John Reibetanz

Professor, Department of English
Fellow, Victoria College
Senior Fellow, Massey College
Picture of John Reibetanz standing in front of wall and wearing a black shirt.

Areas of interest

  • Modern Canadian, American, and British Poetry
  • 16th and 17th century poetry and drama
  • Intersections between contemporary science and poetry

Biography

Main Bio

John Reibetanz was born in New York City, and grew up in the eastern United States and Canada. He studied at Brooklyn College and Princeton University, and has written essays on Elizabethan drama and on modern and contemporary poetry, as well as a book on King Lear and translations of modern German poetry.

John is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and has three times been a finalist for the National Magazine Awards. His poems have appeared in such magazines as Poetry (Chicago), The Paris ReviewCanadian LiteratureThe Malahat ReviewThe Southern Review, and Quarry, and twice in the anthology of winning entries to the National Poetry Competition. He has published twelve full collections and two chapbooks, been shortlisted for the national ReLit Poetry Award, and won First Prize in the international Petra Kenney Poetry Competition. He has also been a winner of The Malahat Review’s P. K. Page Founders’ award, and in the national poetry competitions conducted by The Fiddlehead and Vallum.

He lives in Toronto and is a Fellow at Victoria College, where he received the first Victoria University Teaching Award, and in 2010 he was elected a Senior Fellow at Massey College. He has given readings of his poetry and conducted workshops in major cities all across Canada. His favourite non-literary pursuits are natural history, contemporary art, and 1930s jazz.