (2017). He lives on Thetis Island, British Columbia.