Richard Harrison
 Richard Harrison |
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Richard Harrison is the author of five books of poetry: Fathers Never Leave You (1987), Recovering the Naked Man (1991), Hero of the Play (1994), Big Breath of a Wish (1999), and Hero of the Play: 10th Anniversary Edition (2004).
His books have won a Milton Acorn Prize and the City of Calgary/W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. In addition, his poetry has been short-listed for the Alberta Writers’ Guild Poetry Prize, two Milton Acorn Medals, and the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry. His work is included in many anthologies, most recently Gifts: Poems for Parents from Sumach Press, and is studied in both high school and University courses across Canada, and as part of the University of Vermont’s Canadian Studies program. Most recently the poem “All-Star Action” was included in Oxford Press’s Canadian High School English textbook.
Richard is an award-winning and highly regarded reader. He was one of the first three winners of Harbourfront’s Discovery Reading Prize, and he has brought poetry to such intriguing places for verse as the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames. He has read across the country, and his work has been broadcast on CBC’s Adrienne Clarkson Presents and on Peter Gzowski’s Morningside. In March 2000, Richard read four dedicatory poems to and for Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe who attended the Calgary Booster Club’s annual Sportsman-of-the-Year banquet, the last gathering of those legends of the game.
Richard holds degrees in Biology and Philosophy from Trent University, where he taught philosophy for several years before returning to do graduate work at Concordia University in Montreal; his thesis became his second book. After a year or two spent traveling in Africa and working in a Toronto bookstore, he was named the 1995/96 Markin-Flanagan Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary. There he completed his fourth book, Big Breath of a Wish – poems about his infant daughter’s learning how to speak – which was nominated for that year’s Governor-General’s Award.
Currently, Richard lives in Calgary with his wife Lisa and their two children, Emma and Keeghan. He is a freelance editor and teaches English and Creative Writing at Mount Royal College.
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