Canadian Literature & Poetry
in English
Poetry
Anthologies
Native Poetry in Canada: A Contemporary Anthology
Selection of poems from both critically-acclaimed poets and
poets whose work has not previously been published. Represents a record of Native cultural
revival as it emerged from the 1960s to 2000 as portrayed in the works of Lee Maracle, Rita
Joe, Wayne Keon and many others.
PR 9195.35
.I5 N36 2001
Stacks
The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse
Include early Canadian poets, such as C.D. Shanly and R.A.
Faulkner; prominent Confederation poets (Bliss Carman, among others), and women poets
(Tekahionwake, also known as E. Pauline Johnson).
The anthology provides insight into how early Canada looked and
felt to newcomers, evolving attitudes about Canadian identity, and the early canonization of
the nation’s literature.
PR 9195.25 .O9
2013
Stacks
Literary Titans Revisited: the Earle Toppings Interviews with
CanLit Poets and Writers of the Sixties
In 1969 and 1970, Toppings recorded sixteen prominent Canadian
writers and poets, including Margaret Laurence, Sinclair Ross, Hugh Garner, and Al Purdy,
captured in in the interviews and accompanying readings, giving insight into their prose and
poetry.
This book porvides transcripts of the spoken interviews,
complemented by brief biographies and bibliographies.
PR 9189.6 .T66
2017
Stacks
Canadian Poetry from World War I: An Anthology
A collection of verse from the men and women who experienced the
first great war of the twentieth century, which includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Marjorie
Pickthall, Helena Coleman, and Robert Service, among many others.
PR 9195.85 .W67
C36 2009
Stacks
The Great Black North: Contemporary African-Canadian Poetry
The collection documents the historic heritage of Black Canadian
poets: George Elliott Clarke, Ian Keteku, Lillian Allen, Afua
Cooper, Olive Senior, Frederick Ward, Lorna Goodison, Tanya Evanson, Pamela Mordecai, Harold
Head, and many others.
The poems in the anthology are derived from oral and written
sources.
PR 9194.5 .B55
G74 2013
Stacks
Digital Collections
Canadian Poetry Online
A collection of poetry from numerous nineteenth and
twentieth-century Canadian poets, including Isabella Valancy Crawford, John McCrae, Archibald
Lampman, Irving Layton, F.R. Scott, E.J. Pratt, Marjorie Pickthall, Margaret Avison, Gwendolyn
MacEwen, Janis Rapoport, and numerous others.
The Canadian Poetry Audio Archives
Digitized contemporary recordings of Canada’s most
acclaimed poets, reading from their works. The poems are transcribed and are accompanied by
images of the poets.
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries & Handbooks
The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature
A comprehensive, authoritative guide to many different genres,
topics, and aspects of Canadian poetic and literary history, including modernist poetry and the developments in Canadian poetry since 1960.
The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature
A comprehensive introduction to major poetms, forms and
topics in Canadian poetry.
The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature
A complete English-language history of Canadian writing in
English and French from its beginnings, with an emphasis on literary, poetic, and dramatic
works published since the 1960s.
Analyzes the emergence of multicultural and Indigenous
writing, popular literature, nature-writing, life-writing, and the interaction of anglophone
and francophone cultures throughout Canadian history.
Bibliographies
Canadian Poetry: Index to Criticisms, 1970–1979
A bilingual bibliography of critical works on English language
and French language poets, published in the 1970s.
The poets are listed alphabetically with entries for general
works on the poet followed by analyses for specific collections of poems, and occasionally,
criticism for specific poems.
PR 9190.5 .P52
1985
Reference
Modern English-Canadian Poetry: A Guide to Information Sources
A bibliography that traces the effects of “modernism” on English Canadian poetry of the twentieth century. The early chapters list reference sources including bibliographies,
theses, manuscript collections, Canadian poetry journals, critical studies and major
anthologies of poems.
The next chapters group poets chronologically by flourishing
dates, and provide references to publications by individual poets and criticisms of their work.
Z 1377 .P7 S79
Reference
History, Poetic Interpretation & Criticism
Measures of Astonishment: Poets on Poetry
A collection of lectures by prominent Canadian poets (including
Margaret Atwood, Anne Carson, A.F. Moritz, George Elliott Clarke and others) on the form,
genre, and the purpose of poetry.
PN 1031 .M42
2016
Stacks
Harsh and Lovely Land: the Major Canadian Poets and the Making of
a Canadian Tradition
Examines the major Canadian poets in four chronological blocks:
the Victorian poets “the pioneers,” “the modernists,” “the
inheritors,” and the “poet-novelists”.
These include Roberts, Carman, Lampman, Campbell Scott, Pratt,
Klein, Birney, Layton, LePan, Cohen, Ondaatje, MacEwen, Atwood and Helwig.
Avant Canada: Poets, Prophets, Revolutionaries
A collection of original essays and creative works on a
representative array of avant-garde literary movements in Canada from the
past fifty years, from the work of Leonard Cohen and bpNichol to that of Jordan Abel and Liz
Howard.
Also explores intersection of Canadian avant-gardisms and
Indigenous decolonization and discusses topics such as the relationship between Canadian and
Indigenous literatures, cultural appropriation, gender and the Conceptual Writing movement.
Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian
Women’s Poetry
Presents a revision of the genealogy of Canadian literary
modernism by foregrounding the originary and exemplary contribution of women poets, critics,
cultural activists, and experimental prose writers Dorothy Livesay, P.K. Page, Miriam
Waddington, Phyllis Webb, Elizabeth Brewster, Jay Macpherson, Anne Wilkinson, Anne Marriott,
and Elizabeth Smart.
PR 9188 .W54
2009
Stacks
Canadian Poetry: For the Centenary of Margaret Avison (1918–
2007)
Numbers 80 and 81 (Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter 2017). A
special issue of the journal Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews, published
to honour the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Margaret Avison.
It contains two essays written by the poet, an introduction by
the editor, memoirs, poems, critical analysis of her work and legacy, and an updated
bibliography.
Battle Lines: English-Canadian Poetry and the First World War
Traces the rise and disappearance of Canadian First World War
poetry, and offers a striking and comprehensive account of its varied and vexing poetic
gestures.
The book also focuses on the poetic interpretations of the
Canadian soldier. The volume examines the poetry of Helena Coleman, John McCrae, Robert
Service, Frank Prewett, and W.W.E. Ross.
Shaping a World Already Made: Landscape and Poetry of the Canadian
Prairies
Traci, a cultural geographer, explores how reading poetry
influences the way we see the Prairies.
Scholarly Journals
Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews
Includes articles on the study of poetry Canada from all regions
and periods. Peer-reviewed.
Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review
Includes articles, interviews and commentaries on Canadian
writing. Peer-reviewed.
Journal of Canadian Studies
Includes articles on a wide range of studies on Canada:
literature, arts, architecture, anthropology, community planning, culture, the economy,
education, history, Indigenous issues, politics and public affairs, and sociology.
Peer-reviewed.
reviewed & updated 20 May 2021 | compiled by Agatha Barc, MI