Karl Jirgens
Photo : Stuart Ross
About
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Karl Jirgens, former English Department Head, and former Chair of the Creative Writing Program (University of Windsor), is author of six books (Coach House, Mercury, ECW, The Porcupine’s Quill and Exile Editions). He edited two books (on painter, Jack Bush, and poet, Christopher Dewdney). His scholarly and creative texts are published globally (recently in Japan).His poetry was selected for Best Poetry of Canada, 2023. His collection of poems, Travesties (Exile, 2025) is due autumn, 2025. Jirgens founded, edited & published Rampike magazine, featuring celebrated international artists, writers, and theorists. Rampike is digitally archived with free public access to over 4000 pages, and print archived at Thomas Fisher Library (University of Toronto). His prize winning short-fiction collection, The Razor’s Edge (The Porcupine’s Quill Press, 2022); it was a finalist for the Forward Prize, and received a bronze medal from the ELIT Awards. Jirgens has Latvian background.
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Photo: Sandra Feldman
​Acknowledgements: Best Canadian Poetry 2023 – “Father’s Day”; Beyond the Map –“Mischief,” “He Said,” “Abars”; Poems in Response to Peril – “Saying,” “Words,” “Frailty”; Hamilton Arts & Literary –“Italo Calvino Keeps Knocking”; Mouse Eggs – “Shufti,” “The Simple Life”; Periodicities – “Creamation,” “& Man,” “Silences,” “Pas de Deux”; Rampike – “Dugong Song,” “Abanax”; Six of One: (early version) “The Late Poem”; Someone Editions: “Pas de Deux”: Talking About Strawberries: “Moment,” “Waving to Phil Hall” ; The Typescript – “Letters,” “Quixote,” “Moment”; The Globe & Mail: “Goudy/Gaudi”; Quill & Quire: “For Judith Fitzgerald.”
What critics say about Jirgens' writing:
“takes the post-mortem out of post-modern”
— Steve McCaffery
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“Jirgens is an alchemist.”
— Steven Ross Smith (on A Measure of Time)
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“Jirgens is a highly talented writer wrestling with complex material…a very rewarding literary experience.”
— Kevin Connolly (Mondo Hunkamooga).
“Jirgens’ method is that of ‘pataphysics,’ the science of imaginary solutions proposed in the 1890s by Alfred Jarry. His instruments are the pataphysician’s; the pun, the speculative leap, the impeccable train of logic derailed…elegant and witty. -- In these days of bland, commercial almost corporate fiction, it is a welcome breath of reality.”
— Brian Shein (Quill & Quire).
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“Jirgens mixes the mundane and fantastic, the conceptual and the anecdotal”
— John Oughton (on Strappado)