Roy Akira Miki (10 October 1942 – 5 October 2024) was a Canadian poet, scholar, editor, and activist most known for his social and literary work.

Life and career

Born in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba to second generation Japanese-Canadian parents, Miki grew up on a sugar beet farm before moving to Winnipeg. His family was forcibly relocated West to Manitoba where he was born in 1942 on said sugar beet farm, and interned during the Second World War. Miki taught contemporary literature at Simon Fraser University before retiring and held the title of professor emeritus. The same year, he also received the Thakore Visiting Scholar award and the Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy. In 2007, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Works

Poetry

  • 1991: Saving Face: Poems Selected, 1976–1988, Winnipeg: Turnstone Press
  • 1995: Random Access File, Markham, ON: Red Deer Press
  • 2001: Surrender, Toronto: The Mercury Press, winner of the 2002 Governor General's Award for poetry
  • 2006: There, Vancouver: New Star Books
  • 2011: Mannequin Rising, Vancouver: New Star Books
  • 2018: Flow: Poems Collected and New (edited by Michael Barnholden), Vancouver: Talonbooks

Critical studies

  • 1983: The Prepoetics of William Carlos Williams, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press
  • 1988: Tracing the Paths: Reading ≠ Writing The Martyrology, Vancouver: Talonbooks
  • 1989: A Record of Writing: An Annotated and Illustrated Bibliography of George Bowering, Vancouver: Talonbooks
  • 2004: Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice, Vancouver: Raincoast Books

Editor

  • 1985: This Is My Own: Letters to Wes and Other Writings on Japanese-Canadians, 1941–1948 by Muriel Kitagawa, Vancouver: Talonbooks
  • 1997: Pacific Windows: The Collected Poems of Roy Kiyooka, Vancouver: Talonbooks

Other

  • 1998: Broken Entries: Race, Subjectivity, Writing (Essays), Toronto: The Mercury Press

References

  • Roy Akira Miki at The Canadian Encyclopedia