Robert Kroetsch

Robert Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet, and non-fiction writer who was born in Heisler, Alberta, in 1927. He taught for many years at the University of Manitoba, and was also active in the Vancouver literary scene.

In his novel The Words of My Roaring (1966) he began to use the tall tale rhetoric of prairie taverns. Both The Studhorse Man (1969), which won the Governor General’s Award, and Gone Indian (1973) call the conventions of realistic fiction hilariously into question.

In 2004, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2011 he received the Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement.