A note from founder D.C. Reid:

At the time of P.K. Page’s passing early in 2010, in a room filled with family and friends, along with 50 poets, many also friends, it crossed my mind that it would be good to have something tangible to remember her by. Closely thereafter, I asked Marilyn Bowering, who was a closer friend than I, whether a mentoring program in her name would be a good focus for a fundraising purpose to both remember her and to benefit Canadian poets.

Marilyn responded, saying: “Although P.K. is not known to have used the word ‘mentorship’ when describing her relationship to other poets, it is what she stood for. She supported, advocated for, arranged meetings between, fostered community among and wrote letters for poets she believed in. Often these were younger poets, but not always. She had an eye out for the talented and overlooked and quietly, in the background, offered literary, social and sometimes financial support.”

I had just allowed myself to be talked into being president at the League of Canadian Poets, mostly, on my part, so I could create some financial benefits for poets. I decided that the League would be a good place to mount a mentorship program to benefit those starting out and those with many books already published. This conviction started what turned out to be a decade’s long journey of raising enough money, and donating just as much, to get the fund to almost $50,000 in 2020.

This note is excerpted from the introduction to Hologram for PK Page, an anthology of poems edited and published by D.C. Reid as a fundraiser for the PK Page Trust Fund. Reid D.C. Reid’s complete introduction, on P.K. Page herself, the P.K. Page Trust Fund development, and the personal significance of the mentorship program, here.

About P.K. Page

Born in 1916, PK Page’s artistic and poetic career spanned more than five decades, ending only with her death in 2010. She was made a Life Member of the League in 1987. In 2000, PK, as she was known to her friends, was granted a special honour when the United Nations chose her glosa “Planet Earth” for its Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry reading series. The poem – which was the one for which she wanted to be remembered – was read at locations around the globe considered ‘international ground,’ including the United Nations, Mount Everest and Antarctica.

About D.C. Reid

“I have published 15 books, nine of which are literary: eight of poetry, one novel, four non-fiction fly fishing books and two lit-non-fiction; my poems and stories have been published in 50 magazines around the world for the past 30 years, including a good 30 magazines in Canada alone; my articles on fly fishing have also been published in an additional 50 magazines, newspapers and on websites for 25 years, across North America – perhaps 2,000 non-fiction articles – with advertising copy going around the globe; I wrote the sport fishing column for the Times Colonist Newspaper, Victoria for ten years; I have three websites: www.catchsalmonbc.com; www.dcreid.ca; and, www.sandria.ca.  I have four blogs: www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com; www.onfishingdcreid.blogspot.com; www.poetrydcreid.blogspot.com; and, am the co-publisher, with Christopher Moore, of: www.creatorsac.blogspot.com; I am working on a truly fascinating book: The Brains of Poets; along with the science of neuroplasticity and creativity. I am a past President of the League of Canadian Poets.

“Something new, for my sixth book of poems, You Shall Have No Other. I made the poems into web-based movies, 55 of them, on www.sandria.ca, something, to my knowledge, no other poet has done. As images are central to poetry, the transition to video is a natural progression. This book is a book of poems, written as a novel, pared down to a play and presented as web-based movies. Anyone can download these, change them anyway they want and put their own movies back up on the web, as well as take the text file, rewrite it, send to print on demand at Amazon and receive their own, tangible book the next day in the mail. The reader is the writer. Every book is unique. Every poem is a movie. It is amazing what we can now do.

“My poetry has been translated into Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Bengali, French, Greek, Italian and German, and I am at work on a book that will feature the translators of my poems as the main focus.”