The award selection committee writes:
Penn’s
contributions to community are wildly impressive and undeniable. The
tendrils of her devotion to poetry and literature not only span decades,
but extend across mediums, forms, and the country. Directly or
indirectly, so many of us have benefited from Penn’s contributions to
our literary landscape.
Over a career spanning six
decades, London ON poet Penn Kemp has done it all: poetry in both voice
and print, editing anthologies, publishing, mentoring countless young
writers, writing for theatre and sound operas, extensive collaborative
and community engagements, and promoting poetry in all its forms. As
important as her poetry, and integral to it, is her activism and
commitment to social justice. Translated into multiple languages and
performed around the world, Penn’s poetry addresses peace and justice,
environmental activism, domestic violence and a range of other social
and political concerns. With books and multi-media projects published
as early as 1972 and as recent as, well, yesterday, Penn is more than
deserving of this celebration of a lifetime very full of achievement.
On winning the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, Penn writes:
To be the inaugural winner of the League's new Lifetime Achievement
Award is a profound honour, given the wealth of senior poets across
Canada. Throughout sixty years of writing and publishing, poetry has
been my lifeline. But there is so much more to explore! At eighty, I
feel at the beginning of all that poetry can offer... I still stare
daily at the blank page until words unfurl. In accepting this award, I'd
also like to pay tribute to our elder poets, for whom this ongoing
award is so pertinent. A deep bow to the League for supporting poetry in
Canada over the decades, and on.
