Douglas George Fetherling (born 1949), is a Canadian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, and

cultural commentator A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

. One of the most prolific figures in Canadian letters, he has written or edited more than fifty books, including a dozen volumes of poetry, five book-length fictions, and a memoir. He lives in Vancouver. He has been the weekly literary columnist at five metropolitan newspapers and several national magazines. He has been writer-in-residence at Queen's University, the University of Toronto and the University of New Brunswick. He published under the name Douglas Fetherling until 1999, and thereafter under the name George Fetherling. He started in the Canadian literary industry in 1966 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, where he was the first employee of publisher

House of Anansi House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anansi ...

. A study of Fetherling's books ''George Fetherling and His Work'', edited by

Linda Rogers Linda Rogers (born 10 October 1944) is a Canadian poet and children's writer based in British Columbia. Early life and education Rogers was born October 10, 1944, in Port Alice, British Columbia. Rogers attended the University of British Columbi ...

, features essays by

W. H. New William Herbert New (born March 28, 1938) is a Canadian poet and literary critic. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was educated at John Oliver Secondary School, where he received one of the top matriculation exam scores in British Columbi ...

George Elliott Clarke George Elliott Clarke, (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known large ...

Brian Busby Brian John Busby (born August 29, 1962) is a Canadian literary historian and anthologist. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, he attended John Abbott College and Concordia University. Busby began his writing career writing daytime soap operas and ...

and others.

Selected bibliography

Poetry

* ''My Experience in the War'' – 1970 * ''Our Man in Utopia'' – 1971 * ''Café Terminus'' – 1973 * ''Eleven Early Poems'' – 1973 * ''Achilles' Navel'' – 1974 * ''Subroutines'' – 1981 * ''Variorum: New Poems and Old, 1965-1985'' – 1985 * ''Moving Towards the Vertical Horizon'' – 1986 * ''Rites of Alienation'' – 1988 * ''The Dreams of Ancient Peoples'' – 1990 * ''Selected Poems'' – 1994 * ''Madagascar'' – 2000 * ''Singer, An Elegy'' – 2004 *''The Sylvia Hotel Poems'' – 2010 *''Plans Deranged by Time'' – 2012

Fiction

* ''The File on Arthur Moss'' – 1994 * ''Jericho'' – 2005 *''Tales of Two Cities'' – 2006 *''Walt Whitman's Secret'' - 2010

Non-fiction

*''The Five Lives of Ben Hecht'' – 1977 *''Gold Diggers of 1929'' – 1979 *''The Blue Notebook: Reports on Canadian Culture'' – 1985 *''The Crowded Darkness'' – 1988 *''The Gold Crusades: A Social History of the Gold Rushes, 1849-1929'' – 1988 *''The Rise of the Canadian Newspaper'' – 1990 *''A Little Bit of Thunder'' – 1993 *''The Book of Assassins'' – 2001 *''River of Gold: The Fraser and Cariboo Gold Rushes'' – 2008

Biography

*''The Gentle Anarchist: A Life of George Woodcock'' – 1998

Memoir

*''Notes from a Journal'' – 1987 *''Travels By Night: A Memoir'' – 1994 *''Way Down Deep in the Belly of the Beast: A Memoir'' – 1996 *''The Writing Life: Journals 1975 - 2005'' – 2013

Travel writing

*''Year of the Horse: A Journey through Russia and China'' – 1991 *''The Other China: Journeys around Taiwan'' – 1995 *''Running Away to Sea: Round the World on a Tramp Freighter'' – 1998 *''Three Pagodas Pass: A Roundabout Journey to Burma'' – 2002 *''One Russia, Two Chinas'' – 2004 *''Indochina Now and Then'' – 2012

Anthologies edited

*''A George Woodcock Reader'' – 1980 *''Carl Sandburg at the Movies: A Poet in the Silent Era 1920-1927'' – 1985 (with Dale Fetherling) *''Documents in Canadian Art'' – 1987 *''Documents in Canadian Film'' – 1988 *''The Broadview Book of Canadian Anecdotes'' – 1988 *''Best Canadian Essays 1989'' – 1989 *''Best Canadian Essays 1990'' – 1990 *''The Vintage Book of Canadian Memoirs'' – 2001

References

External links

George Fetherling's
entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

George Fetherling
at ''

Geist ''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. Its semantic field corresponds to English ghost, spirit, mind, intellect. Some English translators resort to using "spirit/mind" or "spirit (mind)" to he ...

''.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fetherling, Doug 1949 births American emigrants to Canada Canadian male journalists Canadian male novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Living people Harbourfront Festival Prize winners 21st-century Canadian male writers