kevin andrew heslop
(b. 1992) works chiefly in film and language and peripherally in theatre and the visual arts. In 2021, he released a debut collection of verse, the correct fury of your why is a mountain, with Gordon Hill Press. In 2022, he founded an independent film company, Astoria Pictures; and in July 2023, Astoria will release its first film, an anthology entitled mo(u)vements. Heslop has studied in Stratford, Ontario, London, England, and Stratford-upon-Avon, England, appeared in leading roles on stage with The Grand Theatre, Palace Theatre, and TAP: Centre for Creativity, and exhibited with The Arts Project, McIntosh Gallery, and Westland Gallery. He is currently at work on both a book and a documentary about Medical Assistance in Dying, Unspeakable.
Heslop's directorial work in film has garnered international critical acclaim, with prizes in-category awarded in 2022 by the Berlin Shorts Awards, the Experimental, Dance & Music Awards, the Latitude Film Awards, the Los Angeles International Film Festival, the Milan Gold Awards, the Paris Play Film Festival, the Phoenix Shorts Awards, the Toronto Short Film Festival, and the Vancouver Independent Film Festival; nominations at festivals like the Florence Film Awards, the London Movie Awards, the Montréal Independent Film Festival, and the San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival; and official selections to three dozen more festivals around the world.
Heslop's written work has been hailed as "among the most promising poetic projects to come out of Canada in recent years" (Jim Johnstone), a "sublime poetic debut" (D.A. Lockhart) "read with admiration" (J.M. Coetzee), which "no lover of poetry should be without" (Arleen Paré) yet "tougher to read than John Stuart Mill" (Norman Finkelstein) and has appeared with Anstruther Press, Baseline Press, The Blue Nib Literary Magazine, Brick Books Online, Collusion Books, The Devil's Artisan, The Fiddlehead, Frog Hollow Press, Gordon Hill Press, Guernica Editions, ISACOUSTIC, is/let, Juniper, No Press, Occasus Literary Journal, Puddles of Sky Press, The Quarantine Review, talking about strawberries all of the time, The /tƐmz/ Review, and elsewhere.
On radio, in print, and online, Heslop has interviewed a variety of leading artists, intellectuals, and writers, including Gary Barwin, Madeline Bassnett, Derek Boswell, Tom Cull, Frank Davey, Jason Dickson, Susan Elmslie, Síle Englert, Michael Fraser, Laurie Graham, Emma Healey, Jeremy Luke Hill, Karen Houle, David Huebert, David Janzen, Amanda Leduc, Monika Lee, Brenda Leifso, D.A. Lockhart, Canisia Lubrin, Rodney Mercer, Mary di Michele, Shane Neilson, James Nowak, M. NourbeSe Philip, Angie Quick, Karen Schindler, Kevin Shaw, Andrew Steeves, Lily Wang, Phoebe Wang, Michelle Wilson, Brandon Wint, and Lorraine York.
Kevin also supports literary presses and their authors in the adaptation of written works to the screen, and in this capacity currently represents titles from Gordon Hill Press and Palimpsest Press; served, from 2017-2022, as the curator of a monthly literary and experimental arts series in London, Ontario; served, from 2018-2022, on the Organizing Committee of Antler River Poetry; and serves, since 2020, as a Director of the Board of Changing Ways, a non-profit designed to end intimate-partner violence by providing rehabilitative services to formerly abusive men. He divides time between London, Ontario, Montréal, Québec, and travelling to set and arts residencies around the world.