Wayne Clifford

Wayne Clifford (born 1944) is a Canadian poet.

Clifford began writing poetry at fourteen. His first collection, "Man in a Window" (1965), was the first volume published by Canadian literary publisher, Coach House Press. As a student at the University of Toronto (BA 1967), he shared the E.J.Pratt Prize with Michael Ondaatje. He attended the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (MA 1968, MFA 1969), where he worked with Harry Duncan of Cummington Press, and founded Living Series, which published work by colleagues as broadsheets. Although he was invited as a delegate to the founding conference of the League of Canadian Poets, Clifford has never allied himself with a school, group or faction. His work demonstrates this independence, moving between elegant, dense and often highly musical freer compositions to an unfashionable but exquisitely made formalism.

In 1970, Clifford settled in Kingston, Ontario, and taught at a local college. He left teaching in 2004 to write full-time. He presently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Bibliography

*"Man in a Window." Toronto: Coach House, 1965.
*"Eighteen." Toronto: Coach House, 1966.
*"Alphabook." MakeWork, 1972.
*"Glass.Passages." Ottawa: Oberon, 1976.
*"An Ache in the Ear." Toronto: Coach House, 1979.
*"On Abducting the 'Cello." Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 2004.
*"The Book of Were." Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 2006.