Poem of Month
Poem of the Month winner named
Calgary teacher and writing
student wins inaugural honour
By Janice Lee
John Creary, a Calgary teacher and University of Calgary creative writing student, is the first winner of the U of C’s Poem of the Month competition. Creary’s prose poem, “The Great Northern Poem” was selected from 25 entries.
This month’s competition, held during English Department Month in March, was a dry run for the Poem of the Month contest idea,” says Robert Majzels, chair of the department’s community and contact committee. “Starting in October, we plan to run the competition each month of the 2008/2009 academic year.”
Creary teaches high school English and social studies in a Calgary program for youth-at-risk. Enrolled in an English Department’s poetry writing workshop this year, he is also a self-described “musician, DJ, vinyl collector and traveller.” Samples of his music can be found at http://www.ginsbergsinkling.com/.
““We found John’s poem surprising and engaging, and that the winner is a prose-poem shows that the competition is open to all different kinds of poetry,” Majzels said.
An English Department associate professor, Majzels was part of the Poem of the Month jury, along with English subject librarian Melanie Boyd and English Department associate professor Tom Wayman.
Copies of the winning poem are currently posted across campus.