Theodore Colson
Photo: The Beauty of it: Poems for a Tuesday Night
Theodore Colson, the son of Louis and Helen Colson, was born on 12 July 1935. Colson grew up in Johnstown, New York, where he completed all of his schooling to grade twelve. He then moved to Rochester, New York, where he attended Robert’s Wesleyan College and received his BA. From there, he moved to Syracuse University in New York, where he received his MA in English. Finally, at Michigan State, Colson earned his PhD.
Although Colson jokes that he came to New Brunswick for the salmon fishing, he started his teaching profession at the University of New Brunswick in 1967. He was an English professor at that university from 1967 to 1995, when he retired from teaching American modernist prose and poetry. Colson was also on the editorial board of The Fiddlehead, New Brunswick's well-known literary magazine.
In 1980, Colson published his only book of poetry, The Beauty of It: Poems for Tuesday Night. Five hundred copies of the book were published by Fiddlehead Poetry Books, Fred Cogswell’s imprint. Colson designed the cover. The book contains fifty poems dedicated to those who frequented the open writing workshop held on Tuesday nights at the Icehouse at the University of New Brunswick. A number of the poems invoke the situational and work out the complexities of relationships and chance encounters. Many of the poems were first aired and workshopped at Icehouse meetings.
Colson won the Alfred G. Bailey Award for his writing in 1985. Even though he is published, he does not think of himself primarily as a writer. Rather, he considers himself an English professor who wrote a book.
Hilary Waterhouse, Winter 2008
St. Thomas University
Bibliography of Primary Sources
Colson, Theodore. The Beauty of It: Poems for Tuesday Night. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1980.
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
“Faculty at UNB English.” U of New Brunswick. 26 Feb. 2008. 16 Nov. 2008
<https://www.unb.ca/fredericton/arts/departments/english/>.
Gibbs, Robert. Rev. of The Beauty of It: Poems for Tuesday Night, by Ted Colson. The Fiddlehead 129 (Spring 1981): 109-110.
Hurley, Michael. “Elusive Surfaces.” Rev. of The Beauty of It: Poems for Tuesday Night, by Ted Colson. Canadian Literature 89 (Summer 1981): 166-168.
McLeod, Joseph. Collected Citizen. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1976.
“24 Years of WFNB Literary Competition Winners.” Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. Nov. 2008. 16 Nov. 2008
<https://wfnb.ca/competitions/>.