Tanis Rideout is a Canadian writer based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Biography

Born in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, Rideout grew up in

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

and Canada, particularly

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

where she became involved with the music scene. Rideout has often been referred to as the "Poet Laureate of CanRock." She has performed on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

BookTelevision BookTelevision was a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. The channel was originally established in 2001 by Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Ltd., then partially owned by CHUM Limited, airing programming rel ...

, '' ZeD'' and

Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

. She has toured extensively in North America. Her work has appeared in a range of quarterlies and magazines including ''

A Room of One's Own ''A Room of One's Own'' is an extended essay, divided into six chapters, by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College, Cambridge, Newnham College and Girton Co ...

'', '' Black Heart Magazine'', ''grey borders'', ''Spire'', ''Pontiac Quarterly'', ''Fireweed'', ''echolocation'', ''Witual'' and ''

Chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

'', and has been short-listed for a number of prizes, including the

Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award The RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to a writer who has not yet published his or her first book. Formerly restricted to writers under age 35, the age li ...

, and has received a grant from the

Toronto Arts Council Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the fourth-most populous city in North America. The city ...

. In the spring of 2005, Rideout joined

Sarah Harmer Sarah Lois Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist. Early life Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musical lifestyle as a teenager, when her older s ...

to read her poetry on Harmer's ''I Love the Escarpment Tour'' to draw attention to damage being done to the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is an approximately discontinuous, arc-shaped but generally northward-facing escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States. The escarpment begins south of Lake Ontario and circumscribes the top of the Great Lake ...

by ongoing quarrying, and appears in the 2006 June award-winning documentary ''

Escarpment Blues ''Escarpment Blues'' is a Canadian concert and documentary film starring singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer."From the heart as Harmer traces bluegrass trail". ''Vancouver Sun'', August 17, 2006. Directed by Andy Keen and produced by Keen, Harmer, Bry ...

''. In August 2006 she was named the Poet Laureate for

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

by the

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper Lake Ontario Waterkeeper (LOW), now known aSwim Drink Fishis a Toronto-based environmental justice advocacy group founded in 2001, with Lake Ontario, the Great Lakes Basin, and allied waterways at heart. It is a licensed member of the New York–ba ...

and joined

Gord Downie Gordon Edgar Downie (February 6, 1964 – October 17, 2017) was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer, poet, and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from ...

(of Canadian band

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, was a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassis ...

) on a tour to promote

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

on the lake. In 2010, Rideout won second prize in the CBC Literary Awards for her poems about

Marilyn Bell Marilyn Grace Bell Di Lascio (born October 19, 1937) is a Canadian retired Long-distance swimming, long distance swimmer. She was the first person to swim across Lake Ontario and later swam the English Channel and Strait of Juan de Fuca. Perso ...

. Her first novel, ''Above All Things'', was released in Canada in 2012, and in the US and UK in 2013.

Books

* ''Above All Things'',

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Random House of Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. ...

, 2012, * ''Arguments with the Lake'', Wolsak & Wynn Publishers, 2013,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rideout, Tanis Living people Canadian women poets Canadian women novelists Poets from Toronto 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Novelists from Toronto