Plantos, Ted, 1943-2001

Ted Plantos was born on December 24, 1943.

He was a Canadian poet, writer, editor, and promoter of Canadian literature. From 1970 to 1977, he ran the Toronto Public Library's reading series and the People's Poetry Workshops every week for the Toronto library system at The House On Gerard. He co-founded and ran Old Nun Publications from 1972 to 1975. Old Nun magazine came out of this endeavour. In 1985, he became a co-founder of the Canadian Poetry Association. Plantos was known as "The Poet of Parliament Street". He owned and ran a Canada-wide literary magazine, Cross-Canada Writer's Quarterly, from 1978 to 1991. In that year it was purchased by Beverley Daurio and the name was changed to Paragraph magazine. Afterward, Plantos was responsible for beginning the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Newsletter and the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award. He published many books, e.g., “The Seasons Are My Sacraments” (1972), “She Wore a Streetcar to the Wedding” (1973), “All the Easy Oils of Energy” (1974), “Vigil” (1976), “The Light Is On My Shoulder” (1977), “This Tavern Has No Symmetry” (1979), “Passchendaele” (1983), “Heather Hits Her First Home Run” (1986), “The Newfy Girl”, (1988), “At Home on Earth” (1992), “Daybreak's Long Waking: Poems Selected and New” (1997), “Remembrance Day: essays on John McCrae's In Flanders Fields” (1997, 2015), and “The Shanghai Noodle Killing” (2000). Since 2006 the Ontario Poetry Society has awarded the Ted Plantos Memorial Award, given annually to provide financial support to new poets and emerging writers.

He died on February 20, 2001, in Toronto, Ontario.