David Staines

Ottawa, ON. David Staines is Professor of English at the University of Ottawa. Formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts for eight years, he is internationally respected as a scholar of medieval culture and literature and Canadian culture and literature. The author and/or editor of more than twenty books in these fields, he is also the translator of The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes. In 1998 he received the Lorne Pierce Medal, awarded by the Royal Society of Canada, for outstanding contributions to Canadian criticism. In 2006, he published The Letters of Stephen Leacock, which was listed as one of the 100 best books of the year by the Globe and Mail. In 2011, he was invested into the Order of Ontario and into the Order of Canada. In 2021, he published A History of Canadian Fiction. David joined the Stratford Festival's Board of Directors in April 2023 and serves on the Education and Archives Committee.