Raymond Souster was born in 1921 in Toronto, Ontario, He lived there until his passing in 2012. He never lived outside of Toronto except during his military service in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 40s. Outside of his military service he was employed by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce until his retirement in 1985. His literary career began with an association with John Sutherland and his literary magazine First Statement. This led to him launching a literary magazine titled Direction in 1943. He was awarded the governor general award in 1964, and continued publishing works well into the 70s and 80s.
After Souster ended Direction he began a partnership with Louis Dudek and Irving Layton to launch the Contact magazine from 1952-1954, and Contact Press from 1952-1967. This partnership with Louis Dudek would also lead to the two working together on many of Souster’s poetry collections such as Selected Poems released in 1956 and included poems by Souster chosen by Dudek for publication. Souster collaborated with a wide variety of poets through Contact Press and worked to bring attention to Canadian poetry. He was also in contact with many American poets such as Sidney “Cid” Corman, Jonathon Williams, Charles Olson, and Louis Zukofsky. Souster received feedback from these poets on his collections while providing them with feedback of his own. He was incredibly involved in the poetic community especially for Canadian poetry.
Outside of poetry, Souster also published two works of fiction, one titled The Winter of Time in 1949, and the other titled On Target in 1972. He published these under the pseudonyms Raymond Holmes and John Holmes. His contributions to the literary community, not only in his own poetry, but through his collaborations with others and his work in publishing makes him an influential force for many Canadian poets. His publishing work at Contact Press allowed him to uplift new Canadian writing which included work from Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1995, and the League of Canadian Poets named an annual prize after Souster in January of 2012.
