Person

Konyves, Tom, 1947-

1947-

Tom Konyves (born Könyves Tamás) was born on July 13, 1947, in Budapest, Hungary.

He is a Canadian poet, video producer, educator, and pioneer in the field of videopoetry. He emigrated to Canada with his family following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He lived in Montreal from 1957 to 1983, when he moved to Vancouver, where he resides with his wife, Marlene and their three children. He graduated from Concordia University in 1969 and worked as a teacher, editor and journalist until 1977 when he became a poet-member of Vehicule Art Gallery, Montreal's first artist-run non-profit centre. He collaborated with Endre Farkas, Ken Norris, Artie Gold, Stephen Morrissey, Claudia Lapp, and John McAuley to form a group of 7 who became known as The Vehicule Poets. Their exploits were documented in the 1993 book, “Vehicule Days: An Unorthodox History of Montréal's Vehicule Poets”, edited by Ken Norris. In 1978, he coined the term videopoetry to describe his multimedia work and is considered to be one of the original pioneers of the form. Between 1977 and 1983, Konyves produced his first videopoems, e.g., "Sympathies of War", "Mummypoem", "Yellow Light Blues", and "Quebecause". He wrote a monthly column, Poetry Corner, for the Montreal Star. Konyves has initiated many public poetry projects, including Poesie En Mouvement/Poetry On The Buses (Montreal, 1979), Performance Art in Quebec, a six-hour TV series (Cable TV, 1980), Montreal’s first Concrete Poetry Exhibition (Vehicule Art, 1980), and The Great Canadian Poetry Machine (Vancouver, Expo 86). Between 1983 and 2006, he was Executive Producer of AM Productions, producing numerous documentaries, music videos, as well as other corporate, educational and government multimedia productions.