Barry Dempster Barry Dempster was born in Scarborough, Ontario, living close to the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs throughout both his childhood and adolescence. Poetry was often found amongst the other Lake Ontario treasures, but never actually defined until he learned that the big city of Toronto was only several skips of a stone away. Since then he has continued writing on the edge of faith and discovery. His books have accumulated over the years to include a children's book, two collections of short stories, a novel, The Ascension of Jesse Rapture, and eight volumes of poetry. Honours include a Governor General's Award nomination, the Confederation Poets Prize, the Scarborough Bi-Centennial Award of Merit and, most recently, the Petra Kenney Award from the United Kingdom. Dempster presently lives in Holland Landing, Ontario, several leaps north of Toronto, on the edge of the Holland Marsh, where he writes, tends a large garden, runs two book groups and one film series, works as an editor for Brick Books and continues searching for poetry pretty much everwhere.