Born in the Rheinberg region of Germany in 1946, Norbert Ruebsaat came to Canada in 1952 and grew up in the B.C. interior where he endured schoolyard taunts of "Kraut" and "Lederhosen boy." In addition to his poetry collection, Cordillera (Pulp Press 1979), he was librettist for Barry Truax's Love Songs and he has worked with Hildegard Westerkamp on environmental sound compositions. Having contributed reviews and articles to major Canadian newspapers and literary periodicals, as well as Dooney's Cafe, he also edited 'Ruebsaat's Letter', a private newsletter which included short works by himself and other B.C. writers. For many years he worked as a programmer for Vancouver's Co-op Radio and he produced documentaries for Co-op Radio and CBC's Idea series. As a translator he's provided English versions of play by Handke and Brecht, as well as poems by Rilke. In 2007 he contributed to Brian Howell's photo study of people who impersonate celebrities, Fame Us: The Culture of Celebrity (Arsenal Pulp). After teaching Communication and Media Studies at SFU and Columbia College, he retired in 2015 and moved to New Denver from where he published his memoirs, In Other Words: A German Canadian Story. His story is an engaging memoir about growing up in multi-cultural Canada and, according to friend and critic Stan Persky, about how life can be an adventure in language, "about how we are changed and shaped by moving into a realm of other words. If language is the unique evolutionary feature of human nature, then this is a riveting tale for all of us."

For a review of In Other Words: A German Canadian Story, visit:

https://ormsbyreview.com/2019/06/25/565-the-germans-are-here/

[BCBW 2017]