Monday, August 12, 2019

BLOOMIN' LATE: Learning how to write and publish poetry over the age of 70.


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