Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1986 - 2006 (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
25 boxes (5.6 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Jay MillAr, born John Elliott Millar, is a poet, editor, publisher and bookseller involved in the Canadian experimental poetry community. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in London, Ontario. He began his undergraduate degree at Western University before transferring to York University and moving to Toronto in 1992. He later received graduate degrees from York University (Master’s in English) and the University of Toronto (Master of Information). In 1992, he founded his own publishing company, Boondoggle Books, which according to MillAr was “mostly to publish my own terrible early work, but I published a few other writers as well.” According to an interview in 2006, MillAr stated that he found the term Boondoggle in a dictionary as “a military term that means to carry out useless and trivial actions with the appearance of doing something important.” MillAr produced two small magazines through Boondoggle, “B” after “C” and HIJ. In 1997, he transformed Boondoggle Books into BookThug. MillAr has published widely through his own presses, as well as several other publishing houses, most notably including: The Ghosts of Jay MillAr. (Coach House Books, 2000), Mycological Studies, (Coach House Books, 2002), False Maps for Other Creatures. (Blewointment press, 2005), Double Helix (with Stephen Cain, Mercury Press, 2006), The Small Blue (Snare Books, 2007) and Timely Irreverence (Nightwood Editions, 2013). MillAr is the proprietor of Apollinaire’s Bookshoppe, “a virtual bookstore that specializes in the books that no one wants to buy.” MillAr is the co-director of the Toronto New School of Writing and also teaches creative writing and poetics at George Brown College.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of Jay MillAr, 2007
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Contains drafts, manuscripts, correspondence and other material pertaining to the life, education, poetry and published work of Jay MillAr (1971-). The collection also includes his involvement and interaction with the Toronto experimental poetry community and other poets and writers, notably Brian T. Francis, John Barlow, Rob Ruzic and Rob McLennan. In addition, the collection also includes publications, correspondence and manuscript material from the two literary presses – Boondoggle Books (1992-1997) and BookThug (1997-) – that he founded and operates.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English