Tanya Evanson

Tanya Evanson is an Antiguan-Canadian poet, performer, producer, arts educator and director of Banff Centre Spoken Word Program and ANU live art series.

With a 20-year history in spoken word performance, she received the Golden Beret Award for her contribution to the genre and was Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2013. Alongside features in documentaries, short films, tv and radio, notable performances include the Vancouver Writers Festival, Edmonton Poetry Festival, Bowery Poetry (US), Story-Fest (Australia), Ubud Writers Festival (Indonesia), Poetry Africa (South Africa), Edinburgh Book Festival and Glastonbury Festival.

Her fourth studio album and band project ZENSHIP (2016) received critical acclaim for pushing boundaries between poetry and live music. And following six artist books, Bothism (2017) is her first published poetry collection with Ekstasis Editions and Nouveau Griot (2018) is her latest from Frontenac House. Other recent work in print includes Arc Poetry, WSQ-Feminist Press, Making Room (Caitlin Press), and Resist Much/Obey Little (Dispatches Editions).

She has work in the forthcoming anthology Changing Face of Can Lit (Guernica Editions) and is at work on her first novella.