Dennis Lee was born August 31, 1939, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He's been married twice, and has two daughters and one son from his first marriage. Professionally, he's worn many different hats. He's been a lecturer in English, (1964- 67); at Rochdale College in Toronto, a "resource person" (1967-69); the cofounder and editor of the House of Anansi Press in Toronto(1967-72), an editorial consultant for Macmillan of Canada, (1973-78), at McClelland & Stewart he was poetry editor (1981- 84); and lyricist for Jim Henson's TV series Fraggle Rock (1982-86). It was recently pointed out to me (thanks Susan) that the movie Labyrinth is based on a story that Dennis Lee and Jim Henson wrote. Now, I knew this - I've seen his name in the credits (and read it on the back of the novel adaptation) about a thousand times, but for some reason it never 'clicked'. Duh. Anyway, I've found something on a website (site is down right now) that says Mr. Lee also wrote for the Muppet Show... does anyone know if this is true?

In 1972 he won the Governor-General's award for his book Civil Elegies and Other Poems. He also won the 1974 Book of the Year for Children award for Alligator Pie from the Association of Children's Librarians.

Recent History

The Eden Mills Writers' Festival had Mr. Lee as a guest on Sept 9, 2001. Nice little article.

The 19th Annual Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
(August 9th - 12th, 2001) in Sechelt B.C. had Dennis Lee as one of their guests last year. I missed it. =( If anyone has any photos or can tell me how it went, I'd love to hear from you.

The Banff Arts Festival had Dennis Lee at their "Readings from the Writing Studio" on May 31st in 2001.

Toronto's first ever Poet Laureate is Dennis Lee. He was appointed on April 26, 2001. Here's the City of Toronto's News Release, and CBC's The Art Report article.

The Carousel Players production of The Ice Cream Store And More was a nominee for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards, for Outstanding Production in the category of Theatre for Young Audiences. Alas, they did not win, but I'm sure it was very close.

This Morning on CBC radio interviewed Dennis Lee on November 7, 2000. Here's a link to CBS's site where you can listen to the interview.

Alligator Pie was chosen as one of the Top 100 Canadian Books of All Time in 1999 by the University of Toronto book store (I found the link again!).

In 2 Print Magazine had two new, never before published poems in their magazine in mid June 1999. Thanks to Jean Baird for this info. =)

Alligator Pie turned 25 in 1999. This Morning on CBC has a nice little article and interview right here.