Fred Candelaria (1929­–2003) was born deep in the desert around El Paso, Texas. He was drafted into the US Army and assigned to Army Intelligence because of his knowledge of languages; he is bilingual in Spanish and English, and has some understanding of French, German, Latin, and Greek. He received an English degree from the University of Texas and went on to achieve a PhD from the University of Missouri in 1959. He taught at the University of Oregon until 1965, then moved to Canada toteach English Literature at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. He has published six books of poetry, including two from Ronsdale: Chinese Chamber Music (1989) and Preludes & Fugues (1992). He has also edited many literary texts and published four books of literary criticism. He was the founder of the influential magazine Line, published from Simon Fraser University.