Robert Kroetsch Dies in Crash at 84

Sad to report that acclaimed Canadian author and poet Robert Kroetsch died in a car crash on June 21st. The Governor General’s Award-winning author was 84. From Quill & Quire:

The death of iconic Canadian novelist, poet, and critic Robert Kroetsch comes as a blow to Canada’s literary community, which is mourning the loss of one of its great stylists and chroniclers of the West. “He wrote about the Prairies with passion and insight,” says Kroetsch’s former wife, University of Guelph professor Smaro Kamboureli, who was married to him for 21 years. “He taught me how to love the Prairies.”

Kroetsch died Tuesday in a two-car collision near Drumheller, Alberta, while returning from the ArtsPeak Arts Festival in Canmore.

Kroetsch also wrote compellingly about the North. In a 1999 interview, Kroetsch spoke with January Magazine’s J. Kingston Pierce. “In ways the North is a beautiful blank page that invites our scribbling,” Kroetsch said at that time. “Then one looks more closely and discovers many tracks that preceded our own.”