Sudbury, Ont.-based poet Robert Dickson, a past Governor General's Literary Award-winner, died of cancer on Monday.

Dickson, 62, was also a literary translator and longtime professor of French-Canadian literature at Laurentian University.

In 2002, he won the Governor General's award for his French-language poetry collection Humains paysages en temps de paix relative (Human Landscapes in Times of Relative Peace), issued by his longtime publisher Éditions Prise de Paroles.

"He will be greatly missed," Denise Truax, director of the publishing company, said in a statement.

"But he gave us so much already that these are voids he has filled and fed, and we need to salute them, cherish them and nurture them."

Dickson had been a member of the Sudbury, Ont., Franco-Ontarian and French-Canadian arts communities since the 1970s and had won several awards for his contributions to the arts and culture scene.

A lyricist for the musical group CANO, Dickson also co-founded the poetry and musical performance group Cuisine de poésie.

Dickson also worked translating theatre, with his English translations of several of Jean Marc Dalpé's French-language plays eventually staged in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and at the Stratford Festival. Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen is among the works Dickson translated into French.

In 2006, Laurentian University honoured Dickson with an honorary doctorate of letters.

With files from the Canadian Press.