Biography of James Reaney

James Reaney was born on a farm in Stratford, Ontario. He completed his doctorate in 1958 under the supervision of Northrop Frye at the University of Toronto. In 1949, his first book of poetry, The Red Heart, won the Governor-General's award for poetry. Since then, he has won two more Governor-General's Awards for poetry (1959, 1962) and the Floyd Chalmers award for Drama. He is an officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He taught English from 1951 to 1960 at the University of Manitoba, then from 1961 to 1992 at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Besides writing poetry (Souwesto Home, 2005) plays (he is best known for his Donnelly trilogy), chidren's novels, short stories, essays, history (The Donnelly Documents), and libretti for several operas with John Beckwith and Harry Somers, Reaney has also created and edited a literary review, Alphabet, from1960 to 1970 and is an accomplished watercolouristt with another exhibition opening in January, 2008 at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario. In 2008, a new edition of the Donnelly trilogy, an anthology of six plays edited by David Ferry, and a 64 page poetry collection will be in print. Three of his plays have been performed at the Stratford Festival in Canada. He is married to poet Colleen Thibaudeau (Dec. 29, 1951) and has two children and two grandchildren.