Frank M. Tierney, one of the founders of Ottawa’s Borealis Press and Tecumseh Press, has passed away. The other founder, Glenn Clever, passed away in 2005. Both were professor of English at the University of Ottawa. And both wanted to publish the creative output of local and national, emerging and established poets.
Founded in 1972, the mandate of Borealis Press was to encourage new Canadian writers whose talent demonstrated the potential for significant growth. Ottawa poets, who benefitted thanks to the two professors, were Terry Ann Carter, Cyril Dabydeen, Gordon Gilhuly, Susan McMaster, Carol Shields, Michel Thérin and myself. They also published, among others, Canadian poets Sharon Berg, Fred Cogswell, Giorgio Di Cicco, As well, they ensured that works by established early Canadian writers such as Archibald Lampman, Isabella Valancy Crawford, and E.J. Pratt, remained in circulation. In recent years the press expanded to feature works by aboriginal writers. Through their Tecumseh Press, studies on earlier Canadian poets - Lampman, Sangster, Scott, Roberts, Campbell, Carman were offered to the public. The two also founded The Journal of Canadian Poetry.
The Ottawa poetry community, indeed the Canadian poetry community, owes a debt of gratitude to Frank Tierney.
Terry
Ann Carter remembers:
I loved working with Frank Tierney. He was such a gentleman and always interested in my family life ...as well as the poetry. I found out about Borealis Press through Henry Imbleau. He was the husband of Margaret Imbleau, the head of English at the St. Paul's High School where we both worked. The book that I had published with Borealis was Transplanted, released in 2006. It detailed my husband's kidney transplant and my own navigation of this time. With two boys in high school and a full-time job I was surrounded by deadlines, sports schedules, homework assignments, special diets and doctors' appointments. Gary Geddes provided a lovely blurb for the book: "There's much to admire in Transplanted, not least of which is a consistent sense of measure and intelligence at work".
Cyril
Dabydeen recounts:
Frank Tierney was a dear human being, and a real friend to writers—especially to one like myself with a minority background trying to make a name for myself in Canadian letters. He published one of my first books of poetry in his Borealis Press poetry series, This Planet Earth (1980), and later, Uncharted Heart (2008). This Planet Earth is part of my provenance, I figure, in Canadian literature because I still feel closest to those poems having my natural, unaffected style. When he was Chair of the Dept. of English at UOttawa, I would meet up with him a few times, and I was especially delighted when he invited me to read in his class--welcoming me cheerfully when I became Ottawa’s Poet Laureate in 1984. Frank also published some really good poets, like Italian-Canadian Pier Georgio De Ciccco (with whom I read a couple of times in the Maritimes and in Toronto). More importantly, he was an unaffected person, full of warmth and cheer, and with a particular brand of wisdom. I do miss him! He is a key part of Ottawa literature, and Canadian literature--as a whole…
Susan McMaster reminisces:
Frank Tierney loved imaginative leaps—and he was man of great and generous heart. One day I was musing about the
many artists, including my mother and his friend Betty Page, who had made works
inspired by my poems. "What about a book that paired the two media?", he
asked, to my dumbfounded delight. No quibbles, no questions. He was there at
every step, including negotiating with a difficult artist, and assuring perfect
printing, launch and distribution.
My book, Lizard Love, never made either of us any money, but I treasure the book—and above all treasure Frank's friendship and support and the heart of a poet that led him to take on such a risky project. He was special.
Michel
Therien recollects:
I met Frank at a pivotal moment in my career as a writer. In 2005, Frank generously accepted to publish The Wilderness Within, my second collection of poetry. This book travelled with me in North and South America, Europe, Africa and helped me establish my recognition as an international poet. Through the years, I always thought of Frank as a beacon of hope and kindness with a keen sense of humour and genuine care for others. He was a gentle soul who gave me a sense of poetical involvement in our global society and I am and will always be thankful to him for this heritage.
Blaine
Marchand recalls:
As a young poet, one day an Ontario arts grant arrived in the mail. I had no idea where it came from. But I was happy to receive it and took it as a sign that my poems had some merit. One evening several months later, the telephone rang. “Frank Tierney here.” His deep, mellifluous voice continued, inquiring when my manuscript would be ready. “Ready?” “Yes, that is why we recommended you for a grant.” And so began my poetry collections being brought to light over the past 45 years. Back then in the early 70s, there was an afterglow from Canada`s centennial celebrations, Canadian publishers were springing up eager to bring Canadian poetry to national attention. Frank Tierney was one of those leaders in Canadian culture. He was a tall, dark-haired Ottawa Valley Irish man, always impeccably dressed, and with a voice that inspired confidence and caring, for a poet starting out on his journey. Thanks Frank.
Blaine Marchand's poetry and prose has appeared in magazines across Canada, the US, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, France and Ukraine. He has won several prizes and awards for his writing. He has seven books of poetry published, a chapbook, a children's novel and a work of non-fiction. He has completed a new collection, Promenade.
Active in the literary scene in Ottawa for over 50 years, he was a co-founder of the Canadian Review, Sparks magazine, the Ottawa Independent Writers and the Ottawa Valley Book Festival. He was the President of the League of Canadian Poets from 1991-1993.
