Stan Dragland

Stan Dragland

CM
Stan Dragland; CM
Born	Stanley Louis Dragland; December 2, 1942; Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Died	August 2, 2022 (aged 79); Trinity, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Occupation	Writer
Language	English
Alma mater	Queen's University; University of Alberta;
Genre	Fiction, poetry, literary criticism, essays
Notable works	Floating Voice: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Literature of Treaty 9; Peckertracks; Apocrypha: Further Journeys;
Notable awards	Newfoundland and Labrador Rogers Cable Non-Fiction Award

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]

Career

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

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

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

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