Ed Varney
Individual
Roles
ArtistBiography
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Ed Varney received his BA and MA from Syracuse University where he studied with poets Delmore Schwartz and Donald Justice and printmaker Robert Marx. He came to Vancouver as a draft evader in 1968. In Vancouver, he joined the multimedia artists' collaborative group Intermedia and founded Intermedia Press in 1969 as its publishing arm. He was one of the founding members of the Association of Canadian Publishers and the Literary Press Group. In 1971, he joined forces with poet Henry Rappaport and, between 1969 and 1981, Intermedia Press published 55 books of poetry and 50 novels, short story collections, anthologies and trade books. Intermedia Press played a significant part in the explosion of interest in Canadian Literature in the 1970s, publishing poets such as Beth Jankola, Tim Lander, Stanley Cooperman, Pat Lowther, Mona Fertig, Judith Copithorne, bill bissett, Rikki Ducornet, Cathy Ford, Nellie McClung, Avron Hoffman and Maxine Gadd. Varney was also founding editor of the Poem Company (1970-1974), a member of the Vancouver Poetry Front (1970-1971), one of Canada's earliest collaborative poetry performance groups, and the founder of the Intermedia Video Band (1970-1972). His interest in sound and concrete poetry led him to explore various and innovative approaches to the visual presentation of poetry which found a receptive audience in South America and Europe. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and exhibitions.Covid-19 Mail Art, 2020