Joel Michael Yates (April 10, 1938 – April 15, 2019), known as J. Michael Yates, was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, fiction writer, and corrections officer.

Early life and career

Yates was born in

Fulton, Missouri Fulton is the largest city in and the county seat of Callaway County, Missouri, United States. Located about northeast of Jefferson City and the Missouri River and east of Columbia, the city is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri, Metropolita ...

and raised in Germany. He did graduate degrees at the Universities of Missouri and Michigan, and received an honorary doctorate from Ohio University. Yates emigrated to

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in 1966. Yates was a widely published author of poetry, fiction, drama, translations, and philosophical essays. He has edited several anthologies and founded and edited several literary magazines. His work has been translated into most of the western languages and several of the eastern ones and his drama for radio, television, and stage have been produced both nationally and internationally. His last rank as a university professor was Distinguished Professor. He won many literary prizes including the Major Hopwood Awards (both poetry and drama the same year) and the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts and Sciences from University of Missouri, The Look of Books (for Volvox: Poetry from the Unofficial Languages of Canada in English Translation), The Olympic Arts Award for Schedules of Silence. He has also been a logger, a powder monkey, a motorcycle racer, a broadcasting executive, a broadcaster, an advertising executive, a print salesman, a commercial photographer, a publisher. He retired after seventeen years as a Maximum Security Prison Guard and SWAT team member, and taught languages, history of ideas, and science with his wife in their home in Vancouver.

Death

Yates died on April 15, 2019, at his home in Vancouver. He was survived by his wife and two stepsons.

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Spiral of Mirrors'' - 1967 *''Hunt in an Unmapped Interior'' - 1967 *''Cantacle for Electronic Music'' - 1967 *''Parallax'' - 1971 *''The Great Bear Lake Meditations'' - 1971 *''Nothing Speaks for the Blue Moraines'' - 1973 *''Breath of the Snow Leopard'' - 1974 *''The Qualicum Physics'' - 1975 *''Esox Nobilior Non Esox Lucius'' - 1978 *''Fugue Brancusi'' - 1983 *''Insel: The Queen Charlotte Islands Meditations'' - 1983 *''Various Northern Meditations'' - 1984 *''The Completely Collapsible Portable Man'' - 1984 *''Schedules of Silence'' - 1986 *''During'' - 1999 *''Hongyun: New and Collected Shorter Poems 1955-2005'' - 2005

Fiction

*''Man in the Glass Octopus'' - 1968 *''Fazes in Elsewhen'' - 1976 *''Torque'' - 1988 *''Torpor: Collected Fiction, 1960-1987'' - 1989

Fiction and drama

*''The Abstract Beast'' - 1971

Drama

*''Night Freight'' - 1975

Non-fiction

*''Line Screw: Memoir of a Prison Guard'' - 1994

Anthologies

*''Light Like a Summons'' - 1990

Awards

*International Broadcasting Award, 1960 and 1961 *Major Hopwood Award for Poetry and Drama from the University of Michigan, 1964 *Look of Books Award, 1972 *Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts and Sciences from the University of Missouri *The Writer's Choice Award, 1988 *The Vancouver Award for Line Screw

994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish genera ...

References

External links

Official Site
* Archives of J. Michael Yate
(J. Michael Yates fonds, R11834)
are held at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yates, J. Michael 1938 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights University of Missouri alumni University of Michigan alumni Writers from Missouri Writers from Vancouver Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers