David Solway

David Solway (born 8 December 1941) is a Canadian poet, educational theorist, travel writer and literary critic.

Life
Solway attended McGill University in Montreal, where he received his B.A. in 1962 and his Q.M.A. (in philosophy) in 1966.

He has taught at McGill, Dawson College, and John Abbott College in Montreal, and at Brigham Young University in Utah. He has also worked as a broadcaster and scriptwriter for the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and as an ESL teacher in Crete.

He has spent most of his life in the Montreal area and now lives in Hudson, Quebec.

Solway is known for his work both as a poet, essayist and as a teacher, as well as for his polemical outspokenness, especially in defence of Zionism, George W. Bush and the war on terror. For inspiration, he invented a Greek poet named Andreas Karavis as a heteronym, whose work he published in apparent translation.

Writing
Reviewing Solway's 2007 book of essays, The Big Lie, Mark Heffernan commented: "David Solway is a brilliant writer. The power of his sentences, amplified by a rich and precisely honed vocabulary, places him in that rarefied category of essayists for whom, as with Christopher Hitchens, rhetoric is a genie that holds sway over the reader's mind."

Recognition
Awards won by David Solway include:
 * Peter Rutherford Memorial Prize for Literature (McGill University), 1961.
 * Lt. Gov.’s Gold Medal (McGill University), 1962
 * Lionel Shapiro Prize for Creative Writing (McGill University), 1962.
 * Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (University of California at Berkeley), 1963.
 * York Poetry Workshop Award (York University), 1977.
 * Canada Council Arts Grants (occasional awards 1967-2003).
 * Canada Council Senior Arts Travel Grant, 1984/85.
 * Graduate Fellowship, Concordia University, 1986/87.
 * Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs, bourses du Québec (occasional awards 1987- 2004).
 * QSPELL Poetry Award, 1989. For Modern Marriage.
 * QSPELL Non-Fiction Award, 1990. For Education Lost.
 * Le Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, 2004. For Franklin’s Passage.
 * A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry, 2007. Reaching for Clear: The Poetry of Rhys Savarin.

Poetry

 * In My Own Image; McGill Poetry Series, 1961, Montreal.
 * The Crystal Theatre; Fiddlehead Books, 1971, Fredericton, N.B.
 * Paximalia; Fiddlehead Books, 1972, Fredericton, N.B.
 * The Egyptian Airforce; Fiddlehead Books, 1973, Fredericton, N.B.
 * The Road To Arginos; Delta Canada, 1976/77, Montreal.
 * Anacrusis; Fiddlehead Books, 1977, Fredericton, N.B.
 * Twelve Sonnets; Mansfield Book Mart, 1978, Montreal.
 * Mephistopheles And The Astronaut; Mosaic Press, 1979, Toronto.
 * The Mulberry Men; Véhicule Press, Signal Editions, 1982, Montreal.
 * Selected Poetry; Véhicule Press, Signal Editions, 1982, Montreal.
 * Stones In Water; Mosaic Press, 1983, Toronto.
 * Modern Marriage; Véhicule Press, Signal Editions, 1987/88, Montreal.
 * Bedrock; Véhicule Press, Signal Editions, 1993, Montreal.
 * Chess Pieces, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999, Montreal.
 * Saracen Island: The Poems of Andreas Karavis, Véhicule Press, Signal Editions, 2000, Montreal.
 * The Lover’s Progress: Poems after William Hogarth, The Porcupine’s Quill, 2001, Erin. (Dramatized by Curtain Razors Theatre Group, Regina, November 21-23, 2002.)
 * Franklin’s Passage, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003, Montreal and Kingston.
 * Poèmes choisis (trans. by Yves Gosselin), Éditions du Noroît, 2004, Montréal.
 * The Pallikari of Nesmine Rifat, Goose Lane Editions, 2005, Fredericton.
 * Demilunes (translation of 32 Québécois poets), Frog Hollow Press, 2005, Victoria.
 * Reaching for Clear: The Poetry of Rhys Savarin, Véhicule Press, Signal Editions, 2006, Montreal.
 * The Properties of Things, Biblioasis, 2007, Windsor.

Essays and criticism

 * Education Lost; OISE Press, 1989, Toronto.
 * The Anatomy of Arcadia (travel); Véhicule Press, 1992, Montreal.
 * Lying About The Wolf: Essays in Culture and Education; McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997, Montreal and Kingston.
 * Random Walks: Essays in Elective Criticism; McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997, Montreal and Kingston.
 * An Andreas Karavis Companion; Véhicule Press, 2000, Montreal.
 * The Turtle Hypodermic of Sickenpods: Liberal Studies in the Corporate Age; McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001, * Montreal and Kingston.
 * Director’s Cut (literary essays); The Porcupine’s Quill, 2003, Erin.
 * On Being a Jew (chapbook); David Mason Books, 2003, Toronto.
 * The Big Lie: Reflections on Terror, Antisemitism and Identity; Lester, Mason & Begg, 2007, Toronto.
 * Essais sur l’éducation et la culture (translation), Fides, 2007/8, Montreal.
 * Anatomie d’ Arcadie (translation), Éditions du Noroît, 2007/8, Montreal.
 * Hear, O Israel! (2009)

Except where noted, all bibliographical information courtesy University of Toronto.