Career
He first came to national attention with the controversial literary/political journal Edge (Edmonton 1963 – Montreal 1969). Beissel"s internationally successful Inuk and the Sun ("a mythic masterpiece", Sherrill Grace) premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada in 1973. This was followed by a United States. premiere in 1977 at The Other Theatre in Chicago"s Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center with a musical score by Douglas L Lieberman.
The Other Theatre also commissioned Under Coyote"s Eye and performed it at the Field Museum of Natural History.
Beissel"s work has been translated into many languages. Beissel had a long teaching career in English literature, and later in creative writing, which started as a teaching fellow at the University of Toronto.
He taught at the University of Munich (1960-1962)), the University of Alberta (1962-1964) and Concordia University (Montreal) (1966-1996), from which he retired as distinguished emeritus professor of English.
