Roy Miki

Roy Miki
CM OBC FRSC
Born(1942-10-10)10 October 1942
Ste. Agathe, Manitoba, Canada
Died5 October 2024(2024-10-05) (aged 81)
EducationUniversity of Manitoba (B.A.)

Simon Fraser University (M.A.)

University of British Columbia (Ph.D.)
Occupations
  • Poet
  • scholar
  • editor
  • activist
Writing career
Notable awards

Roy Akira Miki CM OBC FRSC (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.[1][2][3] 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.[1] He earned his B.A. from the University of Manitoba, M.A. from the Simon Fraser University, and Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia.[1][4] Miki taught contemporary literature at Simon Fraser University before retiring and held the title of professor emeritus.[1] He lived in Vancouver. In the 1980s, Miki was "instrumental" in fighting for redress from the federal government for the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.[2][4]

In 2002, Miki's book of poetry, Surrender, won the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry.[4] His poetry focuses on questions about identity, citizenship, race, and place.[4] He is the author of the critical study, Broken Entries: Race, Subjectivity, Writing (1998), In Flux: Transnational Shifts in Asian Canadian Writing (2011), The Prepoetics of William Carlos Williams (1983), and an annotated bibliography of the poet and novelist George Bowering (1990).[4]

In 2006, Miki was made a Member of the Order of Canada and received the 20th annual Gandhi Peace Award for the truth, justice, human rights, and non-violence exemplified in his redress work.[2][5] The same year, he also received the Thakore Visiting Scholar award and the Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy.[6] In 2007, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[4] In 2009, he was made a Member of the Order of British Columbia.[4]

Miki died on 5 October 2024, at the age of 82.[7]

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

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Roy Miki". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Asian Heritage Month". CBC News. 30 April 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  3. ↑ "Roy Miki". Ryerson University. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dobson, Kit (2012–2014). "Roy Akira Miki". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  5. ↑ Order of Canada citation (archived)
  6. ↑ "Roy Miki". Simon Fraser University. Archived from the original on 27 August 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  7. ↑ "Roy Akira Miki". Legacy. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
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