Stevens, Peter

Peter Stevens was born in Manchester, England and graduated in English and Education from the University of Nottingham with a B.A. in 1951. He came to Canada in 1957 and taught at a private school and at McMaster University while working on his M.A. From 1964 to 1968 he taught at the University of Saskatchewan and received a doctorate in Canadian literature in 1968. His thesis led eventually to the publication of The McGill Movement (1968), and to the editing of Raymond Knister's The First Day of Spring and Other Stories (1976). He has served as contributing editor to The Ontario Review (1973-8) and poetry editor of The Canadian Forum (1968-73). He was founding director of Sesame Press in Windsor. His first collection of poems, Nothing but Spoons, was published in 1969. Stevens was a regular contributor to the CBC's Jazz Radio Canada series in the 1970s. He has also been a jazz columnist for the Windsor Star. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and in magazines. He is also the author of several plays, three of which received performances in Detroit, Windsor and Vancouver in 1980. His most recent collection of poetry is States of Mind (2001). He died in May 2009.

2015-06-03

A. Wilson