Peter Austin

Peter Austin lives with his wife and three daughters in Toronto.  He writes formal verse, and his favourite form is the sonnet. His poetry has appeared in magazines/anthologies in Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, South Africa and New Zealand.  As well as poetry, he writes plays, and his most noteworthy success in this field is a musical adaptation of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, which has been produced in Montreal, Antigonish and Vancouver.  A fourth production is scheduled for July 07, in Worcester, Mass.  After spending several years in the wrong jobs (including bank clerk and computer programmer), he has spent the last twenty in the right one, as a Professor of English at Seneca College.  He possesses a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Adult Education.  In his spare time (what there is of it), he pulls apart and rebuilds his house.

Selected Anthologies
Ascent Aspirations Magazine Anthology One (Ascent Aspirations Publishing, 2005) ISBN: 978-0-1715-0841
Rhyme and Reason (Neil Harding McAlister, 2006) ISBN: 0-9737006-1-0
The Future Looks Bright (Inner Surf Publishing, 2006) ISBN: 0-9732762-7-4

Books in Print
Austin, Peter
The Wind in the Willows (stage play), (Playwrights Union of Canada, 2001) ISBN: 1-55173-630-6, $8.75

Peter Austin 27 Kimberley Avenue, Toronto, ON M4E 2Z3
peteraustin@rogers.com

Poet in the School
(Toronto)

phone: 416-699-6067 or peteraustin@rogers.com

Peter Austin lives with his wife and three daughters in Toronto, where he teaches English at Seneca College.  His metier is formal verse, and his favourite form the sonnet.  Over ninety of his poems have been published, in magazines/anthologies in Canada (including Queen's Quarterly, the Dalhousie Review, the Prairie Journal and Ascent Aspirations) and several other countries.  He also writes plays, and his musical adaptation of The Wind in the Willows will enjoy its fourth production in July '07, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Grade Levels: Grades 9 - 12

Fees: Standard

Classroom Approach:

Begin with a talk about why poetry matters, why I write poetry, where the ideas come from, how they become poems, and how I get these poems published.

Continue by reading several of my poems, interspersed with a discussion of the elements of poetry in general and of formal poetry in particular (rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, metaphor, simile, end-stopping, enjambment, etc)

Conclude with a question/answer session on any aspect of what I have (or have not!) covered.