John Terpstra (born in

Brockville, Ontario Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included wit ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tra ...

. During much of his childhood, he lived in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, but moved back to Ontario to attend high school in Hamilton, where he lives today. Released a spoken-word recording of his poems in 2000, called "Nod Me In, Shake Me Out", with composer, arranger and producer Bart Nameth, violinist Hugh Marsh, and others.

Education

Trinity Christian College Trinity Christian College is a private Christian college in Palos Heights, Illinois. It was founded in 1959 by a group of Chicago businessmen who wanted to establish a college providing students with a Christian higher education in a Reformed ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

Awards and recognition

* 1988:

Bressani Prize The Francesco Giuseppe Bressani Literary Prize is a biennial award created by the Italian Cultural Centre Society of Vancouver in 1986. It was created to promote and honour Canadian writers of Italian descent. There are $1000 prizes for poetry ( ...

, "Forty Days and Forty Nights" * 1992: CBC Radio Literary Competition, "Captain Kintail" * 2004: poetry finalist,

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

s, ''Disarmament'' * 2006: finalist,

Charles Taylor Prize The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It is named for Charles P. B. Taylor, a n ...

, BC Award for Canadian Non-fiction, ''The Boys, or Waiting for the Electrician's Daughter''

Bibliography

* 1982: ''Scrabbling for Repose'' (Split Reed) * 1987: ''Forty Days and Forty Nights'' (Netherlandic) * 1990: ''Naked Trees'' (Netherlandic) * 1992: ''Captain Kintail'' (Netherlandic) * 1997: ''The Church Not Made With Hands'' (Wolsak and Wynn) * 1998: ''Devil's Punch Bowl'' (St Thomas Poetry Series) * 2000: ''Restoration'' (Gaspereau) * 2002: ''Falling Into Place'' (Gaspereau) * 2003: ''Disarmament'' (Gaspereau) * 2005: ''Brendan Luck'' (Gaspereau) * 2005: ''The Boys, or, Waiting for the Electrician's Daughter'' (Gaspereau) * 2006: ''Two or Three Guitars: Selected Poems'' (Gaspereau) *2012: ''Naked Trees'' (Wolsak and Wynn) *2014: ''This Orchard Sound'' (Wolsak and Wynn) *2016: ''In the Company of All'' (St Thomas Poetry Series) *2018: ''Daylighting Chedoke: Exploring Hamilton's Hidden Creek'' (Wolsak and Wynn) *2020: ''Wild Hope: Prayers & Poems'' (St Thomas Poetry Series)

External links

''Image Journal'': John Terpstra
September 2000, accessed 21 July 2006

accessed 21 July 2006 Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Writers from Edmonton Writers from Ontario People from Brockville University of Toronto alumni 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers {{Canada-poet-stub