LEA HARPER
AUTHOR, POET, MUSICIAN
Bio
Storyteller at Heart
Poet, novelist, and songwriter, Lea Harper is the author of two collections of poetry All That Saves Us and Shadow Crossing (Black Moss Press) and four recordings. She recently collaborated with the poetry/jazz ensemble, Alchemy, on performance and production. A past recipient of The LaPointe Prize and double-winner of The People’s Political Poem contest, she was also shortlisted for the international Being at Work Poetry Challenge and runner-up in the Surrey International Writers Conference Contest. Daniel Richler described her first book as "universal, transcending today's popular psychic symbols and mythologies."
Ms. Harper's work has been widely published in literary journals including Vallum, Descant, The Literary Review of Canada, Contemporary Verse 2, Grain, The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Event, This Magazine, The Minnesota Review, The Canadian Forum, The Windsor Review, Event, Canadian Dimension and Quarry. Her poems have been anthologized in North America and the United Kingdom and her articles and editorials have appeared in Billboard Magazine, New York, The Haliburton County Echo and the Voice.
The author and composer has received grants for both music and writing from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. She has been an adjudicator for the OAC, and has served on juries for several notable contests and awards including the Toronto Star/Poet Laureate Poetry Competition along with Dennis Lee.
Her music has taken her to Los Angeles, Jamaica, and South America. Along with twin sister Lyn, the songwriting team Syren released three records and received both Juno and Casby nominations, winning the Canadian Reggae Award for Top Duo and Best Video at The Black Music Awards (BMAC). As well, the Harper sisters wrote and co-produced a musical documentary on the Lubicon Cree which aired on Much Music, composed the soundtrack for a National Film Board short, sang in a Bette Midler film, and contributed "soundscapes" for the Desrosiers Dance Theatre.
Harper contributed her poetry and co-hosted the Haliburton County Reads program, one segment placing 2nd across Canada in the National Community Radio Association Awards for 2012. She was a regular host and performer with the lively Dead Poets Society of Minden and played the Woman in Black in Highlands Little Theatre production.
She currently lives on a lake in the Haliburton Highlands, where she is completing her first novel and raising a family of dogs, horses, and people.
