Ron Smith (Canada)



Ron Smith (born 1943) is a Canadian poet, prose author, playwright, and academic. He is the founder and co-publisher of Oolichan Books.

Life
Smith was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He studied English literature at the University of British Columbia and at the University of Leeds (M.A. in 1970).

He returned to Vancouver Island in 1971 to teach in the English Department at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, British Columbia, where he taught English and creative writing for 28 years.

In 1974 he founded the publishing company Oolichan Books. A successful grant application to the Canada Council in 1975 enabled the press to become an independent publisher. The operation was located in Smith's hometown of Lantzville, a small seaside village on Vancouver Island. Smith now lives with his wife, Patricia Smith, also a writer, In Nanoose Bay, BC. He sold the press after 38 years and now works as its editor.

From 1988 to 1991 he was the fiction editor for Douglas & McIntyre. He has been called "instrumental" in helping to start the first aboriginal publishing house, Theytus Books, in 1981.

He is the author of a suite of poems, Seasonal (1984), a long poem, A Buddha Named Baudelaire (1988), two other collections of poetry and a collection of fiction, What Men Know About Women (1999), an illustrated children's title Elf the Eagle (2007) which was short-listed for the BC Book Prizes and the Saskatchewan Young Readers Award, and a biography KId Dynamite: The Gerry James Story (2011).

Smith also reviews books, and edited the anthology of Canadian West Coast short fiction: Rainshadow Stories from Vancouver Island (1982) and the Collected Works of Ralph Gustafson.

His poetry has been translated and published in Italy.

Recognition
Smith received an honorary degree from the University of British Columbia in 2002. He was the inaugural Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Creative Writing at Arizona State University in 2005.

In 2011 he received the Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award for his contribution to publishing in BC.

Poetry

 * Seasonal. Victoria, BC: Sono Nis Press, 1984.
 * A Buddha Named Baudelaire. Victoria, BC: Sono Nis Press, 1988.
 * Enchantment & other demons. Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books, 1995.
 * Arabesque e altre poesie. Italy: Schifanoia Editore,2002

Fiction

 * What Men Know About Women. Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books, 1999.

Children's literature

 * Elf the Eagle. Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books. ISBN 0-88982-241-7.

Anthologies

 * Rainshadow: Stories from Vancouver Island. Oolichan (co-editor, 1982)