Brendan McLeod
Biography
Brendan McLeod is an Ontario-based poet, spoken word artist, theatre artist, and musician. He’s the author of the poetry collection, Friends Without Bodies, a novel, The Convictions of Leonard McKinley, and seven theatre shows. He is the founder of the JUNO nominated folk group The Fugitives, which have been nominated for multiple Canadian Folk Music and Western Canadian Music Awards, including Best Songwriter, Best Roots Group, and Best Vocal Group. He is a former Canadian SLAM poetry champion and World SLAM runner-up. He was the 2012 Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and the 2015 Poet of Honour at the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. He has been influenced by a large contingent of poets and spoken word artists including Zaccheus Jackson, Sheri-D Wilson, RC Weslowski, and Jillian Christmas.
Micro-interview
As a teenager, I was very influenced by a combination of hip-hop, folk music, and Sharon Olds.
I began as a performance poet when I was 23. I started touring a few years later, so that's when I decided to pick up the “poet” label.
Tell the truth with vivid language.
“Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath.
