Identity area
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Authorized form of name
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Kroetsch, Robert Paul
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Description area
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History
Canadian author and poet Robert Kroetsch was born in Heisler, Alberta, on June 26, 1927. The author of nine novels, thirteen books of poetry, and seven non-fiction volumes, he was a major figure in the development and history of literature in Canada.
Kroetsch began his academic career at Binghamton University (State University of New York), winning the Governor General’s Award for Fiction for The Studhorse Man in 1969.
After returning to Canada in the mid-1970s he taught at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He subsequently received honorary degrees from both the University of Winnipeg (1983) and the University of Alberta (1997). In 2001 Kroetsch was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry for The Hornbooks of Rita K.
Kroetsch spent several years in Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to Winnipeg, then to retirement in Alberta, where he continued to write. In 2004, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Robert Kroetsch stands as a seminal figure in the Canadian literary landscape. In his early fiction, he introduced postmodern techniques into the mainstream of Canadian fiction. He then moved on to writing poetry while still writing fiction, and created a new vision for poets across the country, defining the nature of the poetic experience by searching out the roots of his place in the Canadian landscape.