Areas of Interest
- Modern Canadian, American, and British Poetry16th and 17th century poetry and drama; Shakespeare. Currently exploring intersections between contemporary science and poetry
Biography
John Reibetanz was born in New York City, and grew up in the eastern United States and Canada. He studied at Brooklyn College and Princeton University, and has written essays on Elizabethan drama and on modern and contemporary poetry, as well as a book on King Lear and translations of modern German poetry.
John is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and has three times been a finalist for the National Magazine Awards. His poems have appeared in such magazines as Poetry (Chicago), The Paris Review, Canadian Literature, The Malahat Review, The Southern Review, and Quarry, and twice in the anthology of winning entries to the National Poetry Competition. He has published twelve full collections and two chapbooks, been shortlisted for the national ReLit Poetry Award, and won First Prize in the international Petra Kenney Poetry Competition. He has also been a winner of The Malahat Review’s P. K. Page Founders’ award, and in the national poetry competitions conducted by The Fiddlehead and Vallum.
He lives in Toronto and is a Fellow at Victoria College, where he received the first Victoria University Teaching Award, and in 2010 he was elected a Senior Fellow at Massey College. He has given readings of his poetry and conducted workshops in major cities all across Canada. His favourite non-literary pursuits are natural history, contemporary art, and 1930s jazz.
Publications
Books
The Lear World (criticism). University of Toronto Press, 1977.
Ashbourn. Véhicule Press, 1986.
Morning Watch. Véhicule Press, 1995.
Midland Swimmer. Brick Books, 1996.
Near Finisterre. St. Thomas Poetry Series, 1996.
Mining for Sun. Brick Books, 2000.
Near Relations. McClelland and Stewart, 2005.
Transformations. Goose Lane Editions, 2006.
Laments of the Gorges [chapbook]. Alfred Gustav Press, 2011.
Hidden Treasures [ekphrastic poems on the art of Peter Gustav Press]. Rufus Books, 2012.
AFloat. Brick Books, 2013
A Book of Riddlu. Aeolus House, 2015
WhereWe Live. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016.
The Essential John Reibetanz,ed. Jeffery Donaldson. The Porcupine’s Quill, 2017.
Conversing with Wang An-shih [chapbook]. Junction Books, 2018.
By Hand, Brick Books, 2019.
Earth Words. McGill-Queen's, 2021.
Anthologies
Aurora: New Canadian Writing. Doubleday, 1978, 1979, 1980.
Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry. Monitor Book Co., 1980.
A Discord of Flags: Canadian Poets Write About The Persian Gulf War. Privately published, 1992.
The Signal Anthology: Contemporary Canadian Poetry. Véhicule Press, 1993.
Vintage 94. Quarry Press, 1995.
Vintage 95. Quarry Press, 1996.
In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry, ed. K. Braid and S. Shreve. Polestar Press, 2005.
Poetry as Liturgy: An Anthology by Canadian Poets, ed. Margo Swiss. St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2007.
Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era. Seraphim Editions, 2008.
The Best Canadian Poetry 2009, Tightrope Books, 2009.
Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems. Wilfred Laurier Press, 2009.
Cry Uncle: An Avuncular Anthology. Aeolus House, 2013.
Poems for an Anniversary. St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2013.
I Found It at the Movies: An Anthology of Film Poems. Guernica Editions, 2014.
Forthcoming
“Skidegate Sands,” Vallum 16:1 (2019)
Conversing with Henry David Thoreau [chapbook]. Junction Books, 2020.