Steven McCaffery (born January 24, 1947) is a Canadian poet and scholar who was a professor at
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...
. He currently holds the
David Gray Chair at the
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...
.
McCaffery was born in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...
, England and lived in the UK for most of his youth attending
University of Hull
, mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status
, type = Public
, endowment = £18.8 million (2016)
, budget = £190 million ...
.
He moved to
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 anch ...
in 1968. In 1970, he began to collaborate with fellow poets
Rafael Barreto-Rivera,
Paul Dutton
Paul Dutton (born 1943) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist, and oral sound artist.
Early life and career
Dutton was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A member of the legendary Four Horsemen sound poetry quartet (1970–1988), along with Raf ...
, and
bpNichol
Barrie Phillip Nichol (30 September 1944 – 25 September 1988), known as bpNichol, was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, Creative Writing teacher at York University in Toronto and grOnk/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work e ...
, forming the
sound-poetry group, ''
The Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos.
Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand th ...
''. Some of McCaffery's poetry attempts to break language from the logic of
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
and structure to create a purely emotional response. He has created three-dimensional structures of words and has released a number of sound and video works, often in collaboration with other poets.
Bibliography
*''Carnival'' – 1967–1975
*''Dr. Sadhu's Muffins'' – 1974
*''Ow's Waif'' – 1975
* ''Sound Poetry – A Survey'' – 1978
">U B U W E B :: Steve McCaffery "Sound Poetry – A Survey"
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*''Intimate Distortions'' – 1979
*''Knowledge Never Knew'' – 1983
*''Panopticon'' – 1984
*''North of Intention: Critical Writings 1973–1986'' – 1986
*''Evoba'' – 1987
*''The Black Debt'' – 1989
*''Theory of Sediment'' – 1991 (nominated for a Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by th ...
)
*
*''The Cheat of Words'' – 1996
*''Seven Pages Missing'' – 2000 (nominated for a Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by th ...
)
*''Prior to Meaning: The Protosematic and Poetics'' – 2001
*''The Basho Variations'' – 2007
Critical studies and reviews of McCaffery's work
;''Rational geomancy''
*
See also
*Canadian literature
Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both g ...
*Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry is poetry of or typical of Canada. The term encompasses poetry written in Canada or by Canadian people in the official languages of English and French, and an increasingly prominent body of work in both other European and Indigenou ...
*List of Canadian poets
This is a list of Canadian poets. Years link to corresponding " earin poetry" articles.
A
*Mark Abley (born 1955), poet, journalist, editor, and non-fiction writer.
*Milton Acorn (1923–1986), poet, writer, and playwright
* José Acqueli ...
References
External links
McCaffery ProgramsBuffalo EPCRain Taxi interview with McCafferyRecords of Steve McCaffery are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
1947 births
Living people
20th-century Canadian poets
Canadian male poets
Writers from Sheffield
Language poets
York University faculty
University at Buffalo faculty
21st-century Canadian poets
20th-century Canadian male writers
21st-century Canadian male writers
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