Sheri-D Wilson has 9 collections of poetry; her most recent, Open Letter: Woman Against Violence Against Women. Her collection, Re:Zoom (2005, Frontenac House), won the 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, and was shortlisted for the CanLit Award.

She has 2 Spoken Word CDs (arranged by Russell Broom), and 4 award-winning VideoPoems including: Airplane Paula (2001), Spinsters Hanging in Trees (2002), both produced for BravoFACT.

In 2011 she edited, The Spoken Word Workbook: inspiration from poets who teach(CSWS/BCP), an educational tool for teaching and writing Spoken Word. The cutting-edge website connected to this book presents a possible direction for electronic publishing in the future.

In 2009 CBC called her one of the Top 10 Poets in Canada. In 2003 she won the USA Heavyweight title for poetry, and in 2006 The National Slam of Canada presented her with the Poet of Honour Award. Of the beat tradition, in 1989 Sheri-D studied at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, in Boulder, Colorado. In 2012 she was presented in the opening event of The National Slam of Canada in a Toronto event called, “Legends of Spoken Word.”

Community:

A long-time advocate of Small Presses Sheri-D has had a lifetime desire to showcase the voice of all people. From 1988-1990, Sheri-D co-founded and organized the Vancouver Small Press Festival, and the Commercial Street Art Festival for the Normal Art Society in Vancouver.

The Calgary Spoken Word Festival which she founded in 2004, is one of the most respected Spoken Word Festivals in North America. Driven by the passion to connect people, voices and ideas she organized SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network,’07, ‘05), she produced the 2008 National Slam and was Director of the Spoken Word Program at Banff Centre between 2005-2012.

Selected Media Highlights

Calgary Herald feature

Calgary Herald profile