Gregory Scofield

Biography

Gregory Scofield is of Red River Métis ancestry whose family roots can be traced to the historic Métis community of Kinosota-Reedy Creek, Manitoba. He has taught Creative Writing and First Nations and Metis Literature at Brandon University, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the Alberta University of the Arts and was most recently an associate professor in the Department of English at Laurentian University. He has served as writer-in residence at the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Further to writing and teaching, Scofield is also a skilled bead-worker, and he creates in the medium of traditional Metis arts. He continues to assemble a collection of mid to late 19^thcentury Cree-Metis artifacts, which are used as learning and teaching pieces. 

Selected professional & creative achievements

Gregory won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 1994 for his debut collection, The Gathering: Stones for the Medicine Wheel, and has since published seven further volumes of poetry including, Witness, I am. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and the Writers’ Trust of Canada Latner Poetry Prize (2016) that is awarded to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work. Gregory's first memoir, Thunder Through My Veins (Doubeday Canada/Anchor Books), was re-published in the fall of 2019. He was part of the three-person jury for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize and edited the resulting collection, The 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology. His most recent publication is the award-winning kôhkominawak ocihcîwâwa – Our Grandmothers’ Hands: Repatriating Métis Material Art (Gabriel Dumont Institute Press).