Donald L. Coles, also known as Don Coles, is a Canadian poet and a novelist. Coles won the 1993 Governor General's Award for English poetry for his collection Forests of the Medieval World and the Trillium Book Award in 2000 for his collection Kurgan. Don Coles was born on April 12, 1927, in Woodstock, Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto and received a B.A in modern History in 1949, and an M.A in English Literature in 1952. He then attended the University of Cambridge where he eventually earned a second M.A in Canadian Literature. Coles' writing began to take off after he received a British Council grant, which allowed him a year in Italy. Coles spent the following ten to twelve years traveling around Europe and lived in London, Stockholm, Florence, Munich, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Zurich. Coles had struggled with writing and while in Europe he wrote two unpublished novels. ?I was bad at characterization, I was bad at dialogue, I was bad at plot?? he told The National Post. After he returned home in 1965 he joined the faculty of York University, where he worked for 30 years. He taught humanities, and was the Director of the Creative Writing program. 

January 1st, 1927 in Woodstock  /  Died:   Nov 29th, 2017