Rienzi Crusz was a poet and retired librarian living in Waterloo, ON. Born in Galle, Sri Lanka, Crusz was educated at the University of Ceylon (B.A. Hons.) and was employed as Chief Research Librarian for the Central Bank of Ceylon. After emigrating to Canada in 1965, he attended the University of Toronto (B.L.S.) and the University of Waterloo (M.A.). He worked at the University of Toronto Library and in 1969 was appointed as a reference and collections development librarian at the University of Waterloo, a position he held until his retirement in 1993.

His creative work first began to appear in periodicals and newspapers in 1968, and in 1974, his first collection of poems was published under the title Flesh and thorn. Since then, numerous other collections have been published. Crusz is an active voice among Canadian immigrant poets, and his work depicts the contrasts between South Asian and Canadian life. In 1994, he won the literature award in the Kitchener-Waterloo Arts Awards.