Former Canadian Literature editor takes international award

Established at UBC in 1959, Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review has changed readers’ view of Canlit. Just recently, former editor Eva- Marie Kröller was named Distinguished Editor of 2004 in recognition of her work at the publication’s helm.
BY ALEXANDRA CHU

(Source: “Former Canadian Literature editor takes international award.” Posted: March 24, 2005. UBC Faculty of Arts, April 12, 2005. <http://www.arts.ubc.ca/index.php?id=433&backPID=4&tt_news=734>)

Mar 24, 2005

Former Canadian Literature editor Eva Marie Kröller (center), pictured here with Editor Laurie Ricou (left) and past editor William H. New (right), was recently named Distinguished Editor of 2004.

With recent special issues on black writing in Canada and on literature and war, the renowned Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review is the leading journal for new research and writing in its field.

The U.S.-based Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ), a 450-member organization of editors of scholarly journals devoted to the humanities, recently presented its Distinguished Editor of 2004 award to Professor Eva Marie Kröller in recognition of her work at the publication’s helm.

Kröller, whose research interests include Canadian travel writing and literary history, is the first Canadian editor to receive the prestigious award. She was the journal’s editor from 1995 till 2003.

“It’s a remarkable accomplishment,” said Professor Laurie Ricou, the journal’s current editor. “One of the reasons, undoubtedly, that she won the award was because of the strength of her mentoring mission at Canadian Literature.”

Published and edited at UBC since its inception in 1959, Canadian Literature has contributors from all over the world. Kröller reinforced the stature of the publication by introducing a peer review process and recruiting an editorial board of distinguished scholars from Canada and abroad. She produced 34 issues during her tenure as editor.

Ricou says that several students who worked with Kröller sent letters to the CELJ, hoping to support her nomination and expressing their gratitude for the scholar’s dedication.

The publication has employed between 20 and 25 Arts students to assist with production since 2001, according to Managing Editor Donna Chin.

Kröller recalls spending hours working with students, helping to draw out their talents and develop their research and editing skills. A few of her students even helped prepare the “Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature,” which Kröller edited for publication in 2004. She has also shared her insights into editorial work with the coordinators of UBC’s new career website .

Kristen McHale, a student in the Arts Co-op Program working at the journal, applied for the job in part because she had wanted to learn how a magazine is published. She is currently coordinating the journal’s book review section, as well as contacting publishers and writers. McHale even edits book reviews under the guidance of Ricou.

All three of the most recent editors, Ricou, Kröller and University Killam Professor Emeritus William H. New are recipients of Killam Teaching Awards.

“This is something we do not consider coincidental as mentoring is a large part of an editor’s work,” said Kröller.

Kröller’s award is not the only recognition to come to the journal in recent years. Her predecessor, Professor New, won the prestigious Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies in early 2004. In 2000, Managing Editor Donna Chin received the President’s Service Award for Excellence.

Canadian Literature celebrated its 45 th anniversary last year, an exceptional accomplishment for a journal that began at a time when the study of Canadian literature at universities was a rarity.

“When the journal was first launched, people would say, �Do you think you have enough to fill each issue?'” said Kröller. “It was a very revolutionary thing to do.”

Today, the journal draws its audience from a breadth of international scholars, readers and writers. The journal keeps pace with the expansion of Canadian literature by alternating general issues of scholarly articles with special issues, devoted to specific topics.

“These special issues invariably have been ones that brought new areas of research in Canadian literature to the fore” added Kröller.

“Writers Talking” is this winter’s special issue, which foregrounds Canadian writers who talk about their writing and how personal experiences relate to their work.

Author Francis Itani gives an intimate interview to Susan Fisher in which the author speaks of her personal experiences with deaf people that inspired her acclaimed novel “Deafening.”

The issue reminds Ricou of the journal’s first editor, Professor George Woodcock, a celebrated Canadian writer and UBC lecturer who worked for 18 years to establish Canadian Literature’s reputation.

“He (Woodcock) felt that if the journal was devoted to Canadian literature it should have its pages open to the people who create the literature as well as those who read it and consume it and especially teach it,” said Ricou.

“This issue continues that long history of being a writers forum and a place that’s comfortable for writers as well as academic scholarship,” he added.

The journal also devotes space in each issue to Canadian poetry and includes a large book review section, both of which reflect the editors’ aims to reach as wide an audience as possible.

“Canadian Literature has always been and remains the premier journal in its field,” said Kröller.

Its content keeps pace with new areas of research in Canadian literature, while the excellence and dedication of its staff continue to be recognized by the scholarly community.