The Montreal poetry scene experienced an unprecedented eruption of activity in the mid-70s that resulted in collaborative poems, simultaneous readings, multimedia performances, videopoems, poetry on the city’s buses, English poetry programs on French CBC, concrete poems, a dozen issues of poetry magazines and more than a dozen books. This and more was the result of the individual and collective effort of Endre Farkas, Artie Gold, Tom Konyves, Claudia (Cel) Lapp, Stephen Morrissey, John McAuley and Ken Norris who became labelled the Vehicule Poets. The Vehicule Poets came together to form the most cohesive poetry movement in Canada since the TISH days of the early 1960s. Their work tended toward the fresh and the experimental as they shared a spirit of collectivity and collaboration. They were the leading proponents of literary community and poetic experimentation. This is not a nostalgic look back but a view of the present. The poems in this anthology reveal a still very vibrant and vital body of work. These poems continue to push boundaries and test limits.
About the Editors
Tom Konyves is a poet, video producer, educator, and a pioneer in the field of videopoetry. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he was based in Montreal until 1983, where he was associated with the Vehicule Poets. Konyves’s works include No Parking, Poetry in Performance, Sleepwalking Among the Camels, Ex Perimeter and Perfect Answers to Silent Questions and the surrealist novella OOSOOM. After 15 years of teaching Visual Poetry and Creative Writing, Screenwriting and Journalism, he has retired from the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. He lives in White Rock, BC.
Stephen Morrissey was born in Montreal. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) in 1973. In 1976 he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in English from McGill University where he won the Peterson Poetry Award. Morrissey has edited two literary magazines, What Is, a journal of experimental poetry, and The Montreal Journal of Poetics, and is the founding editor of Coracle Press. His works include The Trees of Unknowing and Family Album, as well as the collection Mapping the Soul.
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