Tom Dawe


Tom Dawe, is a Canadian writer from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Background

Born in Long Pond, Newfoundland, Tom Dawe has written poetry and children's literature for many years. He is also a visual artist. His work often draws on folklore, mythology, autobiography, and Newfoundland culture, particularly the experience of growing up in a Newfoundland outport community.
Tom Dawe was a founding member in 1973 of Breakwater Books, the province's first publishing house. He was also a co-founder of TickleAce magazine, and an editor of the folklore publication The Livyer. Dawe also taught English at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His work is the subject of Rewriting Newfoundland Mythology: The Works of Tom Dawe, by Martina Seifert.
In the opening of his career, Tom Dawe felt too shy to read his own work to others. To get him going, venerable publisher Clyde Rose offered to do the readings for him. From the lesson, Dawe became highly proficient at public delivery. As an example, Dawe successfully led the 2015 holiday CBC audio presentation of The Old Man's Winter Night.
Tom Dawe was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011 and an Officer of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2012.
From 2010-2013 Dawe was the poet laureate of St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. His 2019 New and Collected Poems was shortlisted in the poetry category for the 2020 ReLit Award.
In the 2020 Walrus essay The Poet Who Warns Us Not to Revere the Past, Tom Dawe is said to be "about the difficulty of change" made from his own "disarmingly plain-spoken, quietly perceptive poems".

Poetry

  • Connections, with Tom Moore
  • Hemlock Cove and After
  • In a Small Cove
  • Island Spell
  • In Hardy Country: New and Selected Poems
  • Sea Foam Swings in the Bluebell: A Chapbook of Haiku, edited by Nick Avis
  • Where Genesis Begins, with artwork by Gerald Squires
  • Caligula's Horse and Other Creatures, with lithographs by Gerald Squires
  • Shadows in the Aftergrass: Poems Sometimes Haiku, with afterword by Nick Avis
  • ''New and Collected Poems''

    Children's literature

  • Landwash Days: Newfoundland Folklore, Sketches, and Verse for Youngsters
  • A Gommil from Bumble Bee Bight and Other Nonsense Verse, illustrated by Sylvia Quinton Ficken
  • Angishore, Boo-man and Clumper: A Newfoundland Folk Alphabet, illustrated by Sylvia Quinton Ficken
  • Lings 'n' Things: , with Pamela Dawe
  • Alley-coosh, Bibby and Cark: A Second Newfoundland Folk Alphabet, illustrated by Sylvia Quinton Ficken
  • Winter of the Black Weasel: A Tale Based on a Newfoundland Micmac Legend, illustrated by Anne MacLeod
  • Moocher in the Lun, illustrated by Anne MacLeod
  • The Wonderful Dogfish Racket, illustrated by C. Anne Macleod
  • An Old Man's Winter Night: Ghostly Tales, illustrated by Veselina Tomova
  • Spirited Away: Fairy Stories of Old Newfoundland, illustrated by Veselina Tomova

    Short stories

  • The Loon in the Dark Tide: Old Newfoundland Ghost Stories
  • ''The Yarns of Ishmael Drake''