New, W.H. (William Herbert), 1938-

William Herbert (Bill) New was born in Vancouver, 28 March 1938. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia in 1956. Over the next five years, he completed the Secondary Teacher Training program, earning his teaching certificate and specializing in Geography and English. After graduating with his B.Ed. degree (with the Maxwell Cameron Medal) in 1961, he won a scholarship to enter the M.A. program in English; there he began in earnest his studies of Canadian writing and the politics of region and literary form. In 1963, with the M.A. complete, he won the IODE international scholarship to pursue further education at the University of Leeds. Specializing in the literatures of the Commonwealth, he completed a dissertation on the modern Bildungsroman as a social paradigm, receiving his Ph.D. in 1966. In 1965 New joined the UBC English Department to establish a program in Commonwealth Literature. In 1966, he became assistant editor of Canadian Literature, working with George Woodcock and Donald Stephens. In 1977, New became editor of the journal, a position he held for 17 years. Frequently called upon as a manuscript reader and external examiner, he is recognized internationally for his innovative scholarship, critical writing, and development of reference materials, all of which has provided students of Canadian and Postcolonial culture with enhanced access to materials, and has transformed how these literatures are now studied and understood. By the year 2000 he had published several hundred articles and over 40 books, which range from several pedagogically effective and widely-used anthologies to six volumes of Dictionary of Literary Biography, from studies of Lowry and Laurence to studies of Mansfield and Munro, from an original rethinking of the history of literature in Canada to comparative studies of the social consequences of literary form, from analysis of the short story genre and of Canadian negotiations between landscape and power to books of poetry for both adults and children. Several of his books have been translated, and he has taught or lectured in the United States, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, China, Finland and Norway. New has received many honours and awards, including the Killam Research and Teaching Prize (1988, 1996), the Gabrielle Roy Award (1988), Jacob Biely Prize (1995), the Association of Canadian Studies Award of Merit (2000), the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C. Career Achievement Award (2001), and a VP Research Award in 2002. In 2002 New was named a University Killam Professor. He has also held a number of distinguished lectureships and was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1986. Prior to his retirement from UBC in 2003, New was active in University administration, serving as Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at UBC (1975-1977), as acting head of the English Department, and on numerous university, national and international committees dealing with a variety of issues. He has also served on numerous award adjudication committees.