About
The Poet Laureate Program was made possible by a generous donation from Dr. Yosef Wosk whose significant cultural leadership in Vancouver includes ongoing support for libraries and the literary arts. Dr. Wosk’s donation is matched by the BC Arts Renaissance Fund and held in trust by the Vancouver Foundation, which ensures the continuation of the Poet Laureate position.
The Poet Laureate Program is a partnership of the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival.
Brad Cran, Vancouver’s second Poet Laureate, is also an essayist and photographer. He is a long-time contributing editor at Geist magazine and has twice curated the widely successful Poetry Bash at the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Brad established Smoking Lung Press in 1996, which has published the first works of dozens of BC poets.
Brad has edited two anthologies: Hammer & Tongs and Why I Sing the Blues (with Jan Zwicky). His own collection of poetry, The Good Life, was hailed in 2002 by the Vancouver Sun as the one book of poetry people should read that year. In 2004, as part of his Vancouver Arts Awards prize, publisher Stephen Osborne chose Brad for a Writing and Publishing commission. In 2009, Cran and his wife Gillian Jerome were nominated for the BC Book Prizes’ Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for Hope in Shadows, which won the City of Vancouver Book Award and raised over $30,000 for people in the city’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.
Contact the PL: poetlaureate [at] vancouver.ca
