RIP Robert Kroetsch (1927-2011)

Just days before his 84th birthday, Alberta poet, novelist, teacher Robert Kroetsch died on the highway while returning from a writer's festival. Kroetsch's work as writer and teacher is fundamental to Canadian literature. I never felt he received the recognition he deserved. He is what some might call a "writer's writer." And what a writer. I knew him only through his poetry, novels and essays, but count Mr Kroetsch has one of my great teachers. Here is a video that opens with a passage from his novel _What the Crow Saw_: