$60,000 grant for poetry

Wow! Talk about a poetry grant! I am moving to Canada. Looks like they pay their poets quite well!

$60,000 federal grant funds profesor's body-pollution poetry
By Erica Bajer QMI Agency

A Brock University professor has received $60,000 in federal funds to write poetry about the impact of environmental chemicals and other invaders on his body.

Over the next three years, Adam Dickinson will find out what chemicals, bacteria and viruses have accumulated inside of him.

The 37-year-old associate professor of English language and literature was awarded the grant in the category of research/creation in the fine arts from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, a federally funded program.

Dickinson's funding was announced as part of more than $900,000 granted to Brock researchers for economic, social and cultural projects.

The professor will be tested for such things as mercury, lead, bisphenol A (a chemical used to make plastic), pesticides, the West Nile virus, the superbug methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and the feline parasite toxoplasma gondii.

He'll use his experiences being tested and the findings to pen poetry that explores how the human body is impacted by the world of synthetic chemicals.

"This is an art project," he said of the $60,000 grant, which will culminate in a book called Anatomic.