Andrea Thompson is a writer, editor, educator and award-winning spoken word artist who has been publishing and performing her work for over twenty-five years. Thompson is the recipient of the 2021 Pavlick Poetry Prize and her work was featured in the anthology, Best Canadian Poetry: 2020. In 2021, her collection, A Selected History of Soul Speak was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative poetry, and longlisted for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards. In 2005 Thompson’s spoken word album, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award, in 2019 her album, Soulorations, earned her a League of Canadian Poets’ Golden Beret Award. A graduate of the University of Guelph’s MFA Creative Writing program, Thompson has taught creative writing at the post-secondary level since 2017. She is the author of numerous critical essays on spoken word poetry, is the author of the novel, Over Our Heads and is the co-editor of the anthology Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out. Thompson has served as an editor at Brick Books and as the artistic director of Brick's online spoken word showcase, Brickyard. In 2023 Thompson designed and delivered the first spoken word course to be offered at the University of Toronto, through the English & Drama department on the Mississauga campus. Her most recent work is The Good Word, a spoken word album that reflects on the intersection of Black history and faith, and Complex, a multimedia poetry collection exploring mental health.

Andrea Thompson, MFA is a Canadian writer, spoken word artist, advocate, educator, and long-time member of the League of Canadian Poets who has been publishing and performing her work for over twenty-five years. As an established Canadian writer, Andrea’s work has received much critical acclaim. As a spoken word artist, Thompson is well known for her sustained and foundational role as a trail-blazing artist on the Canadian spoken word landscape, as well her commitment to nurturing and supporting youth and emerging artists of all ages.

Since the late 90s, Thompson has taught spoken word and poetry through universities, secondary schools and a variety of agencies and grass-roots organizations across the country. With a passion for using poetry and performance as a tool for empowerment, Thompson has helped hundreds of vulnerable and disenfranchised students to develop their craft and literacy skills while increasing their emotional well-being and self-esteem. Thompson has facilitated workshops organizations such as the Hospital for Sick Children’s Substance Abuse and Eating Disorder programs, Regent Park Community Health Centre, Jessie’s Centre, Sunnybrook Veteran’s Centre, Sistering and Parkdale Project Read.

For decades, Thompson’s work has helped Canadian Spoken word arts gain both national and international exposure. In 1992, she co-hosted CIUT’s radio show, HearSay, where she featured spoken word artists from across North America. In 1995 she was the host and producer of Telepoetics, Vancouver – one of the world’s first world-wide internet connected poetry series. Also in 1995, Thompson was featured in the documentary Slamnation as a member of the Canada’s first national slam team invited to compete in an international event. From 1996 to 1998, Thompson served as the Executive Director of the Edgewise ElectroLit Centre – a non-profit dedicated to using online technology to advance literary arts.

In 2000, she published her first poetry collection, Eating the Seed with Ekstasis editions, a collection that was to be featured on the reading lists of OCAD University and the University of Toronto. From 2004 to 2010, Thompson produced several spoken word documentaries for CBC radio’s Outfront, and also worked at the League of Canadian Poets, where she helped to establish a process that would allow spoken word artists to apply for membership – assisting in the breaking down of a barrier that had barred spoken word artists entry to the League for decades. Also during this time, Thompson’s video poem “Juicy” (produced by Gemini award-winning filmmaker, Seth-Adrian Harris) was screened at the Vancouver Videopoem Festival and Toronto’s Iced in Black Festival.


In 2005, Thompson’s first spoken word album, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award. In 2007 she helped facilitate the Spoken Word Pilot Project, which served as the foundation of the Banff Centre’s Spoken Word Program. Later that year, Thompson helped to bring spoken word artists global exposure as on-air host and researcher of Bravo TV’s thirteen part television series, Heart of a Poet. In 2008, Thompson became one of the first Canadian spoken word artists to tour the country’s Fringe Festivals with her one woman show, "Mating Rituals of the Urban Cougar". In 2009 she was awarded the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word’s Poet of Honour.

In 2010, Thompson co-edited the anthology Other Tongues: Mixed Race Women Speak Out. Also in 2010, she designed the curriculum and began teaching spoken word through OCAD University’s Continuing Studies department – the first spoken word course to be taught in a Canadian university. From 2011 to 2013, Thompson worked on her Masters of Fine Arts degree through the University of Guelph's Creative Writing program, with a full-length novel as her thesis. In 2014, she published her debut novel, Over Our Heads with Inanna Publications - where she worked with Editor-in-Chief, Luciana Ricciutelli.

In 2017, Thompson designed and began teaching the first spoken word course at the University of Toronto through their School of Continuing Studies. Also in 2017, she became a sessional professor at Brock University, teaching a fourth year poetry workshop. Throughout this time Thompson continued to teach through schools and community organizations, with a focus on empowering marginalized voices. In 2018, Thompson returned to Brock to teach fourth year fiction, and later that year, released her second spoken word CD, Soulorations, which helped earn her the 2019 League of Canadian Poets’ Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for excellence in the art of spoken word.

Thompson is the author of several academic essays on spoken word, including "Committing the Act of Language: The (R)evolutionary Tactics and Hybridist Anxieties of Spoken Word's Third Wave" (More Caught in the Act, XYZ Publishing 2016), "Spoken Word: A Gesture Towards Possibility" (Writing Creative Writing, Dundurn Press 2018) and the upcoming, “Spoken Word: A Signifying Gesture Toward Possibility” (Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory, and Futures in Canada, Ed. Ronald Cummings and Natalee Caple (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021).

Andrea Thompson joined the editorial collective of Brick Books in 2020, and has served as both a curator and as the Artistic Director of Brick's online spoken word showcase, Brickyard. She is the recipient of the League of Canadian Poets' 2021 Leon E. & Ann M. Pavlick Poetry Prize, and her work was featured in the anthology, Best Canadian Poetry: 2020. Thompson currently teaches spoken word poetry through the University of Toronto’s Department of English & Drama, and her collection, A Selected History of Soul Speak (Frontenac House, Quartet 2021) was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, and longlisted for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards. Her most recent work is The Good Word, a spoken word album that explores the intersection of Black history and faith.

Photo: www.biaphotography.com