Material Detail

Dr. B. W. Powe was interviewed by Laureano Ralon on October 18th, 2010 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series: http://www.figureground.ca/interviews/

B. W. Powe is a Canadian author and teacher. Lived in Toronto from 1959 until 1996; he attended York University for English studies where in 1977 graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Powe received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1981; he studied there with Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye. He received his Ph.D. from York University in October 2009. He was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of Literature at York in July 2010. His Ph.D is on Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye, their crossings in history, their agon and complementarity (their conflicts and harmonies), and the stirring alchemy of their thought. He currently teaches English in the Department of English at York University. His courses there have included Visionary Literature: from Hildegard von Bingen and Dante to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye: Two Canadian Theorists. He continues to teach the first year introduction to literature course. B. W. Powe is also a prolific author: his work has been profiled on CBC-TV, TVO, CITY-TV, Bravo-TV, ACCESS and CTV. His novel, Outage, was listed as one of the best ten novels of the year by Philip Marchand in The Toronto Star, in 1995/96; it was also an editor’s choice novel in the Globe & Mail in 1995. His book, A Tremendous Canada of Light, was selected as a notable book of the year by the Globe and Mail in 1993. His book of poems, The Unsaid Passing, was shortlisted for The ReLit Prize in 2006. His novella, These Shadows Remain: A Fable, is to be published in the winter of 2010 by Guernica. His writings have been translated into French by Derrick de Kerckhove and Michelle Tisseyre.