Wah, Fred
Fred Wah was born in 1939 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, to parents of Swedish and Chinese origin. He studied Music and English at UBC before shifting to Linguistics and Literature at SUNY Buffalo. From 1967-1989, Wah taught at Selkirk College and David Thompson University Centre in Nelson while living in South Slocan, raising a family and writing more than a dozen books of poetry. He taught English and Creative Writing in Calgary until his retirement in 2003. Wah was one of the founders of the groundbreaking TISH poetry magazine, which ran from 1961-1966. He has received major literary awards for his work, including the Governor General’s award for Waiting for Saskatchewan. His collection So Far (1991) won Alberta’s Stephanson Award, and is a door (2009) won the Dorothy Livesay prize for poetry. In 2011, Wah was appointed as Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate, the fifth poet to hold this office. In 2013, was he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada for his groundbreaking work as a poet and for his contributions to the life of poetry in Canada. Currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary, he divides his time between Vancouver and a seasonal home near Nelson.
