J.D. Carpenter

I was born in 1948 and grew up in Toronto. I attended York University (B.A., 1971) and Queen's University (B.Ed., 1972). I worked as a journalist for the Daily Racing Form and did a lot of freelance work, then taught high school English for 25 years. I have published four books of poetry: Nightfall, Ferryland Head (Missing Link Press, 1976); Swimming at Twelve Mile (Penumbra Press, 1979); Lakeview (Black Moss Press, 1990); and Compassionate Travel (Black Moss Press, 1994). I began writing novels during the 1990's and have published four: The Devil in Me (McClelland & Stewart, 2001); Bright's Kill (The Dundurn Group, 2005); 74 Miles Away (The Dundurn Group, 2007); and Twelve Trees (The Dundurn Group, 2008). I am currently working on another novel, Black Tupelo, and have ideas for at least two more. I hope someday to publish a "new and selected" collection of my poems. I have always loved reading (starting with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn when I was twelve) and began to write at age nineteen. Robert Frost said that he made poems for the same reason other people weave baskets: to create order out of chaos. That's why I write: to understand myself and make sense of the world.