An artist and poet born in North Burnaby, B.C., Lena Wilson Endicott (or "LWE," as she often liked to sign her paintings) cared deeply for the world and social justice, and loved Our Times, reading every issue from cover to cover.
Our Times is sponsoring a Canadian poetry contest in her name. Send us your poems about work, working people and social justice. (Maximum five.) They need to not have been published before, and be a maximum of 40 lines each.
We are excited to announce the judges for the contest. They are Marilyn Dumont, poet; Valerie Endicott, family member (and member of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario); and Adriane Paavo, labour educator (Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union, and member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada). The contest coordinator is Maureen Hynes, poet, and Our Times' poetry editor.
Make sure there is no identifying information on the poetry pages themselves, to ensure impartial judging. Put your name, address, email address and union affiliation, if any, in the body of your email or in your cover letter.
Email your submission to Our Times' poetry editor, or mail it to: Our Times, Poetry Editor, Suite 407 15 Gervais Drive, Toronto Ontario M3C 1Y8.
The deadline for submitting is June 30, 2013. The first-prize winner will receive $400 and the first two runners-up will receive $100 each.
The winner and runners-up will have their poems published in Our Times, and will receive two-year subscriptions to the magazine. Winners will be announced in our Fall 2013 issue.
Here is a flyer to help spread the word about Our Times' poetry contest. Please forward it to your poetic friends who care about workers' rights and social justice, and like to write about it. Thank you for your help.
The child of working-class immigrants from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Lena Wilson Endicott (above, left, with her father, K.C. Wilson), like her father before her, often quoted Robbie Burns, saying: "The world is ill-divided." She has left her family and friends tangible legacies: her glorious paintings, poetry and letters galore; and her spirit laughs along with us as we live in this world still so ill-divided, working in our own ways for a better, more humane world of dignity and justice for all.
Lorraine Endicott is a former editor of Our Times and a current member of the Toronto Workers’ History Project. Living in Nova Scotia, she’s starting to think a Nova Scotia Workers’ History Project should be launched!
