Louis Dudek

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Louis Dudek (February 6, 1918 - March 23, 2001) was a Canadian poet and literary critic and publisher. He was the author of over two dozen published books. He is known for his writing, his role in defining Modernism in poetry, as well as for being a supporter of many other now-established writers including Daryl Hyne and Ken Norris.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Dudek received a BA from McGill University in 1939. He joined the Department of English of McGill University in 1951, where he lectured in modern poetry. Dudek remained at McGill for the rest of his life. He founded Contact Press, a Montreal publisher of poetry in the 1950s and 1960s, with Raymond Souster and Irving Layton. Writer Robin Blaser called Dudek “Canada’s most important—that is to say, consequential modern voice.”

The Dudek archives and many of his papers, known as the Louis Dudek fonds", are stored in the National Library of Canada.

In 1983 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

His son Gregory is associate professor and director of the Centre for Intelligent Machines at McGill University.

In 2006 a German translation of his selected poetry was published at Elfenbein-Verlag, Berlin.

[edit] References

• Louis Dudek: A poet's poet. McGill Reporter. Retrieved on February 13, 2005.
• Louis Dudek, Biography. Canadian Poetry. Retrieved on February 13, 2005.
• National Library Louis Dudek fonds. Canadian Poetry. Retrieved on January 29, 2007.