Lee Parpart

Background

About Lee Parpart

I've had a varied career in media and academe, and am now working full-time as an editor for Iguana Books in Toronto. In my twenties I worked as a reporter and arts columnist for national newspapers in Canada and the United States, and contributed freelance articles to cultural magazines. As a PhD candidate at York University in Toronto, I lectured in cinema studies and published scholarly essays on film and literature in books and journals. I hold an MFA in Film & Video, and I've worked on a few small film projects, but my passions all have to do with the written word. Since returning to creative writing in 2015 I have published poetry and short fiction with Silver Birch Press in Los Angeles, and participated in readings across Toronto and in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where I am one half of the virtual poetry collective Pepperfox, with David A. Epstein. I won Open Book: Ontario's 'What's Your Story' writing contest in 2016, for my short story,"Piano-Player's Reach," and in that same year I published a short story in Silver Birch's Nancy Drew Anthology of fiction and poetry about the iconic sleuth. Since 2016, I've organized numerous literary events for writers and editors in Toronto, including a group launch for the Nancy Drew Anthology that drew 60 people out to the Supermarket Restaurant & Bar for a fun afternoon of readings and talks. As programs chair of Editors Toronto from 2017 to 2019, I organized 16 program meetings and professional development events for editors, including two high-profile events featuring Giller Prize winners Esi Edugyan and Michael Redhill. Since November 2018 I have been co-president of Authors–Toronto, where I work with a capable executive committee of five to coordinate programs for and about writing and publishing in the Greater Toronto Area. Update, May, 2020: After several years of focused work on my poetry and many rejections, I am finally having some success! This month, while sheltering at home, I was fortune to receive an honourable mention in Negative Capability Press's spring poetry contest, for a poem that I've been working on on and off for a few years. I've also been notified of one other poetry contest win, but won't be able to share the details until they announce it this week.