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{{Short description|Canadian poet, scholar and editor (1942–2024)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox author
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1942|10|10|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Ste. Agathe, Manitoba]], Canada
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2024|10|05|1942|10|10|df=y}}
| death_place      = 
| occupation       = Poet, scholar, editor, and activist
| education        = [[University of Manitoba]] (B.A.)
[[Simon Fraser University]] (M.A.)
[[University of British Columbia]] (Ph.D.)
| awards           = {{plainlist}}
*[[Governor General's Award for English-language poetry]] (2002)
*[[Gandhi Peace Award]] (2006)
{{endplainlist}}
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of Canada|CM]] [[Order of British Columbia|OBC]] [[Royal Society of Canada|FRSC]]
}}

'''Roy Akira Miki''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|size=100%|CM|OBC|FRSC}} (10 October 1942 – 5 October 2024) was a Canadian poet, scholar, editor, and activist most known for his social and literary work.

==Life and career==
Born in [[Ste. Agathe, Manitoba]] to second generation [[Japanese-Canadian]] parents, Miki grew up on a sugar beet farm before moving to [[Winnipeg]].<ref name="PF">{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/roy-miki|title=Roy Miki|publisher=[[Poetry Foundation]]|accessdate=2018-11-24}}</ref><ref name="CBC">{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/asianheritage/2008/04/|title=Asian Heritage Month|date=30 April 2008|newspaper=[[CBC News]]|accessdate=2018-11-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.ryerson.ca/asianheritage/authors/miki/|title=Roy Miki|publisher=[[Toronto Metropolitan University|Ryerson University]]|accessdate=2018-11-22}}</ref> His family was forcibly relocated West to Manitoba where he was born in 1942 on said sugar beet farm, and [[Japanese Canadian internment|interned during the Second World War]].<ref name="PF" /> He earned his B.A. from the [[University of Manitoba]], M.A. from the [[Simon Fraser University]], and Ph.D. from the [[University of British Columbia]].<ref name="PF" /><ref name="TCE">{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/roy-akira-miki|title=Roy Akira Miki|last=Dobson|first=Kit|date=2012–2014|website=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]|access-date=2018-11-24}}</ref> Miki taught contemporary literature at Simon Fraser University before retiring and held the title of professor emeritus.<ref name="PF" /> He lived in [[Vancouver]]. In the 1980s, Miki was "instrumental" in fighting for redress from the federal government for the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.<ref name="CBC" /><ref name="TCE" />

In 2002, Miki's book of poetry, ''Surrender'', won the [[2002 Governor General's Awards|Governor General's Literary Award for poetry]].<ref name="TCE" /> His poetry focuses on questions about identity, citizenship, race, and place.<ref name="TCE" /> He is the author of the critical study, ''Broken Entries: Race, Subjectivity, Writing'' (1998), ''In Flux: Transnational Shifts in Asian Canadian Writing'' (2011), ''The Prepoetics of William Carlos Williams'' (1983), and an annotated bibliography of the poet and novelist ''George Bowering'' (1990).<ref name="TCE" />

In 2006, Miki was made a Member of the [[Order of Canada]] and received the 20th annual [[Gandhi Peace Award]] for the truth, justice, human rights, and non-violence exemplified in his redress work.<ref name="CBC" /><ref>{{OCC|10920}}</ref> The same year, he also received the Thakore Visiting Scholar award and the Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sfu.ca/sterlingprize/recipients/roy-miki.html|title=Roy Miki|publisher=[[Simon Fraser University]]|accessdate=2018-11-24}}</ref> In 2007, he was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Canada]].<ref name="TCE" /> In 2009, he was made a Member of the [[Order of British Columbia]].<ref name="TCE" />

Miki died on 5 October 2024, at the age of 82.<ref>{{cite web |title=Roy Akira Miki |url=https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/roy-miki-obituary?id=56514614 |website=Legacy |access-date=16 October 2024}}</ref>

==Works==
===Poetry===
* 1991: ''Saving Face: Poems Selected, 1976–1988'', Winnipeg: Turnstone Press
* 1995: ''Random Access File'', Markham, ON: Red Deer Press
* 2001: ''Surrender'', Toronto: The Mercury Press, winner of the [[2002 Governor General's Awards|2002 Governor General's Award for poetry]]
* 2006: ''There'', Vancouver: New Star Books
* 2011: ''Mannequin Rising'', Vancouver: New Star Books
* 2018: ''Flow: Poems Collected and New'' (edited by [[Michael Barnholden]]), Vancouver: Talonbooks

===Critical studies===
* 1983: ''The Prepoetics of William Carlos Williams'', Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press
* 1988: ''Tracing the Paths: Reading ≠ Writing'' The Martyrology, Vancouver: Talonbooks
* 1989: ''A Record of Writing: An Annotated and Illustrated Bibliography of George Bowering'', Vancouver: Talonbooks 
* 2004: ''Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice'', Vancouver: Raincoast Books

===Editor===
*1985: ''This Is My Own: Letters to Wes and Other Writings on Japanese-Canadians, 1941–1948'' by [[Muriel Kitagawa]], Vancouver: Talonbooks
*1997: ''Pacific Windows: The Collected Poems of Roy Kiyooka'', Vancouver: Talonbooks

===Other===
* 1998: ''Broken Entries: Race, Subjectivity, Writing (Essays)'', Toronto: The Mercury Press

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930055329/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010902 Roy Akira Miki] at [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]

{{Governor General's English poetry|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miki, Roy}}
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian poets]]
[[Category:Canadian male poets]]
[[Category:Japanese-Canadian internees]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of British Columbia]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:People from Eastman Region, Manitoba]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Simon Fraser University]]
[[Category:Simon Fraser University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Manitoba alumni]]
[[Category:Governor General's Award–winning poets]]
[[Category:Canadian writers of Asian descent]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian male writers]]
[[Category:Poets from Manitoba]]
[[Category:Poets from British Columbia]]