The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild is excited to announce Dash Reimer as the 5th Youth Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan with a term of August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025.

The Saskatchewan Youth Poet Laureate celebrates Saskatchewan—its people, spirit, land—through the literary arts, and act as an ambassador and champion of poetry and writing. The Youth Poet is committed to writing, passion for poetry, and community engagement through their position to raise awareness of the power of poetry and engage all residents, including youth, in the written and spoken word.

Dash Reimer is an artist and educator based out of Treaty 6 territory in Saskatoon. He works within the worlds of poetry and hip hop and has over a decade of experience performing on stages across Turtle Island, North Africa, South Africa and Turkey. Having grown up in Mongolia, Libya and Saskatoon, his life has been a collage of experiences and his art reflects that. While Dash is fixed within the worlds of poetry and hip hop, he works within many disciplines such as punk, jazz, improv comedy, script writing, digital art, folk and more.

Former Saskatoon Slam Champion (2014) and National Youth Poetry Slam Champion (2012), Dash has been involved as both a performer and facilitator in the Saskatoon spoken word scene for over a decade and has been a resident artist/musician for a number of camps and high schools. He has received multiple grants from SK Arts to create, produce and perform his spoken word and has self-published two chapbooks of his poetry. He has also co-created a hip-hop program based for young men on the topic of gender-based violence through Chokecherry Studio’s Young Men’s Program.

The jury noted that "Dash is a talented spoken word performer whose work emanates love. He has a strong track record of engaging youth in spoken word and poetry through his workshops and teachings and has been deeply invested in the literary community. He will excel as Youth Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan."

For more information about the Youth Poet Laureate position or to request working with Dash, please visit https://skwriter.com/programs-and-ser...