About

The author in Paris

Robert G. Longpré

A Canadian Writer of Myth, Memory, and Psychological Fiction

My work emerges from a convergence of roots—personal, cultural, psychological, and mythological. I write from within a framework shaped by Jungian psychology, lived experience, and an ongoing exploration of identity as it unfolds across time, culture, and consciousness.

At the core of my writing is a simple conviction: reality is never experienced directly, but through layers of interpretation, memory, archetype, and inherited story.

As James Hollis writes:

“Whatever reality may be, it will to some extent be shaped by the lens through which we see it.”

This idea is central to my work. The lens, for me, is composed of family history, psychological inquiry, Indigenous and European heritage, philosophical traditions, and lived experience across education, counselling, writing, and travel.

ROOTS AND INFLUENCES

My roots are deeply Canadian, and culturally layered. My heritage includes French, English, Scottish, Irish, Spanish, and First Nations ancestry. I do not approach these roots as symbolic decoration, but as lived inheritances that inform how I understand narrative, identity, and belonging.

My distant Indigenous lineage is best described as Ojihawk—a blend of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) and Mohawk (Haudenosaunee) ancestry. My European lineage includes Celtic and broader continental influences.

These are not categories I selectively privilege; they are converging threads within a lived historical reality that informs my writing.

INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL LENSES

My interpretive framework has been shaped by several intersecting traditions:

  • Jungian depth psychology
  • Buddhist thought
  • Christian symbolism and narrative structure
  • Indigenous epistemologies
  • European philosophical traditions
  • Extensive international travel and observation

I also engage the world visually through photography, which reinforces my interest in perception, framing, and the limits of what is seen versus what is understood.

EARLY WRITING AND DEVELOPMENT

My writing began in the late 1960s as a teenager in Ottawa. Like many young writers, I began with poetry, songs, and politically oriented essays published in a youth journal called Left-Centre.

In the early 1970s, I wrote editorials for a prairie newspaper while continuing to experiment with poetry and short fiction.

In 1976, I was commissioned to write a social history of the Métis community of Île-à-la-Crosse, resulting in the publication Sakitawak. This work has since been used in academic and educational contexts and remains part of Métis studies in Saskatchewan.

MY WORK AS A WRITER

Since retirement from education and counselling, writing has become my primary creative focus. My body of work includes:

  • autobiographical narratives
  • psychological and Jungian fiction
  • poetry
  • short fiction
  • historical and mythic storytelling
  • standalone novels and experimental works

Across these forms, I am consistently interested in the human condition as it is shaped by perception, memory, and symbolic meaning.

THEMATIC FOCUS

My fiction is influenced by writers such as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, as well as existential philosophy and Jungian psychology. These influences converge in a literary approach that is grounded in realism but open to symbolic and mythological intrusion.

My work often explores:

  • identity and fragmentation
  • memory and temporal perception
  • psychological transformation
  • myth as a living interpretive system
  • the tension between inner and outer reality

In many of my narratives, mythological figures and archetypes appear not as fantasy elements, but as expressions of psychological reality within lived experience.

CURRENT CONTEXT

I am a retired Canadian educator and mental health counsellor. Since retirement, I have continued to write extensively while traveling with my wife and reflecting on the intersections between lived experience, cultural inheritance, and narrative structure.

I now also operate a small publishing imprint, Retired Eagle Books. The name reflects my long association with education and school leadership, where the eagle symbol was part of institutional identity.

I live on the Canadian prairies, where much of my recent writing continues to develop.

CLOSING NOTE

My writing is ultimately concerned with the ways human beings construct meaning through story, memory, and symbolic perception. Whether through fiction, memoir, or poetry, I am interested in how consciousness interprets itself through narrative form.