2018 Prime of Life Achievement Award

Professor Emeritus Bob Calder, B.A., M.A. (Sask) Ph.D. (Leeds), and Distinguished Researcher (Sask 2005) has been Head of English and of Music and Associate Dean, Arts and Science, and served the provincial writing community as President of the Sage Hill Writing Experience and of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. He won a Governor General’s award for the second book of his two books on W. Somerset Maugham, Willie: The Life (1989). His recognition by SWG, besides manuscript awards, includes (2004) 2 award nominations for A Richer Dust: Family, Memory, and the Second World War and 2 awards for Beware the British Serpent: The Role of British Propaganda in the U.S., 1929-1945.

His commissioned history of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Rider Pride (1984), and history of a Spaniard enslaved by the Maya who aided their struggle against the Conquistadores, A Hero for the Americas: The Legend of Gonzalo Guerrero (2018), show his diverse interests. In 2010 and 2011 he helped to found Saskatoon’s Word on the Street Festival, to create the Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence, and to establish our University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing program. He was recognized as an Alumnus of Influence in 2009 and invested into the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in May 2018.