| A. F. Moritz | |
| Birth Name: | Albert Frank Moritz |
| Birth Date: | 1947 4, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Niles, Ohio |
| Occupation: | Poet |
| Language: | English |
| Education: | Ph.D. |
| Alma Mater: | Marquette University |
| Spouse: | Theresa Moritz |
| Awards: | Guggenheim Fellowship, ReLit Award, Griffin Poetry Prize |
Albert Frank Moritz (born 15 April 1947) is a United States-born Canadian poet, teacher, and scholar.[1]
Born in Niles, Ohio,[2] Moritz was educated at Marquette University, receiving a Ph.D. for his dissertation on Tennyson.[3]
Since 1975, he has made his home in Toronto, Ontario where he has worked variously as an advertising copywriter and executive, editor, publisher, and university professor. His poetry has been honored with a 1990 Guggenheim Fellowship, inclusion in the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, and numerous other awards. He currently teaches at Victoria College in the University of Toronto.[4]
He was the winner of the ReLit Award for poetry in 2005 for Night Street Repairs, the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2009 for The Sentinel,[5] and the Raymond Souster Award in 2013 for The New Measures.[6] He is a three-time nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry, receiving nominations at the 2000 Governor General's Awards for Rest on the Flight into Egypt,[7] at the 2008 Governor General's Awards for The Sentinel,[8] and at the 2012 Governor General's Awards for The New Measures.[9]
In 2019, Moritz was named as the new Poet Laureate of Toronto.[4]
In May 2019 the Redpath Sugar company decided to withdraw their invitation for Moritz to recite a new poem he had composed at a celebration of the 60th anniversary of their opening of the Redpath Sugar Refinery, on Toronto's waterfront. Passages in his poem reflected on the sugar industry's dark legacy of the use of slave labour. Moritz said he was not offended by Redpath rescinding his invitation, comparing the anniversary celebration to a wedding, where those organizing the event had an unquestionable right to control the event.
He is married to Theresa Moritz, with whom he has collaborated on a number of books.