damian lopes is an author and editor, living in Barrie Ontario, Canada. He writes both poetry and fiction, and has a variety of published visual work. Currently, he is working on The Bharata, a contemporary poetic interpretation of the central epic in the great Sanskrit poem, The Mahabharata.
damian's first book, towards the quiet (ECW Press, 1997), was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first poetry book in Canada. His second book, sensory deprivation / dream poetics (Coach House Books, 2000), received an Alcuin Award for Book Design; the book was designed by the author. His most recent book is clay lamps & fighter kites (The Mercury Press, 2000).
But lopes has not restricted his work to the page. His poetry-multimedia installation, Project X 1497-1999, has been featured at two Desh Pardesh Conferences (Toronto, 1998 & 2000), and at the 'Public Displays of Asianness' conference at NYU (New York, 1998). In addition, the electronic version of sensory deprivation / dream poetics evolved to the point where it superceded the print version, which the author now considers a companion to the electronic.
lopes began working as an editor in 1990 when he founded the micro press fingerprinting inkoperated while living in Montreal. Using a wide range of publishing methods, from rubberstamps to desktop publishing, fingerprinting inkoperated produced chapbooks, leaflets and broadsides by authors such as Nelson Ball, Daniel f Bradley, Christian Bok, jwcurry, MAC Farrant, Gerry Gilbert, bpNichol, David UU, Darren Wershler-Henry, and Alana Wilcox.
In 1995, lopes and his brother, Dominic McIver Lopes, began Caju Press with the aim of publishing South Asian folk literature for western audiences.
damian lopes was the web editor and a consulting editor at Coach House Books from 1998 to 2004. While with this innovative press, he oversaw and maintained the website and its extensive selection of online books.
He is currently taking a break from editing in order to spend more time with family, and to work on The Bharata.
Born in Aberdeen Scotland and raised in Toronto Canada, damian lopes traces his family over much of the globe, including the UK, New Zealand, East Africa, India and Portugal. Educated at McGill University in Montreal, he has also lived in Vancouver BC and travelled through India and East Africa. He now lives in Barrie Ontario with his wife and son.
