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Scofield is a [[Red River Colony|Red River]] [[Métis]]<ref>{{cite news | last = | first = | title =Gregory Scofield on Canada Day: Gregory Scofield, a Red River métis poet joins us today to share his thoughts on Canada Day. | newspaper =[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]| location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =July 1, 2017 | url =http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/981432387873| accessdate =December 30, 2017 }}</ref> of Cree and European descent.<ref name=canenc /> He has ancestors from the [[North American fur trade]] and the Métis residents of [[Manitoba House|Kinesota, Manitoba]].<ref name=WTC>{{cite web | url =http://www.writerstrust.com/Awards/Latner-Writers--Trust-Poetry-Prize/Past-Winners/Gregory-Scofield.aspx | title =Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: 2016 Winner - Gregory Scofield | last = | first = | date = | website = | publisher =[[Writers' Trust of Canada]] | access-date =December 30, 2017 | quote =He is Red River Métis of Cree, Scottish, and European descent, whose ancestry can be traced to the fur trade and to the Métis community of Kinesota, Manitoba. }}</ref> He speaks the [[Cree language]].<ref name=WTC/>
Scofield is a [[Red River Colony|Red River]] [[Métis]]<ref>{{cite news | last = | first = | title =Gregory Scofield on Canada Day: Gregory Scofield, a Red River métis poet joins us today to share his thoughts on Canada Day. | newspaper =[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]| location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =July 1, 2017 | url =http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/981432387873| accessdate =December 30, 2017 }}</ref> of Cree and European descent.<ref name=canenc /> He has ancestors from the [[North American fur trade]] and the Métis residents of [[Manitoba House|Kinesota, Manitoba]].<ref name=WTC>{{cite web | url =http://www.writerstrust.com/Awards/Latner-Writers--Trust-Poetry-Prize/Past-Winners/Gregory-Scofield.aspx | title =Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: 2016 Winner - Gregory Scofield | last = | first = | date = | website = | publisher =[[Writers' Trust of Canada]] | access-date =December 30, 2017 | quote =He is Red River Métis of Cree, Scottish, and European descent, whose ancestry can be traced to the fur trade and to the Métis community of Kinesota, Manitoba. }}</ref> He speaks the [[Cree language]].<ref name=WTC/>


He overcame a difficult childhood of poverty, abuse and separation from his parents to become a successful poet and professor.<ref name=January/>
He overcame a difficult childhood of poverty, abuse and separation from his parents to become a successful poet and professor. He described his early years in his 1999 memoir, ''Thunder Through My Veins''.<ref name=January/>


He has published eight volumes of poetry and a non-fiction memoir. He has also served as writer-in-residence at [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]]<ref name=canenc /> and the [[University of Winnipeg]].<ref name=laurence />
He has published eight volumes of poetry and a non-fiction memoir. He has also served as writer-in-residence at [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]]<ref name=canenc /> and the [[University of Winnipeg]].<ref name=laurence />

Revision as of 20:22, 31 December 2017

Gregory Scofield
Gregory Scofield
Gregory Scofield
BornJuly 20, 1966
Maple Ridge, British Columbia
Occupationpoet
NationalityCanadian
Period1990s-present
Notable worksThe Gathering: Stones for the Medicine Wheel, Native Canadiana: Songs from the Urban Rez, Thunder Through My Veins

Gregory Scofield (born July 20, 1966 in Maple Ridge, British Columbia)[1] is a Canadian poet,[1] whose work draws on Cree story-telling traditions.[2]

Background and career

Scofield is a Red River Métis[3] of Cree and European descent.[1] He has ancestors from the North American fur trade and the Métis residents of Kinesota, Manitoba.[4] He speaks the Cree language.[4]

He overcame a difficult childhood of poverty, abuse and separation from his parents to become a successful poet and professor. He described his early years in his 1999 memoir, Thunder Through My Veins.[5]

He has published eight volumes of poetry and a non-fiction memoir. He has also served as writer-in-residence at Memorial University of Newfoundland[1] and the University of Winnipeg.[2]

In addition to his writing, Scofield has been a social worker dealing with street youth in Vancouver,[1] and has taught First Nations and Métis Literature at Brandon University and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.[1] Scofield is gay.[5]

He is currently an assistant professor of English literature at Laurentian University.[6][7] He was the subject of a documentary film, Singing Home the Bones: A Poet Becomes Himself, in 2007.[1]

In 1998, Scofield's aunt was killed in an unsolved crime, and his deep concern about missing and murdered aboriginal women informs his recent poetry. Most days, he tweets the story of a missing or murdered woman. [8]

Awards

Critical response

In a review of Scofield's book Witness, I Am, Nicholas Bradley wrote, "Scofield is an observer, especially of tragedies, and his poems explore, with speech that verges on song, the meaning of knowing one’s place in the world. Muskrat Woman, the first section of Witness, I Am, is a long poem about a flood—in Scofield’s words, 'a retelling, a reimagining of a much longer âtayôhkêwina—Cree Sacred Story'." Bradley also wrote, "The poems concern the living and the dead—those who have survived forms of colonial brutality, and those who must be remembered. Scofield’s distressing acts of testimony, mourning, and dissent suggest convincingly the importance of the literary arts to public discourse about matters of grave consequence."[10]

The jurors for the 2016 Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize were Canadian poets Jeffery Donaldson, Karen Solie and Katherena Vermette. They commented, "His forms embrace the musical, the documentary, and the experimental in a vision of risk and generosity. From raw, urban truths to the solace of Cree cadence, from the heart beat of the drum to the wax poetics of a young Louis Riel, Scofield’s range of subject, work, and style dazzles. He has courage to let us in, and the patience to help us understand."[4]

Works

  • The Gathering: Stones for the Medicine Wheel (1993)
  • Native Canadiana: Songs from the Urban Rez (1996)
  • Love Medicine and One Song (1997)
  • I Knew Two Métis Women (1999)
  • Thunder Through My Veins (1999)
  • Singing Home the Bones (2005)
  • kipocihkân: Poems New & Selected (2009)
  • Witness, I Am (2016)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Gregory Scofield at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  2. ^ a b "Margaret Laurence classic inspires author Gregory Scofield". CBC Manitoba, March 4, 2013.
  3. ^ "Gregory Scofield on Canada Day: Gregory Scofield, a Red River métis poet joins us today to share his thoughts on Canada Day". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. July 1, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d "Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize: 2016 Winner - Gregory Scofield". Writers' Trust of Canada. Retrieved December 30, 2017. He is Red River Métis of Cree, Scottish, and European descent, whose ancestry can be traced to the fur trade and to the Métis community of Kinesota, Manitoba.
  5. ^ a b Interview: Gregory Scofield. January Magazine, September 1999.
  6. ^ a b "Excellence Awards for Research or Creativity: Faculty of Arts". Laurentian University. 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  7. ^ "LUminaries highlights Aboriginal experience". Northern Life, October 15, 2014.
  8. ^ Rogers, Shelagh (December 12, 2016). "Gregory Scofield on poetry as testimony: Gregory Scofield's seventh book of poetry, Witness, I Am, deals with the critical issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Toronto. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  9. ^ "Eden Robinson, Gregory Scofield, Yasuko Thanh among 2016 Writers' Trust Prize winners". CBC Books, November 2. 2016.
  10. ^ Bradley, Nicholas (Spring 2017). "Supreme Fictions and Strange Relations". Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review. Vancouver. pp. 179–184. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
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