It was with great sadness that NeWest Press learned of the May 17 passing of Barbara Godard, the distinguished scholar, critic, translator, intellectual, and editor whose collection of essays Canadian Literature at the Crossroads of Language and Culture was published by NeWest in 2008.

That book only begins to suggest the breadth of Godard's areas of expertise and her relentless questioning of conventional wisdom regarding Canadian literature and Canadian criticism — just look at the title of the essay "Canadian? Literary? Theory?" As Owen Percy wrote in his admiring review of the book for The Dalhousie Review, "This is theoretical criticism that insists upon moving, mutating, repeating itself with difference, and making its intellectual activity contingent upon its readers, where/whenever they may engage with it."

But Godard was as remarkable and inspirational a human being as she was a critic — this lovely tribute to her from the blog Yourkeyed will give you a sense of her galvanizing personality: "I do know know one person that studied under her direction," goes one passage,"who did not experience a significant shift in their thinking, not one person who didn't mark her as one of the great. I used to see her around the Toronto poetry community before I knew who she was, and I always found it amazing how she radiated something — not quite identifiable."

Services and tribute ceremonies in Barbara Godard's memory are currently being organized; we will pass on more specific information as soon as it becomes available.