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Carolyn Clink
Carolyn Joan Clink was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, in
1958. She lived in Ralston, Alberta, until she was five.
From 1964 to 1970, she lived in West Hartford, Connecticut,
then settled with her family in Toronto, Ontario.
Carolyn is an accomplished poet who now lives in Mississauga (just west of
Toronto) with her husband, science-fiction writer
Robert J. Sawyer. They met October 17,
1975, in their high-school science-fiction club, NASFA (of which
Rob was cofounder), and were married on December 22, 1984, in a
small ceremony at Carolyn's parents' house. Carolyn is the oldest
of five children; her brother David Livingstone Clink is
also a widely published poet.
Carolyn has had two poems published in Analog, the world's
number-one bestselling science-fiction magazine (July 1996 and
October 1997; the cover of the latter issue is shown at left).
She has also had poetry in all five volumes of
Canada's acclaimed horror anthology series Northern
Frights, in the science-fiction anthologies
Tesseracts 4 and 7, in Weird Tales,
Chiaroscura, Tales of the Unanticipated,
Star*Line, and Gaslight, and in the Canadian SF magazines
TransVersions and On Spec. More recently, she had poetry
in the Canadian anthologies The Stars As Seen from this Particular Angle
of Night: an anthology of speculative verse and
Land/space: an anthology of prairie speculative fiction.
Her poems have also appeared in many mainstream publications,
including: Dalhousie Review, Poetry Toronto, White Wall Review,
Hart House Review, Hazmat, Nōd, Gusts,
and Sijo West. She was the
$500 prize winner in McClelland & Stewart's "Celebrate Our City"
contest, honoring Toronto's sesquicentennial, and the First Prize
winner in Poetry Toronto's "Father's Day" contest.
Her poems are collected in three chapbooks:
- Snapshots, (May, 2007) published by
believe your own press,
- Changing Planes, (2000) published by
Junction Books, and
- Much Slower Than Light, (updated June, 2008) published
by Who's That Coeurl? Press.
She's been a featured reader at the
Art Bar, and the
I.V. Lounge
(both in Toronto).
Carolyn was Poet Guest of Honor at these SF conventions:
- Contradiction 14 in Niagara Falls, New York (November 4-6, 1994)
- ValleyCon 22 in Fargo, North Dakota (October 10-12, 1997)
- ConCat 10 in Knoxville, Tennessee (November 27-29, 1998)
- Context 12 in Columbus, Ohio (October 8-10, 1999)
- EerieCon 3 in Niagara Falls, New York (April 20-22, 2001)
- CanCon 2001 in Ottawa, Ontario (August 17-19, 2001)
- Minicon 38 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (April 18-20, 2003).
Editing & Judging:
- Joined ChiZine Publications as an assistant poetry
editor for their online magazine. (2008)
- Poetry judge for the "Writers on Eighth" competition
in Dawson City, Yukon. (2007)
- Edited Herb Kauderer's poetry chapbook Ghosts Dream of Madmen. (2002)
- Poetry co-editor with Phyllis Gotlieb for
TransVersions: An Anthology of New Fantastic Literature
(Paper Orchid Press, Mississauga, October 2000).
- Co-edited the acclaimed Canadian SF&F anthology
Tesseracts 6, with Robert J. Sawyer. (Tesseract Books, Edmonton, December 1997).
- Poetry judge for Early Harvest, a young-adult writing
contest sponsored by the Vaughan Public Library. (1994, 1995)
Carolyn is a member of the
Science Fiction Poetry Association,
and both
she and her brother David are members of the Algonquin Square
Table poetry workshop, which meets every other Sunday at the
University of Toronto's Hart House; Carolyn and other members
of her workshop gave a public reading there on November 24, 1999,
and again on January 28, 2004.
Carolyn studied astrophysics for two years at the University of
Toronto (1977-79), then earned a Bachelor of
Technology degree in Graphic Arts Management from Toronto's
Ryerson Polytechnic University (awarded 1983).
She worked for thirteen years for large commercial printing
companies (Southam Murray and Quebecor Concord), the first five years as
an estimator and the final eight as a production coordinator. In
June 1997, she went to work full-time for Rob as his salaried
assistant, in charge of all aspects of Rob's writing business
except for the actual writing.
In her spare time, she is taking English courses towards an Honours Bachelor degree
at York University, and Computer courses towards a Digital Imaging Certificate
at Humber College.
Carolyn is shown here with her brother David in 2001. (Photo by Peter Halasz)
David has five poetry chapbooks.
The first, His Name was Gord and he used to
run with the bulls, was published by Junction Books in May 2001.
The rest of his chapbooks were published by believe your own press:
The Surly Blondes of Earth (February, 2002),
A come-on from the horse on seventh avenue (October, 2002),
Shapeshifter, (October, 2004), and One Dozen (May 2007).
His first real book of poetry Eating Fruit Out Of Season
from
Tightrope Books,
was launched July 10, 2008. See his web site at
poetrymachine.com.
You can email Carolyn Clink at:
carolyn@sfpoet.com.
Check out Carolyn's embryonic web site at
sfpoet.com.
More Good Reading
Carolyn's Afterword to Tesseracts
6
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