Literary Biography (poetry) - Chris FaiersChris Faiers has led a picaresque life. Born on Hamilton Mountain, Ontario, Canada in 1948, his family emigrated to the southern U.S. when he was six. Although a Canadian citizen by birth, he was eligible for the draft for the Vietnam War as a resident alien. Chris became an anti-war activist in Miami, Florida, attending demonstrations, organizing a campus group and publishing an underground newsletter. Around 1968 Chris began writing haiku poetry under the tutelage of Eric Amann, the publisher of Haiku magazine. Chris is internationally respected as an early English language haiku poet and innovator (a haijin). He left the U.S. forever in June 1969 to avoid conscription for the Vietnam War. Chris lived for two years in the largest commune in the United Kingdom, the derelict Eel Pie Island Hotel in Twickenham. Eel Pie Dharma: a memoir/haibun tells the story of his explorations and adventures in the late '60s and early '70s. After three years of street-level poverty Chris returned to Canada in 1972 and joined the anti-imperialist Canadian Liberation Movement. In the CLM Chris met poets Milton Acorn and James Deahl and resumed writing poetry, influenced by Acorn's ability to write accessible and lyrical poetry with a political message. In addition to writing haiku, lyrical and political poetry, Chris founded the literary press, Unfinished Monument, in 1978. He founded The Main Street Library Poetry Readings the following year. Chris was also a founding member of The Canadian Poetry Association, with James Deahl, Shaunt Basmajian and Wayne Ray and a founding member of Haiku Canada, with Eric Amann, George Swede, Margaret Saunders and others. In 1987 Chris was the first recipient of the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award for his book Foot Through the Ceiling (Aya/Mercury Press). Chris moved to the Kawartha Lakes area of Ontario in 1989. He worked as the head librarian/CEO in the village of Stirling for twelve years, from 1994 to 2006. After his retirement from library work, Chris founded the Purdy Country Literary Festivals (PurdyFests) in Marmora. He coordinated the festivals for eight years, until 2014. PurdyFests will continue to be held in a new location, likely Cobourg, beginning in 2015. Chris bought a small piece of land in 2005 which had been the site of the pioneer Malone mill on the upper Moira River. Chris renamed the riverfront retreat ZenRiver Gardens, and many of the annual PurdyFest activities were held there. ZenRiver Gardens was included in an article on Buddhist retreats in the area magazine "Country Roads". Much of Chris's poetry is composed while sitting on the deck of his shaman shack there. Chris continues to have his poetry widely published, and he continues to support and mentor other poets with his blog, Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens. Chris has been the poetry editor for Quinte Arts Council's tabloid, "Umbrella", for about a decade. COLLECTIONSCricket Formations (haiku), C & C Printing Richmond, England, 1969 Guest in a Garden (haiku), C & C Printing, Richmond, England, 1969 Dominion Day in Jail, Unfinished Monument Press, 1978 College Streetcar Runs All Night, Unfinished Monument Press, 1979 White Rasta, Unfinished Monument Press, 1980 Sleeping in Ruins (haiku), Unfinished Monument Press, 1981 Unacknowledged Legislator, blewointmentpress, 1981 White Rasta in Wintertime, Unfinished Monument Press, 1982 Island Women, HMS Press, 1983 The Unfinished Anthology (Editor), Unfinished Monument Press, 1984 5 Minutes Ago They Dropped the Bomb, Unfinished Monument Press, 1984 Foot Through the Ceiling, Aya/Mercury Press, 1986 Mr. Library Man, Haiku Canada Broadsheet, 1988 13 Bohemian Dreams, Unfinished Monument Press, 1988 Moon City (haiku), Greensleeve Publishing, 1989 Eel Pie Dharma: a memoir/haibun, Unfinished Monument Press, 1990 ZenRiver Poems & Haibun, Hidden Book Press, 2008 Eel Pie Island Dharma, (reprint), Hidden Brook Press, 2012 ANTHOLOGY AND TEXTBOOK APPEARANCESPoems for Sale in the Street, Steel Rail Publishing, 1979 The Canadian Haiku Anthology, Three Trees Press, 1979 The Modern English Haiku, Columbine Editions, 1981 The Erotic Haiku Anthology, Black Moss Press, 1983 The Toronto Collection, Manoeuvres Press, 1984 The Unfinished Anthology, Unfinished Monument Press, 1984 Other Channels, Basmajian, Jones, 1984 Anti-War Poems, Vesta Press, 1984 The Haiku Handbook, McGraw-Hill (U.S.), 1985 The Crafted Poem, Wordwrights Canada, 1985 Haiku: Canadian Anthology/Anthologie Candienne, Editions Asticou, 1985 Tidepool 2, Hamilton Haiku Workshop Press, 1985 The Last Blewointment Anthology, Knightwood Editions, 1985 Milkweed, Nietzsche's Brolly, 1987 Instant Anthology '87, Meet the Presses, 1987 Haiku Canada 10th Anniversary Holograph Anthology, 1987 The Northern Red Oak (Poems for Milton Acorn), Unfinished Monument Press, 1987 Special Delivery, Haiku Canada, 1988 International Haiku Contest 1987 (prize), The Modern Haiku Association of Tokyo, 1988 Voices, Haiku Canada, 1989 Synesthesia in Haiku, University of the Philippines Press, 1989 Keeper of the Conscience, Greensleeve Publishing, 1990 Wind in the Long Grass, Simon & Schuster, 1991 Haiku Canada 15th Anniversary Holograph Anthology, 1992 A Haiku Alphabet in Celebration of Spring, Proof Press, 1994 Let The Earth Take Note, Milton Acorn Festival Publishing, 1994 A Magical Clockwork, Wordwrights Canada, 2000 Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament, Mansfield Press, 2006 Feast of Equinox, 2007 Crossing Lines, Seraphim Editions, 2008 And Left A Place To Stand On - Poems and Essays on Al Purdy, Hidden Book Press, 2009 Building Sanctuary: The Movement to Support Vietnam War Resisters in Canada, 1965-73, UBC Press, 2013 Jack Layton: Art in Action, Quattro Books, 2013 Under the Mulberry Tree: Poems for and about Raymond Souster, Quattro Press, 2014 Window Fishing: The night we caught Beatlemania, Hidden Brook Press, 2014 Journeys 2017: An Anthology of International Haibun (ed. Angelee Deodhar), Create Space, 2017 Piping at the End of Days - A book of Overcoming (ed. Katherine L Gordon), Valley Press, 2017 ONLINE ANTHOLOGIESThe Pedestal Political Anthology, 2004 MAGAZINE APPEARANCESAlchemist, Alive, Americas Review, Anthos, Arts Scarborough Newsletter, Atkinson College Balloon, Bite, Blueprint, Canadian Author & Bookman, Canadian Book Review Annual, Canadian Dimension, Cicada, Daybreak, Driftwood East, express magazine, 519 News, Grain, Gut, Haiku, Haiku Highlights, Haiku West, The Heart, Inkstone, Janus SCTH, Leslieville Community News, Lucky Jim's, Mainichi Times, Modern Haiku, Musicworks, Mamashee, Nimbus Two, Nutmegger, Oblique Times, Origins, Our Times, Partisan, Pierian Spring, Piranha, Poetic License, Poetry Canada Review, Poetry Toronto, Prairie Star, Proof Rock, Rampike, Raw NervZ, The Red Menace, Rubicon, The Shit, Southwind, TPL News, This Magazine, Umbrella, Waitaka Press Broadsheet, Ward 9 News, Ward 7 News, Watchwords, Waves, Wee Giant, Whitewall Review, Wind Chimes, Writers' Quarterly ONLINE MAGAZINESSimply Haiku (May-June 2004) Poetry Lives - Contemporary Haibun Online (June 2006) OTHEROver 40 public readings and radio and television broadcasts "A Defence of Poetry" (essay) in Tough Times - Black Moss Press (2010) Five Questions with Chris Faiers: PurdyFest 2011 - interview for Open Book, Ontario (July 2011) Chris Faiers - Poet - Marmora History Foundation (2014) SELECTED REVIEWS & KIND WORDS"I like his poetry." - Beatle George Harrison, Esher, England 1969 "Your poems have verve, wit, range and rage. Bravo, and an entire laurel tree of praise for them. They have lifted me out of the fits of depression that sometimes grip me when reading the lifeless drivel that passes for poetry these days. God bless you and keep you always warm and creative." - Irving Layton "A book by Chris Faiers is always a joy to behold, not only for its spontaneous unpretentiousness and ribald good humour, it's as though he has discovered that God in his/her/its infinite wisdom has decreed that humanity is the scapegoat of the cosmos, and Faiers laughing at our foibles is the only sensible way out." - Herb Barrett in Origins Magazine on Sleeping in Ruins "Faiers' poetry illuminates the human condition with a quiet strength. He is a strong imagist and equally strong lyrical poet, 'giving the common man a common candidate'. A social critic and gentle satirist of his own alter-ego, the poet persona, Chris wanders through a downtown urban world of kitchens, union meetings and racetracks, recording what touches him in anger or compassion." - Judges Comments, The Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award, Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly |