Douglas Gordon "D. G." Jones (January 1, 1929 – March 6, 2016) was a Canadian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. Born in Bancroft,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Jones was educated at the private school of Lakefield College School in Ontario, at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

and at Queen's University. He received his M.A. from Queen's University in 1954. Jones then taught

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

at the University of Guelph, then

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

and finally the

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

. In 1969, Jones co-founded the bilingual literary journal ''Ellipse'', which continues to be the only literary periodical in Canada which provides reciprocal translations, in equal measure, of both English and French Canadian poetry. Jones has been a member of the Arts and Advisory Panel of the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

. His 1978 collection, ''Under the Thunder the Flowers Light up the Earth'', received the 1978 Governor General's Award for Poetry. His rendition of Normand de Bellefeuille's ''Categorics One, Two and Three'' received the 1993 Governor General's Award for Translation. Considered a seminal figure of the mythopoeic strain of Canadian poetry, Jones is also a highly respected essayist and translator. His key work of critical writing is ''Butterfly on Rock: A Study of Themes and Images in Canadian Literature'' (1970).

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Frost on the Sun'' (1957) * ''The Sun is Axeman'' (1961) * ''Phrases from Orpheus'' (1967) * ''Under the Thunder the Flowers Light Up the Earth'' (1977) * ''A Throw of Particles'' (1983) * ''Balthazar and Other Poems'' (1988) * ''A Thousand Hooded Eyes'' (1990) * ''The Floating Garden'' (1995) * ''Wild Asterisks in Cloud'' (1997) * ''Grounding Sight'' (1999) * ''The Stream Exposed with All its Stones'' (2009) * ''The Essential D. G. Jones'' (2016)

Criticism

* ''Butterfly on Rock: A Study of Themes and Images in Canadian Literature'' (1970)

Translations

* Paul-Marie Lapointe. ''The Terror of the Snows: Selected Poems'' (1976) * Paul-Marie Lapointe. ''The Fifth Season'' (1986) * Normand de Bellefeuille, ''Categorics One, Two, Three'' (1992) * Gaston Miron. ''Embers and Earth: Selected Poems'' (1994) * Émile Martel. ''For Orchestra and Solo Poet'' (1996)

Awards

* President's Medal, University of Western Ontario, 1976 * Governor General's Award for ''Under the Thunder the Flowers Light Up the Earth'', 1977 * A.J.M. Smith Award for Poetry, 1977. * Governor General's Award for Translation ''Categorics One, Two and Three'', 1993. * A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry, 1989 and 1995. * Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.), 2007

References

* E. D. Blodgett, "The Masks of D.G. Jones", ''Canadian Literature'', no 60 (1974) *

George Bowering George Harry Bowering, (born December 1, 1935) is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. He was the first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Life and career Bowering was born in Penticton, British Columbia, and rai ...

, "Coming Home to the World", ''Canadian Literature'', no 65 (1975)

External links

D. G. Jones's
entry in

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, D.G. 1929 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets 21st-century Canadian poets Queen's University at Kingston alumni People from Hastings County Governor General's Award–winning poets Governor General's Award–winning translators 20th-century Canadian translators 21st-century Canadian translators Officers of the Order of Canada McGill University alumni 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers Poets from Ontario