Richard Rathwell

Richard Rathwell (born 1947) is a Canadian aid worker, teacher, civil servant and writer.

Rathwell was born in Ottawa, Ontario, where he attended Hopewell Avenue Primary School.The National Film Board of Canada production "The Gifted Ones" shows Rathwell and his class. He attended secondary school in Oakville, Ontario, where he won awards for public speaking at the school level and with the Rotary Club.Fact|date=July 2007 He attended and taught at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, studying English Literature. He also taught at the University of Victoria.

Rathwell worked for the NGOs CARE, CUSO, Terre Des Hommes, and the governments of Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Lesotho as well as the International Labour Organisation. He was a senior manager in the International Council for Social Welfare, Vienna and Sight Savers International, UK. He was on secondment as the senior consultant for economic co-operation in the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK government from Lancashire Enterprises (now Enterprise Plc.), Preston, UK.

Rathwell has won the Maxwell House award in Ireland for best poem and best short story. He has won theatre contests for children's theatre in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Rathwell was elected in 2007 as the chair of the international affairs committee of the League of Canadian Poets. Rathwell has won the European Community award for restoration projects for a project at 'Damer House' in Ireland.

Rathwell presently resides in London, UK.

Literary works

Rathwell has written four novels: "The Bush: Hank the Aid Detective" about west Africa, "The Borderline: Casebook Translations", a novel about exile and the breakdown of groups and the personality, "Red the Nile, Blue the Hills", a novel centred on his work in Egypt, and "Death's Doors: Original Families, Proper Privacies, and Mental States", which takes place in Albania and Canada.

He has also written chapbooks of discursive prose and poetry. These are: "Yuuf: KJ's People", "Fighting Terror in London", "The Beak's Poems", "Hope and Charity", and "Dono About Writing" printed in a collection; and "One Poem Forward, Two Poems Back" and "Re: the Dead Arts" in selected works of prose and poetry respectively. These were published under the Blue Orange Publishing imprint, a family publishing house.

"Rules of the River" was published jointly with Dadababy press in Vancouver; "Rented Soul" was published jointly with Laurel Press, Toronto. Rathwell's poems and prose are printed in the literary journal "First Intensity".

References

* [http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/rathwell.htm Richard Rathwell on League of Canadian Poets website]
* [http://www.abcbookworld.com/?state=view_author&author_id=8579 Richard Rathwell on BC Bookworld Author Bank, which hosts author-submitted material]
* [http://laurelreedbooks.bravehost.com/ Richard Rathwell's work 'Rented Soul' with Laurel Reed Books]
* [http://homepage.mac.com/firstintensity/ First Intensity literary journal]
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo990211/text/90211w30.htm Rathwell's secondment with the Department of Trade and Industry]