Jamie Reid (April 10, 1941 - June 25, 2015)

Sad news from Vancouver: poet and activist Jamie Reid has died. As his wife wrote via his facebook page on Saturday (where this photo was borrowed):

Dear Friends

Our beloved Jamie died suddenly on Thursday afternoon, June 25, at home in Vancouver. You should know that his last day was filled with happiness and healing energy, and he was vibrant. The family will be saying goodbye on Wednesday at a private ceremony at the Boal Chapel near Capilano University. A public celebration and memorial will be organized soon where we can all get together to share our love and respect. In the meantime, know that we are managing with the support of close friends and relatives, and are filled with love for him.

Regards to you all, Carol

As much as he was a senior poet in the Canadian writing community, co-founder of TISH and general (positive) rabble-rouser for poetry and poetics, he was also quite generous towards younger poets, such as through his involvement in the occasional journal TADS. He was also instrumental in bringing John Newlove back to Vancouver in the late 1990s for what was not only his first Vancouver reading in more than a decade and a half, but his final Vancouver reading. His energy and generosity will be missed.

For more information on Jamie Reid, check out his ABC Bookworld page here, or this 2014 piece on him by Joanne Arnott. His Mad Boys is still online as part of the Coach House Books archive, his I, Another, The Space Between: Selected Poems is still available from Talonbooks, and his literary archive is housed at Simon Fraser University.