Douglas Gordon Jones

Who is Douglas Gordon Jones?

Douglas Gordon Jones is a Canadian poet, translator and educator.

Born in Bancroft, Ontario, Jones was educated at a private school in Quebec's Eastern Townships, at McGill University and at Queen's University. He received his M.A. from Queen's University in 1954. Jones then taught English literature at Bishop's University and the Université de Sherbrooke. In 1969, Jones co-founded the bilingual literary journal Ellipse, which continues to be the only literary periodical in Canada which provides reciprocal translations, in equal measure, of both English and French Canadian poetry.

Jones has been a member of the Arts and Advisory Panel of the Canada Council. His 1978 collection, Under the Thunder the Flowers Light up the Earth, received the 1978 Governor General's Award for Poetry. His rendition of Normand de Bellefeuille's Categorics One, Two and Three received the 1993 Governor General's Award for Translation.

Considered a seminal figure of the mythopoeic strain of Canadian poetry, Jones is also a highly respected essayist and translator. His key work of critical writing is Butterfly on Rock: A Study of Themes and Images in Canadian Literature.