David Godfrey, born in Winnipeg in 1938, was at the forefront of nationalist publishing when he co-founded House of Anansi Press with Dennis Lee in 1966, co-founded New Press with Roy McSkimming and James Bacque in 1967, then co-founded Press Porcepic with his wife Ellen Godfrey in 1972. His only novel, The New Ancestors, received the Governor-General's Award in 1970, followed by fictional collections I Ching Kanada and Dark Must Yield. He became chairman of UVic's Creative Writing department in 1978. He has moved into the forefront of technological futurism with titles such as Gutenberg Two and The Telidon Book.

David Godfrey died on June 21, 2015 of pancreatic cancer diagnosed less than two months previously. He was 76.

Prolific Victoria writer Marilyn Bowering, hired by Godfrey to teach at UVic in 1979, called him “a visionary inspiration” for 35 years.

[BCBW 1992]