"When writing poems / Forget you are writing poems." -- Sheri-D Wilson

Sheri-D Wilson is a former ballerina, actor, performance artist, playwright and poet. She studied theatre in her native Calgary (b. 1959) before gravitating to the West Coast experimental arts scene in Vancouver. She first read her work at the Helen Pitt Gallery in 1984. Wilson co-originated the Vancouver Small Press Festival (with Gordon Murray) and published Bull Whip & Lambs Wool in 1989. Also that year, Wilson attended the Naropa Institute in 1989 and later returned to Calgary.

Wilson has mixed theatricality and poetry in performances such as Hung, Drawn & Quartered; her original Tamahnous Theatre presentation of Confessions; and The Cambodia Pavilion, an Edmonton adaptation of Brian Fawcett's Cambodia: A Book For People Who Find Television Too Slow, directed by Brian Paisley. Her book Swerve, with an introduction by Marianne Faithful, is about a sea captain who lusts after his ship's figurehead. With her return to Calgary she became the director of a major spoken word festival.

Edited by Sheri-D Wilson, The Spoken Word Workbook: inspiration from poets who teach (Banff Centre Press 2011 $20), is a venerated resource for writers whose vision is to say their words/sounds out loud. The collection brings together twenty-seven "poets, griots and bards" working in jazz, hip hop, dub, story-telling and sound from across North America. Participating artists include Jose Acquelin, bill bissett, Regie Cabico, George Elliott Clarke, Paul Dutton, Ian Ferrier, John Giorno, Louise (Sky Dancer) Bernice Halfe, Bob Holman, Kaie Kellough, Shane Koyczan, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Billeh Nickerson, Hilary Peach, Robert Priest, Steven Ross Smith, Quincy Troupe, Anne Waldman, Sheri-D Wilson and d'bi young. With essays by Brian Brett, Klyde Broox, Corey Frost, Heather Haley, Richard Harrisonm Wendy Morton, Sarah Murphy and Eugene Stickland.

In The ONEIRONAUT ∅1 (Write Bloody North $20.00), the first volume of the "Rain" trilogy, a brilliant scientist named Rain escapes an oppressive society lacking dreams. The narrative poem unfolds humorously yet frighteningly, portraying a society stripped of dreams by a totalitarian regime. Rain, chosen by the Willows, leads a rebellion against The Bureau, the dystopian force enforcing a dream-inhibiting pill. The journey unveils Rain’s self-discovery and family secrets. As she confronts the chilling government and the Department of Dreams, the fate of The Oneironauts hangs in the balance, threatening their ability to hope, heal and envision a shared human existence. 9781778162626

Kwantlen Polytechnic University presented the Calgary-based artist with a Doctor of Letters—Honoris Causa at its fall convocation ceremony Oct. 4, 2017.

BOOKS:

The ONEIRONAUT ∅1 (Write Bloody North, 2024) $20.00 9781778162626
The Spoken Word Workbook: inspiration from poets who teach (Banff Centre Press, 2011). Edited by Wilson. 978-1-894773-40-3
Autopsy of a Turvy World (Frontenac House, 2008)
Re:Zoom (Frontenac House, 2005)
Between Lovers (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002)
The Sweet Taste of Lightning (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998)
Mountain Sliding (Broadsheet, Swerve Sound, 1997)
Girl's Guide to Giving Head (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1996)
Swerve (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1993)
Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (Petarade Press, 1989)

[BCBW 2024] "Theatre" "Fiction"