Dennis Lee (author)

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. In 1986 he won the Vicky Metcalf Award.

Lee's Civil Elegies and Other Poems won the 1972 Governor General's Award for poetry. In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2001 Lee became Toronto's first Poet Laureate.

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.

During the late 1960s, Lee was involved with the Rochdale College experiment in Toronto.

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.

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 - 1974
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

External links

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