Media Releases

U of T Mississauga professor wins Governor General’s Literary Award

November 16, 2010

TORONTO, ON — Richard Greene, a pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Eng­lish and Dra­ma, has won the 2010 Gov­er­nor General’s Lit­er­ary Award for Poet­ry for his book, Boxing the Com­pass.

His book, pub­lished by Sig­nal Edi­tions, was select­ed from 171 sub­mit­ted Eng­lish poet­ry titles to receive the $25,000 prize. “This year’s recip­i­ents are excel­lent rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the tal­ent and immense cre­ativ­i­ty of Cana­di­an writ­ers, illus­tra­tors and trans­la­tors. I would like to offer my sin­cer­est con­grat­u­la­tions to these artists, peo­ple who – through their pas­sion – ignite our love of read­ing with every new book,” said His Excel­len­cy the Right Hon­ourable David John­ston, Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al of Cana­da.

John­ston will present the 2010 Gov­er­nor General’s Lit­er­ary Awards on Thurs­day, Nov, 25 at 6 p.m. dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at Rideau Hall. In addi­tion to the cash award, Greene and the oth­er win­ners will receive spe­cial­ly bound copies of their books, cre­at­ed by Mon­tre­al book­binder Lise Dubois, at the Rideau Hall cer­e­mo­ny.

Accord­ing to the jury, “Richard Greene’s Box­ing the Com­pass leaves us feel­ing unmoored, adrift across time and voice. The match­less long poem at its heart pulls us back to our always-mov­ing selves, on an always-mov­ing earth. We fol­low him in his off­beat but strange­ly famil­iar trav­els.”

The awards, Canada’s old­est and most pres­ti­gious awards for Eng­lish- and French-lan­guage Cana­di­an lit­er­a­ture, will be pre­sent­ed to 14 authors, illus­tra­tors and trans­la­tors in the cat­e­gories of fic­tion, poet­ry, dra­ma, non fic­tion, children’s lit­er­a­ture (text and illus­tra­tion) and trans­la­tion.

Greene has pub­lished two pre­vi­ous books of poet­ry and is the edi­tor of the wide­ly acclaimed Gra­ham Greene: A Life in Let­ters. Greene teach­es 20th cen­tu­ry British lit­er­a­ture and cre­ative writ­ing, and his next book, Hide and Seek: The Life of Edith Sitwell, is cur­rent­ly in press.

*Images avail­able upon request

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Nicolle Wahl
Man­ag­er
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mar­ket­ing
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga
905–569-4656
nicolle.wahl@utoronto.ca
Read the lat­est U of T Mis­sis­sauga Mag­a­zine at http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/magazine