Shane Koyczan hails from
Vancouver, BC,
Canada, and tours extensively throughout North America performing poetry. At the 2000
National Poetry Slam in Providence, RI, he won the individual championship, becoming the first international poet to do so (as well as the youngest).
Born in
Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories, Canada on May 22, 1975, Shane attended the
Creative Writing program at
Okanagan University College. He won the
Leonard Cohen Award for Best Song, the
James Ellroy award for Best Voice and the
W.B. Yeats award for Best Poem, all the while working at a
video store to support his
writing habit. He has worked as a security guard, a construction labourer, a dishwasher, a convenience store clerk. When he moved to
Vancouver in 1998, he found an enthusiastic audience at the
Vancouver Poetry Slam. Enthusiastic is too narrow a word. He founded the cult of Shane. His first foray south of the border was to attend the Triple Slam at Bellinghams
Western Washington University. His second was to play to sold out houses in
Seattle and
Portland for the Northwest Salmon Slam. His third was to wreak poetic havoc at the
10th Annual National Poetry Slam in Chicago, IL. Shane placed 6th overall and was named one of the highlights of the week by the
Chicago Tribune. (Coincidentally, continuing the Van Slam distinction of having a poet on the final night stage of every NPS they attend as a team since 1996.) In the 1999/2000 Van Slam season he was undefeated. He was the hit of the
Grand Marnier-sponsored SlamAmerica bus tour from Seattle to Big Sur, CA. Yet he almost missed out on the Providence NPS due to a lack of funding. The Vancouver,
Seattle, and
New York Urbana poetry scenes banded together with a tremendous show of
love and support, and just a few days before the tournament Shane's transportation was confirmed.
info stolen from Myth @ Teaism website (http://dcslam.50megs.com/index.html) and Open Mike website (http://www.chezdesiree.com/openmike/index.html)...I'll add more when if i manage to see him myself this august.