McGill Libraries
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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Lee, Dennis, 1939-
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1939-
History
Dennis Beynon Lee was born on August 31, 1939, in Toronto, Ontario.
He is a Canadian poet, teacher, editor, and literary critic. He graduated from the University of Toronto (B.A., 1962; M.A., 1964). He taught English at Victoria College, the University of Toronto (1963-1967) and served as a "resource person" for Rochdale College. In 1967, Lee co-founded House of Anansi Press and served as its editorial director until 1972. From 1974 to 1979, he was a consulting editor for Macmillan of Canada. He served as a writer-in-residence at Trent University in 1975 and the University of Toronto from 1978 to 1979. Lee wrote lyrics for the children's television series Fraggle Rock (Jim Henson Associates and CBC-TV, 1982–1986). In 1986, he received the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People. Lee's poetry uses Canadian place names ingeniously and depicts spunky children unafraid to engage in weird adventures. In 1972, he received the Governor General's Award for Poetry for "Civil Elegies." His book of children's rhymes "Alligator Pie" (1974) won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year award. In 1994, he became an Officer of the Order of Canada and received an honorary doctorate from Trent University.
He is married to Susan Perly, a writer and former Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist.