Hello. My name is Simon Crowley and this is simoncrowley.net.


Welcome

Introduction

I’m a professional writer based in Edmonton, Alberta and a veteran of the MacEwan School of Communications.

I’m an occasional poet and amateur photographer. I maintain the official website of Toronto musician Vivek Shraya. Sometimes I design for web and print.

I have strong feelings about Canadian English, etymological rigour, and the serial comma.

Recently

We’ve relaunched vivekshraya.com with information about Vivek’s story collection, short films, and new EP 1:1. I’m also working on a poetry book for release in 2012. Watch this space for details.


Writing

Resonance: Urban Wind

In spring 2012, I contributed the poem “En route” to Resonance: Urban Wind, a multi-disciplinary video installation at the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

Captain Hook vs. The Zombies

Captain Hook vs. The Zombies playbill

In 2009, the first play I wrote with Mike Young—featuring the heroic Captain Hook and swashbuckling Peter Pan battling the evil Dr. Crocodile’s army of undead—sold out four shows at the 28th Edmonton International Fringe Festival.

SEE Magazine called it “fast and furious… full of twists and turns,” and Vue Weekly praised its “subtle charm.”

The Space Project: “Interstices”

For the 2008 Works Art and Design Festival, I contributed six photos and a poem to a collaborative exhibit curated by my friend and mentor Jannie Edwards.

Desire Lines

Desire Lines cover

My first self-published collection of poetry sold enough copies to break even; submitted for extra credit, it earned me the only A+ grade of my post-secondary career. As far as I’m concerned, an unqualified success.

Desire lines are the foot-worn paths pedestrians create across spaces with no man-made walkways. Though they represent the most direct route from origin to destination, they are never perfectly straight.

Twig

Twig cover

In 2007, I contributed to, designed, and served as consulting editor for Twig, a collection of student poetry.

Summer Things

Summer Things cover

More immediate and less polished than Desire Lines, the chapbook I released in the fall of ’07 was a small handful of poems about despair, drugs, and desperation. The edition was very limited.

Unreal City: Palimpsest

Three of my poems appeared in an exhibit of student work at the 2007 Works Art and Design Festival.

Freelance work

I’ve been a professional writer for over a decade, with training and experience in sundry acts of wordsmithery, including technical, business, and promotional writing, proofreading and copyediting, in print and on the web. If you’ve got an exciting project with words you don’t want to smith yourself, I’d love to hear about it.


Photos

The Space Project: “Interstices”

I contributed six photos and a poem to a collaborative exhibit at the 2008 Works Art and Design Festival: nine other poets, one other photographer, and I explored notions of interstices—liminal spaces, charged emotional gaps—through word and image.

The Space Project was called “the most uplifting exhibit I saw affiliated with The Works this year.… just on the fringe and the only exhibit that made any sense.”

  • door
  • Narrow alley
  • tunnel
  • transit
  • watching
  • cogs

Design

Ampersand

My brother Jesse released his first full-length album for free download in September 2010, with cover and website design by yours truly.

Ampersand cover art

Vivek Shraya

I’ve been responsible for designing and maintaining the official website of Toronto artist Vivek Shraya since 2003, most recently overhauling it in the fall of 2010 for the release of his first short film, Seeking Single White Male.

vivekshraya.com screenshot

I also designed the 2010 promotional site for God Loves Hair, Vivek’s first collection of short stories, featuring award-winning illustrations by Toronto artist Juliana Neufeld

godloveshair.com screenshot

Captain Hook vs. The Zombies

A tight budget and tighter schedule had me preparing posters, programmes, and press kits for Apocalypse Arts’ summer 2009 action-comedy-horror.

Captain Hook vs. The Zombies promotional materials

Twig

In addition to serving as contributor to and editor of the 2007 student poetry collection Twig, I also designed the cover and interior layout.

Twig design

A Composite of Straight Lines

In 2005, I designed the packaging for Vivek Shraya’s third album.

A Composite of Straight Lines design


Contact

Email

Email remains the most effective way to reach me: .

Mailing address

303–10547 83 Ave NW
Edmonton AB  T6E 2E1
Canada

Phone/SMS/iMessage

+1 (780) 965-9422

Colophon

This site is presented in ostentatiously correct HTML 5, with help from Faruk Ateş’s Modernizr, and was crafted using Coda and CSSEdit.