Manuscript Collection - Dennis Lee Papers

Dennis Lee was born August 31, 1939, in Toronto. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1962 and his M.A. in 1965. He taught English at Victoria College, University of Toronto, between 1963 and 1967. In 1967, he co-founded the House of Anansi Press, where he was editorial director until 1972. He's been a full-time writer since 1972, with forays into related work, including editing. He was a writer-in-residence at Trent University (1975) and the University of Toronto (1978-1979). He worked at Macmillan of Canada as an editorial consultant between 1974-79, and was director of the poetry programme at McClelland & Stewart (1981-84). He was also the lyricist for Jim Henson's TV series Fraggle Rock (1982-86). He is well-known for his children’s books, including Alligator Pie (1974) and Nicholas Knock and Other People (1974), which seek to encourage free imaginative play and break away from colonial mentality and history. He has published many books of prose and poetry including Civil Elegies and Other Poems (1972), Nighwatch: New & Selected Poems 1968-1996 (1996), and YesNo (2007). Lee won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1972 and 2007, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993, and was Toronto’s first Poet Laureate from 2001-2004.