Lesley Choyce

Lesley Choyce’s poetry is transcendental, joyful and at times ecstatic, though rooted securely in the world. The new poems in Revenge of the Optimist are charged with a kind of soulful music and are distinguished by wide tonal flavours and range. Lesley Choyce has said of his writing that “Poetry arises from events, real or imagined, that stir the intellect and emotions to re-create, through words, the full impact of life’s greatest challenges… the best poetry comes about from the compassion that develops in a writer, the compassion necessary to understand the pain and joy of others while at the same time being able to work with one’s own suffering as a source for emotional honesty in all that is written.”

Lesley Choyce was born in New Jersey in 1951 and moved to Canada in 1978. He teaches part-time at Dalhousie University, runs Pottersfield Press and has written 52 adult and young adult books. Lesley surfs year round in the North Atlantic and is considered the father of transcendental wood splitting. He lives with his wife and two daughters in a 200-year-old farmhouse at Lawrencetown Beach overlooking the ocean. As a member of the Surf Poets he has released a poetry/music album titled Long Lost Planet.