Author, Editor, Publisher, Laureate
damian lopes is an author, editor, micropress proprietor, arts activist, and Poet Laureate Emeritus for the City of Barrie, Ontario, Canada. He writes poetry and fiction, and creates visual work, and has published in variety of forms and formats, including journals and magazines, micro and small press, trade publications, and online.His debut full book, towards the quiet (ECW Press, 1997), was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first poetry book in Canada. His second, sensory deprivation / dream poetics (Coach House Books, 2000), received an Alcuin Award for Book Design; designed by him. 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 In addition, the electronic version of sensory deprivation / dream poetics evolved to the point where it superceded the print version, which he now considers a companion to the electronic.
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 Montréal, 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.