TISH

This article is about the poetry newsletter. For other uses, seeTish (disambiguation).

TISHwas a Canadian poetry newsletter founded by student-poets at theUniversity of British Columbiain 1961. The publication was edited by a number ofVancouverpoets until 1969. The newsletter's poetics were built on those of writers associated with North Carolina'sBlack Mountain Collegeexperiment.

Contributing writers includedGeorge Bowering,Fred Wah,Frank Davey,Daphne Marlatt,David Cull,Carol Bolt,Dan McLeod,Robert Hogg,Jamie Reid,andLionel Kearns.Influenced by the poetry theoristWarren Tallman,the Tish Group also drew inspiration from theSeed CatalogueandRobert Creeley,Jason Lee Wiens (Professor),Robert Duncan,Charles OlsonandJack Spicer.

TISHlaunched a number of other publications including the alternative newspaperThe Georgia Straight,edited by McLeod; the poetry newsletterSUM(1963–65), edited by Wah; the magazine of the long poemImago(1964–74), edited by Bowering; the journal of writing and theoryOpen Letter(1965–2013), edited by Davey; the prose journalPeriodics(1977–81), edited by Marlatt and Paul de Barros;Motion: A Prose Newsletter,edited by David Cull and Robert Hogg (1962), theTISHBooksimprint, and the online journalSwift Current(1984–1990), edited by Davey and Wah, who described it as the world's first e-magazine.

In 2001, George Fetherling wrote inThe Georgia Straightthat "the journal [TISH] started byGeorge Bowering,Frank Davey,David Dawson,Jamie ReidandFred Wahis probably the most influential literary magazine ever produced in Canada, of greater significance than evenPrevieworFirst Statement,the two that brought poetic modernism to the country in the 1940s. "

Further reading

• A Digital History of Canadian Poetry
• Virtual Library of Canadian Small Press
• Author Bank: Warren TallmanatBC Bookworld
• Author Bank: Frank DaveyatBC Bookworld
• Author Bank: Fred WahatBC Bookworld
• Author Bank: George BoweringatBC Bookworld
• Author Bank: Daphne MarlattatBC Bookworld