Poet, archivist, and librarian, PAUL LISSON was born into a family of union card carrying steelworkers who played in bagpipe bands. Paul has twice been the recipient of the City of Hamilton Arts Award—for visual art and literature in 1997 and for arts administration in 2017. He received the Rand Memorial Prize for accomplishment in print, established by the graduating class of 1898, McMaster University, and the International Merit Award for poetry from the Atlanta Review. He is the Founding Publisher/Editor of Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine. The Ontario Arts Council says that HA&L has the ‘distinction’ of being the first online magazine they have funded.
Paul Lisson.
Photograph by James A. Chambers.
Paul Lisson is a member of The League of Canadian Poets:
http://poets.ca/directory/
The Perfect Archive is Paul Lisson’s debut book of poetry published by Guernica Editions as part of their 2019 Essential Poets series.
Paul’s writing and poetry have appeared in Versal Journal (Amsterdam), Rampike (Windsor), Beloit Poetry Journal (Maine), Descant (Toronto), Prism International (Vancouver), The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Luna Park (Pennsylvania), Canadian Medical Journal (Ottawa), Carousel (Guelph), and the Mid-American Review (Atlanta).
His non-fiction writing has been published by the Canadian Library Journal, (Ottawa); and his art writing has appeared in CuiZine (Montreal), Function Keys 2 Conference of New Technology and Digital Culture catalogue for Centre3 (Hamilton), “Ianthe” a catalogue essay for Vesna Trkulja-Stevens’ exhibition ZIVOT (Life) at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, White Water Journal, (North Bay), and Sister~Family~Home, a publication accompanying an exhibition by Fiona Kinsella, Jason Avery, and Paul Lisson at the Burlington Art Gallery.
Paul has also written for theatre and performance. His play Pavel was performed at the Hamilton Players’ Guild, and the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Take a Number was a commissioned ensemble children’s play professionally performed as part of the UN’s International Youth Year by the Toy Town Troupers. And Big John Simcoe another commissioned ensemble children’s play, was professionally performed throughout Ontario by the Toy Town Troupers.
Paul Lisson 