About

Originally from Ottawa, Richard-Yves Sitoski has been living in Grey-Bruce since 2004. He studied Art History and Classics at the University of Ottawa, and French Linguistics and Translation at Carleton University. He earned an M.A. in Classics from Queen’s University, and came within 8 years of completing a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Toronto. As a high school teacher he lasted only one year.

Richard-Yves Sitoski’s most recent works are the chapbook How to Be Human (Bywords.ca, 2022) and the full-length poetry collection Wait, What? (Wet Ink Books, 2023). Previous books include Butterfly Tongue and Other Plays (Ginger Press, 2023), No Sleep ‘til Eden (Ginger Press, 2020), Downmarket Oldies FM Station Blues (Ginger Press, 2018), and brownfields (Ginger Press, 2014). He is co-editor, with Penn Kemp, of Poems in Response to Peril: An Anthology in Support of Ukraine (Pendas Productions / Laughing Raven Press, 2022), profits from which went to displaced Ukrainian cultural workers.

He is a 2021 Best of the Net nominee, the recipient of the 2021 John Newlove Award, and the second-place winner of the 2022 Don Gutteridge Award. He was also a finalist for the 2018 International Songwriting Competition and the winner of the September-October 2024 American Songwriter lyrics competition. His one-person fringe show, Butterfly Tongue, has played to sold-out houses.

He works as the Marketing and Publication Coordinator for Kegedonce Press, serves on the Membership Committee of the League of Canadian Poets, is an advance reader for EVENT Magazine, and has been the Artistic Director of the Words Aloud Poetry Series since 2021.