Gregory Betts

English Language & Literature

Associate Professor, English Language & Literature

Director, The Centre for Canadian Studies
PhD York

Research Interests:

Canadian Literature, Avant-Garde Literature, Adaptation and Translation Theory, Contemporary Poetry, Canadian Studies, Archival and Editorial Theory

Recent Publications:

Avant-Garde Canadian Literature: The Early Manifestations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.

“The Transnational Agenda of Lewis and Pound’s Avant-Garde.” Literature, Geography, Translation: Studies in World Writing. Ed. Cecilia Alvstad, Stefan Helgesson, and David Watson. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. 209-220.

“A Postmodern Decadence in Canadian Sound and Visual Poetry.” Re:Reading the Postmodern. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2010. 151-179.

Editor and Introduction. The Wrong World: Bertram Brooker’s Stories and Essays. Ottawa: The University of Ottawa Press, 2009.

“Non compos mentis: A Meta-Historical Survey of the Historiographic Narratives of Louis Riel’s ‘Insanity’”. International Journal of Canadian Studies. 40 (Spring 2009).

Editor and Introduction. Lawren Harris In the Ward: His Poetry and Painting. Toronto: Exile Editions, 2007.

Editor and Introduction. After Exile: A Raymond Knister Poetry Reader. Toronto: Exile Editions, 2003. Second edition 2011.

Remarks:

My current work addresses avant-garde literature in Vancouver from 1961 to 1975, exploring the heteroglossia of aesthetic and political communities that were active in the city during that time: including, amongst others, visual poetry, surrealism, Marxisms, and the lingering legacy of Modernism. I am also working on a scholarly edition of Solomon Allen’s experimental (and until now censored) novel They Have Bodies, as well as bill bissett’s What Fuckan Theory: a study uv langwage (with derek beaulieu).

Select Creative Publications:

The Obvious Flap. With Gary Barwin. Toronto: BookThug, 2011.

Psychic Geographies and Other Topics. Toronto: Quattro Press, 2010.

The Others Raisd in Me. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2009.

Haikube. With Matt Donovan and Hallie Siegal. Toronto: BookThug, 2006.

If Language. Toronto: BookThug, 2005.

Select Recent Awards:

Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Works in Progress (2011)

SSHRC Standard Research Grant (2010)

Aid to Scholarly Publications (2010)

SSHRC Subgrant (2010)

Jean-Michel Lacroix Award,   International Journal of Canadian Studies (2010, Best essay on a Canadian topic)

SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Clusters Grant (2008, Co-Applicant)

SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Queen’s University (2006)