W. H. New

New studied at University of British Columbia. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is poetry, history of literature and Canadian literature. Employment is recorded with University of British Columbia. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Order of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Lorne Pierce Medal.

New was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was educated at John Oliver Secondary School, where he received one of the top matriculation exam scores in British Columbia in 1956. He also attended the University of British Columbia, and the University of Leeds.

He taught English literature at the University of British Columbia from 1965 to 2003, where he was also the assistant dean of Graduate Studies from 1975 to 1977, and an acting head of the English Department. He also was an associate in 1971 at Cambridge University's Clare Hall. On October 5, 2006, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and was invested October 26, 2007. For 29 years, he held editorial positions at Canadian Literature and, in 2004, was made editor emeritus.

He is the son of John New and Edith (Littlejohn). On July 6, 1967, New married Margaret Elizabeth Frances Ebbs-Canavan. He is the father of actor Peter New.

• Science Lessons — 1996 • Raucous — 1999 • Stone | Rain — 2001 • Riverbook and Ocean — 2002 • Night Room — 2003 • Underwood Log — 2004 • Touching Ecuador — 2006 • Along a Snake Fence Riding — 2007 • The Rope-maker's Tale — 2009 • YVR — 2011 • New & Selected Poems — 2015 • Neighbors — 2017 • In the Plague Year — 2021 • Inventing What We Need to Know — 2025

• Four Hemispheres — 1971 • Voice and Vision — 1972 (with Jack Hodgins) • Dramatists in Canada — 1972 • Critical Writings on Commonwealth Literatures: A Bibliography — 1975 • Modern Stories in English — 1975 (with H.J. Rosengarten) • Modern Canadian Essays — 1976 • Margaret Laurence: The Writer and Her Critics — 1977 • A Political Art: Essays and Images in Honour of George Woodcock — 1978 • Active Voice — 1980 (with W.E. Messenger) • The Active Stylist — 1981 (with W.E. Messenger) • A 20th Century Anthology — 1984 • Canadian Short Fiction — 1986 • Canadian Writers Since 1960 — 1986 • Canadian Writers Since 1960, 2nd series — 1987 • Canadian Writers 1920-1959 — 1988 • Canadian Writers 1920-1959, 2nd series — 1989 • Native Writers and Canadian Writing — 1990 • Canadian Writers Before 1890 — 1990 • Canadian Writers 1890-1920 — 1990 • Inside the Poem — 1992 • Literature in English — 1993 (with W.E. Messenger) • Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada — 2002 • Tropes and Territories: Short Fiction, Postcolonial Readings, Canadian Writings in Context — 2007 (with Marta Dvorak) • From a Speaking Place: Writings from the First Fifty Years of Canadian Literature — 2009 (with Réjean Beaudoin, Susan Fisher, Iain Higgins, Eva-Marie Kröller and Laurie Ricou)