Dennis Lee (author)

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Dennis Lee, CM , MA (born 31 August 1939) is a Canadian children's writer and poet who lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Lee has a bachelors and masters degree in English from the University of Toronto. While a serious poet, he is best known for his children's writings. His best known work is, perhaps, Alligator Pie (1974). He also wrote the lyrics to the theme song of the television show Fraggle Rock and, with Philip Balsam, many of the other songs for that show. Balsam and Lee also wrote the songs for the television special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. Lee is co-writer of the story for the film Labyrinth.

During the late 1960s, Lee was involved with the Rochdale College experiment in Toronto. In 1967 Lee was among those who founded House of Anansi Press and was its first editor, a position he held for five years. He helped to build Anansi into the acclaimed publisher of poetry and literature that it is today.

Lee is critical of modern society and education for working to restrict imagination, arguing that children are rooted in a colonial mentality.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Awards and Honours 2 An example of Lee's poetry 3 Selected bibliography 4 External links

[edit] Awards and Honours

• Lee's Civil Elegies and Other Poems won the 1972 Governor General's Award for poetry.

• In 1986 he won the Vicky Metcalf Award.

• In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

• In 2001 Lee became Toronto's first Poet Laureate.

[edit] An example of Lee's poetry

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Sat in a corner and played with string,
Loved his mother like anything,
William Lyon Mackenzie King.

[edit] Selected bibliography

• Kingdom of Absence - 1967
• Wiggle to the Laundromat - 1970
• Civil Elegies and Other Poems - 1972 (winner of 1972 Governor General's Award for Poetry)
• Alligator Pie'
• Nicholas Knock and Other People - 1974
• Garbage Delight - 1977
• Savage Fields - 1977
• The Ordinary Bath - 1979
• The Gods - 1979
• Jelly Belly - 1983
• Lizzy's Lion - 1984
• The Difficulty of Living on Other Planets - 1987
• The Ice Cream Store - 1991
• Riffs - 1993
• Body Music - 1998
• Bubblegum Delicious - 2000
• The Cat and the Wizard - 2001
• UN - 2003
• So Cool - 2005

[edit] External links

• Dennis Lee on University of Toronto's Canadian Poetry website
• Toronto's First Poet Laureate: Dennis Lee
• Order of Canada Citation
• Dennis Lee Fan Site

Preceded by None

Toronto Poets Laureate 2001-2004

Succeeded by Pier Giorgio Di Cicco