On December 4, 2006 The Speaker of the Senate, the Honourable Noël A. Kinsella, and Speaker of the House of Commons, the Honourable Peter Milliken announced the appointment of John Steffler as the Parliamentary Poet Laureate.John Steffler will be the third poet to hold this office and replaces Mrs. Pauline Michel.
The Job Description:
The Poet’s role is to encourage and promote the importance of literature, culture and language in Canadian society.
Federal legislators created the position in 2001 to draw Canadians’ attention to poetry, both spoken and written, and its role in our lives.
As explained in the Parliament of Canada Act, the Parliamentary Poet Laureate may:
write poetry, especially for use in Parliament on important occasions;
sponsor poetry readings;
advise the Parliamentary Librarian regarding the Library’s collection and acquisitions to enrich its cultural materials; and,
perform other related duties at the request of the Speaker of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Commons, or the Parliamentary Librarian.
The term of the Parliamentary Poet Laureate is two years.
The current Poet Laureate, John Steffler, will serve until his term finishes on December 3, 2008.
An unabridged audio edition of The Grey Islands by John Steffler (narrated by John Steffler, Frank Holden, Janis Spence, Deidre Gillard-Rowlings and Darryl Hopkins) will be released by Rattling Books in March, 2007 . The printed edition of The Grey Islands is published by Brick Books.
