SteveMcCaffery
Biography
Steve McCaffery (January 24, 1947, Sheffield, England) is a British-Canadian poet, theorist, and performance artist known for his pioneering work in experimental writing, sound poetry, and literary theory. His diverse output spans visual poetry, avant-garde linguistics, and critical essays, positioning him as a key figure in the evolution of contemporary poetic practice. After studying English and philosophy at the University of Hull, McCaffery moved to Canada in the late 1960s, where he became a vital part of Toronto’s emerging avant-garde scene. He later earned a Master’s degree from York University and completed a Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), specializing in poetics and comparative literature. In 1970, McCaffery co-founded the influential sound poetry collective The Four Horsemen, alongside bpNichol, Paul Dutton, and Rafael Barreto-Rivera. Through vocal experimentation and collective performance, the group pushed poetry beyond the page, emphasizing its sonic and embodied dimensions. Their work helped define a new language of performance in North America and abroad. McCaffery’s writing consistently challenges conventional notions of meaning and structure. His celebrated projects include the long-form visual poem Carnival (1967–1975), the typographically playful Dr. Sadhu’s Muffins (1974), and the philosophically layered Panopticon (1984). His 1991 collection Theory of Sediment was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award, affirming his impact on Canadian literature. In addition to his creative practice, McCaffery has written extensively on poetics, semiotics, and language theory. His critical essays, compiled in volumes like North of Intention and Prior to Meaning, explore the intersections of language, structure, and meaning from a post-structuralist and proto-semantic perspective. His scholarship is regarded as foundational in experimental literary criticism. McCaffery has taught at several universities and currently holds the David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters at SUNY Buffalo, where he continues to influence students, poets, and scholars through his teaching and research. His work is represented in major institutional collections, including the Getty Research Institute, the National Gallery of Canada, and the New York Public Library, and remains essential to conversations around postmodern poetics and language-based art.
