Fred Wah

Frederick James Wah (born January 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and scholar.

Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but grew up in the interior (West Kootenay) of British Columbia. His Canadian-born father was raised in China, the son of a Chinese father and a Scots-Irish mother. Fred Wah's mother was a Swedish-born Canadian who came to Canada at age 6. His diverse ethnic makeup figures significantly in his writings.

Wah studied literature and music at the University of British Columbia. While there, he was a founding editor and contributor to TISH. He later did graduate work at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. He has taught at Selkirk College, David Thompson University Centre, and the University of Calgary. Well known for his work on literary journals and small-press, Wah has been a contributing editor to Open Letter since its beginning, involved in the editing of West Coast Line, and with Frank Davey edited the world's first online literary magazine, SwiftCurrent. Wah won the 'Governor General's Award' for his 1985 book "Waiting for Saskatchewan".

Wah retired after 40 years of teaching and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife Pauline Butling. He remains active writing and performing public readings of his poetry. In 2006-07, he was the Writer-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Education

 * Bachelor of Arts - English Literature and Music - University of British Columbia
 * Master of Arts - Literature and Linguistics - University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Awards

 * Waiting For Saskatchewan - 1985 (1985 Governor General's Award for poetry)
 * So Far - 1991 (1982 Stephanson Award for Poetry)
 * Diamond Grill - 1996 (Writers Guild of Alberta Howard O'Hagan Prize for Short Fiction)
 * "Faking It" - 2001 (Gabrielle Roy Prize for Criticism (Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures)
 * "Is A Door" 2010 (Dorothy Livesay B.C. Book Prize for poetry)