Jamie Reid (April 10, 1941 – June 25, 2015) was a Canadian writer, activist, and arts organizer. He was born in

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

and came of age on the west coast of Canada. Reid co-founded the influential poetry journal ''

TISH ''TISH'' was a Canadian poetry newsletter founded by student-poets at the University of British Columbia in 1961. The publication was edited by a number of Vancouver poets until 1969. The newsletter's poetics were built on those of writers associa ...

'' in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in 1961 with

George Bowering George Harry Bowering, (born December 1, 1935) is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. He was the first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He was born in Penticton, British Columbia, and raised in the nearby town o ...

Frank Davey Frankland Wilmot Davey, FRSC (born April 19, 1940) is a Canadian poet and scholar. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he grew up in the Fraser Valley village of Abbotsford. In 1957 he enrolled at the University of British Columbia where, in 1 ...

, David Dawson, and

Fred Wah Frederick James Wah, OC, (born January 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, scholar and former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Life Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but grew up in the interior (West Kootenay) of British Columbi ...

. He published his first collection of poems, ''The Man Whose Path Was on Fire'', in 1969. A short time later he joined the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and stopped writing for 25 years in favour of political activism "because edidn’t have a way of working the language of politics into the language of poetry.""On Communicating Political Messages Across Party Lines"
/ref> Reid returned to poetry and cultural criticism in the late 1980s, with a special interest in jazz expressed in many of his works. He lived in North Vancouver with his wife, the painter Carol Reid, since returning to Vancouver in 1990, and their home was a hub of literary activism and activity, including the publication of his local/international avant-garde magazine ''DaDaBaBy''. Reid also edited and contributed to the intergenerational Vancouver literary journal ''Tads'' (1996-2001) through which Reid,

, Renee Rodin, and

George Stanley Colonel George Francis Gillman Stanley (July 6, 1907September 13, 2002) was a Canadian historian, author, soldier, teacher, public servant, and designer of the Canadian flag. Early life and education George F.G. Stanley was born in Calgary, Alb ...

mentored younger writers, including Thea Bowering, Wayde Compton, Reg Johanson,

Ryan Knighton Ryan Knighton (born 19. September 19, 1972 in Langley) is a Canadian writer best known for writing about his blindness, in books such as ''Cockeyed: A Memoir'' and ''C'mon Papa – Dispatches from a dad in the dark''. He teaches English and creat ...

, Jason le Heup, Cath Morris, Chris Turnbull, and Karina Vernon.

Bibliography

Poetry

*''The Man Whose Path Was on Fire'' (1969) *''Prez: Homage to Lester Young'' (1994) *''Mad Boys'' (1997) *''I. Another. The Space Between: Selected Poems'' (2004) *''A Temporary Stranger: Homages, Poems and Recollections'' (2017)

Biography

*''Diana Krall: The Language of Love'' (2002) *''Chris Isaak: Wicked Games'' (2006)

References

External links

"Vancouver writer and activist fought for justice, decency"
obituary by Dennis E. Bolen
Jamie Reid, ABCBookworld
biography
"Can You Hear Me Now? A Tribute to Jamie Reid"
edited by Carol Reid (Blurb, 2011) *, reading, Vancouver BC, 2010 *
Jamie and Himself: An Interview With Canada's Jamie Reid
Word Arc, 2008

homage to Allen Ginsberg, 1997
Records of James Reid are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare BooksAt Penn Sound Poetry Archive, 1At Penn Sound Poetry Archive, 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Jamie 1941 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian communists Canadian male poets Writers from Timmins