Charlie Petch is a non-binary [1] Canadian writer and performer from Toronto, Ontario, [2] whose poetry collection Why I Was Late was the winner of the ReLit Award for Poetry in 2022. [3]
Principally a poet of spoken word, Petch was the founder of Hot Damn It's a Queer Slam and was Spoken Word Canada's poet of honour in 2017. [4] They have also written and performed a number of theatrical plays, most notably Mel Malarkey Gets the Bum's Rush. [2]
Why I Was Late is a 2021 poetry and biography collection by Petch that explores themes of queer love, loss, and survival. The book is a look at masculinity from the perspective of a transmasculine, disabled person who loves music, theater, and Star Wars . [5] [6] It won the 2022 ReLit Award for Poetry. [3]
Year | Title | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | Why I Was Late | ReLit Award | Poetry | Won | [3] |
Anne Michaels is a Canadian poet and novelist whose work has been translated and published in over 45 countries. Her books have garnered dozens of international awards including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas. She is the recipient of honorary degrees, the Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honours. She has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, twice shortlisted for the Giller Prize and twice long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. Michaels won a 2019 Vine Award for Infinite Gradation, her first volume of non-fiction. Michaels was the poet laureate of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 2016 to 2019, and she is perhaps best known for her novel Fugitive Pieces, which was adapted for the screen in 2007.
Robert Priest is a Canadian poet, children's author and singer-songwriter. He has written eighteen books of poetry, four children's novels, four children's albums, and six CDs of songs and poems. Under the alias "Dr Poetry", he has also written and performed two seasons of poetry on CBC Radio's spoken-word show "Wordbeat" and is well known for his aphorisms and the No. 1 Alannah Myles hit "Song Instead of a Kiss". Of his adult poetry, The Pacific Rim Review has written "He is certainly one of the most imaginatively inventive poets in the country," while critic Bernice Lever has opined "Robert Priest’s poems will speak to many generations." Robert's children's poetry is also much praised. "His poetry for children is almost miraculous" gushed pre-eminent children's literature critic Michele Landsberg, "It is almost pure celebration." The Toronto Star described his selected poems as "passionate, cocky, alternately adoring and insulting." Priest's plays, novels and songs have earned him awards and recognition in Canadian literary circles and a growing worldwide readership. His 2022 CD of songs Love is Hard produced by Bob Wiseman is currently streaming worldwide and available for download on 'CDbaby'.
Ken Babstock is a Canadian poet. He was born in Newfoundland and raised in the Ottawa Valley. Babstock began publishing his poems in journals and anthologies, winning gold at the 1997 Canadian National Magazine Awards. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Stuart Ross is a Canadian fiction writer, poet, editor, and creative-writing instructor.
Emanuel Xavier, is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor, screenwriter, and LGBTQ activist born and raised in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Associated with the East Village, Manhattan arts scene in New York City, he emerged from the ball culture scene to become one of the first openly gay poets from the Nuyorican movement as a successful writer and advocate for gay youth programs and Latino gay literature.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a Canadian-American poet, writer, educator and social activist. Their writing and performance art focuses on documenting the stories of queer and trans people of color, abuse survivors, mixed-race people and diasporic South Asians and Sri Lankans. A central concern of their work is the interconnection of systems of colonialism, abuse and violence. They are also a writer and organizer within the disability justice movement.
Sheri-D Wilson, CM D. Litt, is a Canadian poet, performer, educator, speaker, and producer.She is the author of fourteen books, four short films, three plays, and four poetry & music albums.
The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word is an annual festival produced by Spoken Word Canada and planned by a local Festival Organizing Committee in each host city.
Kaie Kellough is a Canadian poet and novelist. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, raised in Calgary, Alberta, and in 1998 moved to Montreal, Quebec, where he lives.
Marion Quednau is a Canadian author, poet and children's writer who lives in British Columbia. Her novel, The Butterfly Chair, won the 1987 Books in Canada First Novel Award.
The ReLit Awards are Canadian literary prizes awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories. Founded in 2000 by Newfoundland filmmaker and author Kenneth J. Harvey.
Ivan E. Coyote is a Canadian spoken word performer, writer, and LGBT advocate. Coyote has won many accolades for their collections of short stories, novels, and films. They also visit schools to tell stories and give writing workshops. The CBC has called Coyote a "gender-bending author who loves telling stories and performing in front of a live audience." Coyote is non-binary and uses singular they pronouns. Many of Coyote's stories are about gender, identity, and social justice. Coyote currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ian Williams is a Canadian poet and fiction writer. His collection of short stories, Not Anyone's Anything, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and his debut novel, Reproduction, was awarded the 2019 Giller Prize. His work has been shortlisted for various awards, as well.
Susan Holbrook is a Canadian poet, whose collection Throaty Wipes was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 2016 Governor General's Awards.
Billy-Ray Belcourt is a poet, scholar, and author from the Driftpile Cree Nation.
Gwen Benaway is a Canadian poet and activist. As of October 2019, she was a PhD candidate in the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto. Benaway has also written non-fiction for The Globe and Mail and Maclean's.
Mustafa Ahmed, known as Mustafa, formerly known as Mustafa the Poet, is a Sudanese-Canadian poet, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker from Toronto. He released his debut studio album, When Smoke Rises, in May 2021.
Jillian Christmas is a Canadian poet from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work focuses on anti-colonial narratives, family, heritage, and identity. She is most noted as the 2021 winner of the League of Canadian Poets' Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for spoken word poetry. Furthermore, she has represented both Vancouver and Toronto at 11 national poetry events and was the first Canadian to make the final stage at the Women of the World Poetry Slam.
Roxanna Bennett is a Canadian poet, whose 2019 collection Unmeaningable won the Raymond Souster Award and the Trillium Book Award for English Poetry in 2020.
Aaron Kreuter is a Canadian writer based in Toronto, Ontario.