Armand Garnet Ruffo

Armand Garnet Ruffo (born in , Ontario) is a Canadian scholar, filmmaker, writer and poet of Anishinaabe-Ojibwe ancestry.^[1] He is a member of the Chapleau (Fox Lake) Cree First Nation.

Life[]

Since receiving degrees from York University, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Windsor, he has worked primarily as a scholar, teacher and writer. His scholarly and creative writing has appeared in numerous literary anthologies and journals.

In the past, Ruffo has taught creative writing at the Banff Centre for the Arts, in addition to Indigenous literature, at the En'owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, B.C., and at Carleton University in Ottawa. He currently resides in Kingston, Ontario, and teaches at Queen's University^[2] where he is the Queen's National Scholar in Indigenous Literature.

In 2014, Ruffo was awarded the Archibald Lampman Award for his poetry and was later nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2015.^[3] In 2017, Ruffo was awarded the Mayor's Arts Award by the City of Kingston for his publications.^[4]

His newest poetry book, TREATY#, was published in March 2019.^[5] Ruffo was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry.^[6]

In 2020 he was named the winner of the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize.^[7]

Awards[]

• 1997 Saskatchewan Book Awards Finalist
• 1999 Alaska Playwrights' Competition, Honourable Mention.
• 2000 Canadian Authors' Association Prize for Poetry.
• 2001 CBC Arts Performance Showcase Competition for Drama.
• 2002 Archibald Lampman Award for poetry
• 2010 Peoples' Choice Award, Bay Street Film Festival, Thunder Bay, Canada.
• 2010 Best Feature, The Dreamspeaker's Film Festival, Edmonton, Canada.
• 2010 Best Film, The American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco, USA.
• 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Creative Non-Fiction, finalist.
• 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry, finalist.

Works[]

Poetry/Prose[]

• Opening in the Sky. Theytus Books. 1994. ISBN 978-0-919441-55-2.
• Grey Owl: the mystery of Archie Belaney. Coteau Books. 1997. ISBN 978-1-55050-109-4.
• At Geronimo's grave. Coteau Books. 2001. ISBN 978-1-55050-176-6.
• Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing Into Thunderbird. Douglas & McIntyre. 2015. ISBN 978-1-77162-046-8.
• The Thunderbird Poems. Harbour Publishing. 2015. ISBN 978-155017-706-0.
• TREATY#. Wolsak and Wynn. 2019. ISBN 978-1-928088-76-9.

Anthologies Edited[]

• Armand Garnet Ruffo, ed. (Ad)dressing Our Words: Aboriginal Perspectives on Aboriginal Literatures. Theytus Books, 2001. ISBN 0-919441-91-2.
• Daniel David Moses, Terry Goldie, Armand Garnet Ruffo. 4th ed. An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English. Oxford U Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-544353-0.
• Heather Macfarlane; Armand Garnet Ruffo, eds. (2016). Introduction to Indigenous Literary Criticism in Canada. Broadview Press. p. 326. ISBN 978-1-55481-183-0.
• Armand Garnet Ruffo, Katherena Vermette. Anthology of Indigenous Literatures in English: Voice from Canada. Oxford U Press, 2020. ISBN 9780199031719.

Anthologies (a sample)[]

• Daniel David Moses, Terry Goldie, eds. An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English. Oxford U Press, 1992, 1998, 2005.
• Jeannette C. Armstrong, Lalage Grauer, eds. Native poetry in Canada: a contemporary anthology. Broadview Press, 2001. ISBN 978-1-55111-200-8.
• Smaro Kamboureli, Making A Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature, 2nd edition. Oxford U Press, 2007. ISBN 0195422880.
• Madhur Anand, Adam Dickinson, eds. Regreen: New Canadian Ecological Poetry. Scrivener Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-896350-36-3.
• Lorna Crozier, The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010. Tightrope Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1-926639-16-1.
• (in German, English and French) Karolina Golimowska, Alexander Gumz, Thomas Wohlfahrt ed.: VERSschmuggel. ReVERSible. Canadian poetry. Poésie de Quebec. Wunderhorn, Heidelberg and Éditions du Noroît, Montreal 2020 ISBN 3884236407 ^[8]

Plays[]

• Ghost Woman
• A Windigo Tale
• Portrait of the Artist as An Indian
• Sounding Thunder: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow (with musicians Tim Corlis, Jody Baker and Jennifer Kreisberg)

Films[]

• "A Wolf I Consider Myself," short (with Myra Davies)
• "A Windigo Tale," feature (distributed by V-Tape, Toronto)
• "On The Day The World Begins Again," short (with Clarke Mackey - available on Vimeo)

References[]

External links[]

• "Predicting the Past", Sentinel Poetry (Online), #48, November 2006
• "The white Indian: Armand Garnet Ruffo's Grey Owl and the spectre of authenticity", Journal of Canadian Studies, Winter 2002, Albert Braz