TUES SEPT 10, 7.30p.m.
NewComer Learning Centre, 4th floor,
Central Branch, Hamilton Public Library
After a hitch in
the U.S. Army, Roy J. Adams, who was born in Philadelphia, earned a Ph.D.
degree and secured an appointment in Industrial Relations at McMaster
University in 1973. He kept that post for 24 years before taking early
retirement. Free from university commitments, he took up again the creative
writing challenge he’d failed at as a young man. In his early 70s, although he
had never written nor even read much poetry, he gave it a go. Many workshops,
“how to” books, university courses, advice from successful poets and a stream
of rejections later, he began to have some success. Since 2014 he’s published
poems in literary publications in Canada, USA, UK, Australia and Singapore. In
2019, when he was 78, Silver Bow Press in B.C. published his first full book of
poetry entitled Critical Mass, a
“wonderful book” according to Gena Zuroski of McMaster, that “feels like poetry, a collection of short stories, and a
memoir all at once” and Jeff Mahoney of The
Hamilton Spectator says is “a terrific effort,” that “leaves you with a jumpy bebop beating infectiously in
your ears, mind and feelings…” Roy
recently became a full member in the League of Canadian Poets. For more on
Roy’s journey see
