Eugene Benson is a prolific nonfiction writer, novelist, playwright, and librettist. He taught for many years at the University of Guelph, and retired with the title University Professor Emeritus. His scholarly publications include J.M. Synge (1982), English-Canadian Theatre (1987), The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre (1987), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (1994, 2nd ed. 2005)---the last three co-edited with L.W. Conolly---and The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature (1997, second edition, with William Toye). He edited the anthology Encounter: Canadian Drama in Four Media (1973) and the scholarly journal Canadian Drama/L'Art dramatique canadien (1980-90). His plays include The Ram (1967, broadcast by McGill Radio), Joan of Arc's Violin (broadcast by CBC in 1970 and published and staged in 1972), The Gunner's Rope, (broadcast by CBC in 1970 and published and staged in 1972), and The Doctors' Wife (broadcast by the CBC in 1973). He lives in Toronto. His memoir The Symmetry of the Tyger was also published by Rock's Mills Press.