Dennis Cooley (born 1944) is a Canadian writer of poetry and criticism, a retired university professor, and a vital figure in the evolution of the prairie long poem. He was raised on a farm near the small city of Estevan, Saskatchewan in Canada, and currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Cooley's self-proclaimed influences in writing are William Carlos Williams, H.D., Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, E.E. Cummings, Eli Mandel, Andrew Suknaski, Daphne Marlatt, bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje, and Robert Kroetsch.
Early life
As a student, Cooley held a variety of different labouring jobs during the summers.
First attending secondary schooling at the University of Saskatchewan, Cooley obtained with added Distinction his Bachelor of Education Degree in 1966, a High Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1967
Cooley later moved to New York state to attend the University of Rochester. It was there that Cooley prepared the research for his doctorate on the San Francisco-born American poet, Robert Duncan. He received the Ph. D in 1971.
Career
From 1972 to 1973, Cooley was employed within the Blakeney Government in Saskatchewan as an executive assistant. Apart from this, most of Cooley's working life has been teaching English.
He has worked at St. John's College since 1976 as the Organizer of Literary Conferences within the University of Manitoba and taught Early Modern and Contemporary poetry, specializing in Robert Duncan, Dorothy Livesay, Margaret Atwood, Robert Kroetsch, Eli Mandel, Prairie Literature, the Long poem in the Twentieth Century, Canadian Writers in Self-construction, Fundamentals of Literary
Theory, American Literature, Creative Writing, Poetry & Media 1994–1995, Narratology & Postcolonialism.
He has since helped start create the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, and is currently President.
Cooley is also an editor, and from 1975 to 1976 was the Assistant Editor on the Journal of Canadian Fiction, the Poetry Editor of Arts Manitoba from 1978 to 1979 and 1982–1983, the Contributing Editor to Border Crossings from 1989 to 1993, as well as the Editor at the Pachyderm Press from 1993 onward. He also served as the Workshop Leader at the Sage Hill Writing Experience in 1992, 1998, 1999, and 2000. which was created in 1976 in a local Winnipeg pub. Turnstone promotes authors who are either landed immigrants or Canadian citizens, with fifty percent featuring local Manitoba content and Manitoban writers.
Writing
Cooley specializes in different genres of poetry; such as literary travel, literary criticism, and the long poem.
Cooley gave his time to the University of Augsburg in the summer of 1996 by being the Canadian Studies guest professor.
Bibliography
- Cooley, D. (1980) Leaving. Lyrical poems about friends and family, Turnstone Press.