Poets Circle Donors:
Jacques Nolin is senior partner and portfolio manager at Jarislowsky Fraser,
one of Canada's leading investment firms, but he is also a lover of the
arts. Jennifer Boire is a published author and poet, and former Quebec
representative of the League of Canadian Poets. Together they are proud to
support the arts in Canada, particularly poetry. They have generously
supported the Anne Szumigalski Lecture Series since 2004 (with a very generous one-time
donation, matched by the government of Ontario). As a businessman,
Jacques understands the value of consistent funding for poetry programs, in
this era of uncertain government support.
He is also the sponsor of the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry in Quebec, with
the Quebec Writer's Federation. Jennifer Boire was a board member of the QWF
in 2006-7.
Donated by: Jacques Nolin and Jennifer Boire
In Memoriam Donors:
Many people have helped to build Canada's poetry community over the League's 40-year history - not only poets, but also supporters, publishers, booksellers and teachers. Donations in their memory support the League's work of building the future, but also honour the past.
Recent donations remember:
Joseph Sherman
(1945 - 2006)
Joseph Howard Sherman was born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia in 1945, and died in the Palliative Care Unit of the Prince Edward Home in Charlottetown on January 9, 2006, at the young age of 60, leaving behind his wife Ann, his adult children Rebekah and Matthew, three grandchildren, and his mother. Joe taught college English in Edmundston, New Brunswick until he became editor of Arts Atlantic in 1979 and moved with his family to Charlottetown, PEI, where he lived until his death. Joe was a member of, and ardent spokesperson for, the League of Canadian Poets for 35 years. He was also a member of the Writers’ Federations of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These constitute some of the bare facts of his too, too short life.
Over the years Joe won several awards and expanded his interests to include all facets of the Arts. Some of those awards include the Bliss Carman Award (1968), the Royal Society of Arts Medal (1994), the Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts, in PEI (1997), and the Betty and Morris Aaron-Henry Fuerstenberg Prize for Poetry (for American Standard and Other Poems 2002). Perhaps it was his being awarded the Order of Canada in 2003 that moved Joe most deeply. The appointment was to celebrate and recognize his devotion and contribution to the Arts in the Maritimes over the course of his 21 years as Editor of Arts Atlantic. During this time as well, Joe served a term as Vice President of the League of Canadian Poets. His love and respect for poets and poetry was an integral part of who he was.
Joseph was elected a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets by his fellow members, in recognition of his contributions to poetry and to the League.
Donated by: Ann Sherman
George Johnston
(1913 - 2004)
Poet and teacher, George is remembered as "a modest, gentle, wise man who inspired generations of students." He was born in Hamilton, educated at the University of Toronto and served in the RCAF as a reconnaissance pilot in Africa. He returned to the University of Toronto for graduate studies and then taught at Mount Allison University for two years before joining the faculty of Carleton University where he taught until his retirement in 1979. During that time he became recognized internationally as a translator of the Icelandic sagas.
His individual volumes of poems built him an reputation for "unostentatious but formidable artistry" and a loyal audience. His books include The Cruising Auk (1959); Home Free (1966); Happy Enough: Poems 1933-72 (1972); Taking a Grip (1979); Auk Redivivus: Selected Poems (1981); Ask Again (1984). His final collection, What is to Come, Selected and New Poems, appeared in 1996.
George was elected a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets by his fellow members, in recognition of his contributions to poetry and to the League.
Donated by: Mark Johnston
David Huggett
(1949 - 2005)
Poet David Huggett was not widely known outside Edmonton during his lifetime. But he served the poetry community in this city well as a volunteer with organizations like the Writers Guild of Alberta and the Stroll of Poets Society.
David was born in Victoria, and made his living for a number of years as a carpenter and fisherman while developing his skills as a writer and painter. He moved to Edmonton in 1992. He died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at a sadly early age.
David published only one collection of poetry during his lifetime. The sequence that makes up most of Gran: the maledictions is a spare, remarkable dialogue between a poet and an unlikely muse - an old, muttering woman encountered on buses and in shabby rooms, whose mouldy green ear becomes, at last, the listening ear of God.
Donated by: Alice Major
Individual Donors:
