John Terpstra clearly fits the definition of a Renaissance man: poet, cabinetmaker, woodworker, and collaborator on a variety of multimedia projects involving music, worship, theater, and even the Internet. His newest book, The Boys, or Waiting for the Electrician’s Daughter, a prose elegy for his wife’s three wheelchair-bound brothers, was published in September 2005 by Gasperau Press. An excerpt appears in Image issue 47.
Some of Terpstra’s work is featured in Image issue 7, issue 18, issue 47, issue 63, issue 73, issue 85, and issue 87. Browse through some of his work here.
Biography
John Tepstra was born in Brockville, Ontario, two years after his parents emigrated to Canada from The Netherlands. He spent his school years in Edmonton, Alberta, and his high school years in Hamilton, Ontario. He attended Trinity Christian College in Chicago, graduated from the University of Toronto, and spent the first few years of his married life in Toronto before returning to Hamilton, where he and his wife have lived ever since. Shortly after moving to Hamilton, Terpstra began cabinetmaking and woodworking, which he has also been doing ever since. For the past twenty years he has been self-employed, working out of his own shop.
John Terpstra has published seven books of poetry, including The Church Not Made With Hands (Wolsak & Wynn) and Naked Trees (Netherlands Press). Disarmament (Gaspereau Press) was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2004. His prose project Falling into Place (Gaspereau) is a creative investigation of the Iroquois Bar—a giant glacial sandbar which lies beneath one of Canada’s busiest transportation corridors. Terpstra lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Current Projects
September 2000
“In the book Falling into Place I did not tell the whole story of this city where I live. While detailing its geographical delights I had almost entirely avoided talking about the one thing that for most people in this country identifies Hamilton, that is to say its steel industry. The subject simply felt too grievous.
“I am currently dipping my toes into the waters of taking on this grief. At the same time I hope to put together a ‘selected’ from the seven books of poetry that have been published over the years.
“This fall (2005) I will be the Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University, in Hamilton, as well as the Visiting Artist at St. Augustine College, in Ottawa.”