Darren Wershler, also known as Darren Wershler-Henry, (b. 1966) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

experimental

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, non-fiction writer and cultural critic. Wershler was the senior

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

Coach House Books Coach House Books is an independent book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Coach House publishes experimental poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. The press is particularly interested in writing that pushes at the boundar ...

between 1997 and 2002, where the works he edited included several highly acclaimed books of contemporary innovative poetry, including ''Fidget'' by

Kenneth Goldsmith Kenneth Goldsmith (born 1961) is an American poetry, poet and critic. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb and an artist-in-residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches. He ...

(2000), both volumes of ''Seven Pages Missing'', the collected works of

Steve McCaffery Steven McCaffery (born January 24, 1947) is a Canadian poet and scholar who was a professor at York University. He currently holds the David Gray Chair at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. McCaffery was born in Sheffie ...

(2000, 2002), ''Lip Service'' by

Bruce Andrews Bruce Andrews (born April 1, 1948) is an American poet who is one of the key figures associated with the Language poets (or '' L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' ''poets'', after the magazine that bears that name). Life and work Andrews was born in Chicago and st ...

(2001), and ''

Eunoia In rhetoric, ''eunoia'' () is the good will that speakers cultivate between themselves and their audiences, a condition of receptivity. In Book VIII of the ''Nicomachean Ethics'', Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feel ...

'' by

Christian Bök Christian Bök, FRSC (; born August 10, 1966, in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian poet known for his experimental works. He is the author of ''Eunoia'', which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. Life and work He was born "Christian Book", but ...

(2001). Wershler is the youngest poet discussed in

Marjorie Perloff Marjorie Perloff (born Gabriele Mintz; September 28, 1931 – March 24, 2024) was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry. Perloff was a professor at Catholic University, the University of ...

's ''21st Century Modernism'', which analyzes his second book of poetry, ''the tapeworm foundry'' (a

Trillium Book Award The Trillium Book Award ( or ''Prix Trillium'') is an annual literary award presented to writers in Ontario, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Creates, a Crown agency (Ontario), Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, which is overseen by ...

finalist in 2000). He has instructed courses in Communication Studies at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

and

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...

and currently is the Concordia University Research Chair in Media and Contemporary Literature (Tier 2) at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

. He has authored several books about the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, technology and culture, as well as occasional essays on pop culture for newspapers and magazines such as ''

Brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

'', ''

Broken Pencil ''Broken Pencil'' was a quarterly Canadian magazine based in Toronto, Canada that profiled zine culture and independent arts and music. It was founded in 1995, and it closed in 2024. History ''Broken Pencil'' was founded in 1995 by Hal Niedzvi ...

'' and ''

This Magazine ''This Magazine'' is an independent alternative Canadian political magazine. History and profile The magazine was launched "by a gang of school activists" in April 1966 as ''This Magazine Is About Schools'', a journal covering political issues ...

''. He lives in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Works

Poetry

* ''Update (with Bill Kennedy)'' * ''apostrophe (with Bill Kennedy)'' * ''the tapeworm foundry'' * ''NICHOLODEON: a book of lowerglyphs''

Non-fiction

* ''Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg'' * ''The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting'' * ''The Original Canadian City Dweller's Almanac (with

Hal Niedzviecki Hal Niedzviecki (born January 9, 1971) is a Canadian novelist and cultural critic. Born in Brockville, he was raised by a Jewish family in Ottawa, Ontario, and Potomac, Maryland, did his undergraduate studies at University College, Toronto, and ...

)'' * ''FREE as in speech and beer: open source, peer-to-peer and the economics of the online revolution'' * ''CommonSpace: Beyond Virtual Community (with

Mark Surman Mark Surman is a Canadian open internet activist and the president of the Mozilla Foundation. He is a leading advocate for trustworthy AI, digital privacy, and the open internet. Before joining the Mozilla Foundation, Mark spent more than 15 year ...

)'' * ''Internet Directory 2001 (with Scott Mitchell)'' * ''The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Shopping for Canadians (with Preston Gralla)'' * ''Internet Directory 2000 (with Scott Mitchell)''

Articles

* ''Return From Without: Louis Riel and Liminal Space'' in Sakolsky, Ron and James Koehnline, ''Gone to Croatan'', Autonomedia, 1993

External links

*
dw: Darren Wershler's home pageRecords of Darren Wershler-Henry and Kootenay School of Writing fonds are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wershler, Darren 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Living people 1966 births 21st-century Canadian poets Canadian non-fiction writers Poets from Montreal Canadian book editors Anglophone Quebec people 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers