Article

Douglas Fetherling

Published Online January 21, 2008

Last Edited December 14, 2013

Douglas George Fetherling, poet, writer, editor, scholar, visual artist (born at West Virginia, USA 1 January 1949). Fetherling, a successful and widely published man of letters, moved to Canada when he was 18 years old.

Fetherling, Douglas

Douglas George Fetherling, poet, writer, editor, scholar, visual artist (born at West Virginia, USA 1 January 1949). Fetherling, a successful and widely published man of letters, moved to Canada when he was 18 years old. He published under the name Douglas Fetherling until 1999, and thereafter under the name George Fetherling, in honour of his late father. Fetherling is an important creator and critic of Canadian art, both literary and visual.

Fetherling's books of poetry have appeared on a regular basis since the late 1960s, the most representative being Selected Poems (1994). His 2004 long poem Singer: An Elegy memorializes his father. Fetherling has also published fiction. Of particular import is his political novel, The File on Arthur Moss (1995). Both Jericho (2005) and Tales of Two Cities (2006) feature Vancouver settings, Fetherling's home since 2000. As a visual artist, Fetherling's work has been exhibited in such places as Toronto, Oshawa and Vancouver.

Fetherling's scholarly works include such diverse subjects as a history and criticism of cinema, The Crowded Darkness (1988), and a cultural discourse on Canadian history, The Rise of the Canadian Newspaper (1990). In 2001 Fetherling published The Book of Assassins: A Biographical Dictionary from Ancient Times to the Present.

Fetherling's many contributions to Canadian literary studies include his 1998 biography of George WOODCOCK, The Gentle Anarchist. His commentaries on the arts have been featured in newspapers across the country. He has been a contributing editor to Saturday Night, Books in Canada, Canadian Art and The New Brunswick Reader, and general editor of the monography series "New Views on Canadian Artists." He has also edited a number of anthologies, including The Vintage Book of Canadian Memoirs (2001).

Fetherling's non-fiction includes his well-received autobiographies, Travels By Night: A Memoir of the Sixties (1994) and Way Down Deep in the Belly of the Beast: A Memoir of the Seventies (1996). His popular travel writing includes the titles Running Away to Sea: Round the World on a Tramp Freighter (1998), Three Pagodas Pass: A Roundabout Journey to Burma (2002), and One Russia, Two Chinas (2004).

Fetherling has served as writer-in-residence at a number of institutions, including Queen's University, the University of New Brunswick, and the University of Toronto. His work is represented in over 50 anthologies internationally. He received the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his "substantial contribution to Canadian letters."