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Andrea Thompson

 

Member profile details

Membership level
Full
First name
Andrea
Last name
Thompson
Country
Canada
 

ABOUT

Profile picture
Biography
Andrea Thompson is a writer, editor, educator and award-winning spoken word artist who has been publishing and performing her work for over twenty-five years. Thompson is the recipient of the 2021 Leon E. & Ann M. Pavlick Poetry Prize and her work was featured in the anthology, Best Canadian Poetry: 2020. In 2021, her collection, A Selected History of Soul Speak (Frontenac House, Quartet) was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, and longlisted for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards. In 2005 Thompson’s spoken word album, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award, in 2019 her album, Soulorations, earned her a League of Canadian Poets’ Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award. A graduate of the University of Guelph’s MFA Creative Writing program, Thompson has taught undergraduate University creative writing courses since 2017. She is the author of numerous critical essays on spoken word poetry, is the author of the novel, Over Our Heads and is the co-editor of the anthology Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (both from Inanna Publications). Thompson has recently served as an editor at Brick Books and as the artistic director of Brick's online spoken word showcase, Brickyard. Thompson designed and delivered the first spoken word course to be offered at the University of Toronto, through the English & Drama department on the Mississauga campus where she also currently teaches 3rd year Creative Writing (poetry and fiction). Her most recent work is The Good Word, a spoken word album that reflects on the intersection of Black history and faith, and Complex, a multimedia poetry collection exploring mental health.

For expanded bio, poetry videos, essay excerpts and more: www.andreathompson.ca

Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp: andreathompsonpoet
Self-identification: equity-deserving groups
  • Black
  • Racialized
 

PUBLICATIONS AND RECOGNITION

Books and other publications
Books:

A Selected History of Soul Speak, Frontenac House, Fall 2021
Evidence, InPrint Publications, 2019 (Chapbook)
Over Our Heads, Innana Publications. Fall 2014 (Novel)
Other Tongues: Mixed Race Women Speak Out, Inanna Publications, 2010 (Anthology, Co-editor)
Eating the Seed, Ekstasis Editions, 2000 (Poetry Collection)
Fire Belly, Pink Flamingo Works, 1997 (Chapbook)

Essays:

- “Spoken Word: A Signifying Gesture”, Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory, and Futures in Canada, Ed. Ronald Cummings and Natalee Caple (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021)
- “Embodying Resistance / Riding the Wave”, Feminism: Revisit, Revise, Revolutionize: A Two Part History, Feminist Caucus Chapbook (League of Canadian Poets, 2018)
- “Spoken Word: A Gesture Towards Possibility”, Writing Creative Writing: Pedagogy, Research, and Practice, Ed. Rishma Dunlop and Priscila Uppal (Dundurn Press, 2017)
- “What Kind of Writer Are You?: The Hybridist Anxieties and (R)evolutionary Tactics of Spoken Word’s Third Wave Pioneers”, Caught in the Act II: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, Ed. Tanya Mars and Johanna Householder (YYZ Books, 2016)
- “A Natural History of Spoken Word in Canada” (Prologue), Le Making of d’un Homme by Dwayne Morgan, Malestom Editions, 2009 Belgium.


Selected Anthology/ Journal Poetry Publications:

Best Canadian Poetry 2020, (Biblioasis, 2020)
“ARC Poetry Magazine”, Fall 2019
“White Wall Review”, Issue 49, Fall 2019
The Medium is the Muse: Channeling Marshall McLuhan, Edited by Lance Strate & Adeena Karasick (NeoPoiesis Press, 2014)
“Women Writing4: Remembering”, Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme fourth: Inanna Publications, Winter 2012/Spring 2013Volume: 30, Number: 1
The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry, Frontenac Press 2013.
Mary of Canada, The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture(Banff Centre Press, 2003)
Short Fuse: A Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry (Rattapallax Press, 2002)
Bluesprint: An Anthology of Black British Columbian Literature & Orature (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001)
Poetry Nation: The North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry (Vehicule Press, 1998)
Vintage ’95: The League of Canadian Poet’s Annual Anthology (Quarry Press) 1999

Spoken Word/Plays:

Mating Rituals of the Urban Cougar; 60 minute solo theatre show (2008 Fringe Festival Tour: Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver)

Audio Recordings:

Soulorations (Spoken Word Album 2018)
One (Spoken Word Album, 2004)
Awards and other achievements
2005 Canadian Urban Music Award (Nominated) Best Spoken Word Recording.
2009 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word: Poet of Honor (For Outstanding Achievement in the Art of Spoken Word).
2019 League of Canadian Poets’ Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for Excellence and Innovation in Spoken Word.
2021 Leon E. & Ann M. Pavlick Poetry Prize
Poetic forms and styles
  • Concrete poetry
  • Long poem
  • Print poetry
  • Prose poetry
  • Sound poetry
  • Spoken word
  • Video poems
  • Visual poetry
Other writing expertise
  • Academic writing
  • Creative non-fiction
  • Hybrid genres
  • Interactive storytelling
  • Interdisciplinary collaborations
  • Literary fiction
  • Memoir
  • Music / lyrics
  • Nature writing
  • Self-help
 

BOOK THIS POET TODAY

Contact poet directly
Please get in touch for bookings and coaching / editing inquiries:

contactandreathompson@gmail.com
www.andreathompson.ca
Poets in the Schools (Ontario)
  • Poets in the Schools (senior grades)
International bookings
Please get in touch for bookings and coaching / editing inquiries:

contactandreathompson@gmail.com
www.andreathompson.ca
Editorial services
  • Poetry manuscript evaluation
  • Poetry manuscript editing
  • Individual poem editing
  • Fiction editing
  • Non-fiction editing
  • One-on-one mentoring
Editorial services: detail
Individual poem, full manuscript and spoken word performance coaching. Please contact for more details and to work out a plan that's right for you.