Kevin Andrew Heslop (b. 1992) is a hyphenate whose debuts as a poet, curator, playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter respectively appeared with Gordon Hill Press (2021), McIntosh Gallery (2022), TAP: Centre for Creativity (2022), Astoria Pictures (2023), and Rose Garden Press (2024), with a non-fiction debut forthcoming from Gordon Hill Press in 2025, a multi-media vibrotactile installation alongside Roxanna Bennett and Leslie Putnam forthcoming in 2026, and a two-volume collection of dialogues first published with Amphora, Centred Magazine, The Devil's Artisan, The Miramichi Reader, Parrot Art, and The /temz/ Review forthcoming from Guernica Editions in 2027 and 2028. A pantheistic animist of Nichiren Buddhist practice born Canadian to Danish and Celtic ancestry, he lives abroad.
Heslop has authored con/tig/u/us (The Arts Project/The Blasted Tree Art Collective, 2018), there is no minor violence just as there is no negligible cough during an aria (Frog Hollow Press, 2019), Human Beings Have to Suture the Wounds the Railroads Have Made Across This Country (Anstruther Press, 2020), the correct fury of your why is a mountain (Gordon Hill Press, 2021), six feet | between us (Gordon Hill Press/McIntosh Gallery, 2022), in medias res (Gordon Hill Press/Westland Gallery, 2023), the rules of grammar will not save you at the hour of your death (with Roxanna Bennett, Baseline Press, 2024), and Human Voices Wake Us (with Taylor Marie Graham and P.F. Tego, Rose Garden Press, 2024).
In 2022 Heslop founded the accessibility-oriented, profit-sharing, indie film company, Astoria Pictures; and, with support from the London Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts, in 2023 he edited and adapted to the screen the tetralingual (ASL/LSQ/FR/EN) poetry anthology mo(u)vements.—an effort of 60 collaborators across disciplines, most notably cinematographer and editor Nicole Coenen and recurring lead Niki Carr—released through Astoria Pictures and published in print by Rose Garden Press on wildflower seed paper from Green Field Paper Company, with French translation by Sophie Lavoie and editing by Leo Pei, American Sign Language and La langue des signes québécoise translation by Debbie Parliament of Connect Interpreting Services, and audiobook mixing and mastering by Goran Crevar of Studio Digimedia.
Heslop writes across and oblivious to genre, with art criticism lately appearing with Centred Magazine; interviews with artists and writers from around the world lately appearing or forthcoming with such outlets as Amphora, The Miramichi Reader, and Parrot Art; a non-fiction book-length debut on the subject of Medical Assistance in Dying appearing on Gordon Hill Press in the Fall of 2025; and a compendium of interviews with writers and artists across Canada and around the world appearing with Guernica Editions in 2027 (volume one) and 2028 (volume two).
His current work (as of September 2024) includes a prose-poetry travelogue; representation of outstanding IP from Canadian publishers and independent authors for adaptation to the stage and screen at IP Market Day; a Parrot Art series of dialogues with leading professionals in the arts world designed to equip emerging talents with the know-how to pursue careers in the arts; a series of self-published conversations with folks in his hometown on the subject of right-to-repair (in collaboration with scholar Alissa Centivany and photographer Derek Boswell); a co-authored MAiD physician's memoir with doctor Ian Ball and ethicist Robert Sibbald; a documentary on the subject of Medical Assistance in Dying; the verbatim adaptation of Heslop's non-fiction debut to the stage (in collaboration with playwright Camille Intson and theatre-maker Sid Wilson); post-production on a Montréal-based comedy series (writer-director) starring Monika Schneider alongside producer Kate Kenyon and cinematographer Ivan Melicoff; a nascent comedy series (writer-director) in conjunction with producer-director Greg Hemmings; a biopic (writer-director) about the legendary Zè Celso with support from Teatro Oficina; and a travelling vibrotactile Ontario Arts Council-supported ceramics installation in collaboration with artist Leslie Putnam and poet Roxanna Bennett.
Born and raised where Deshkan Ziibi forks unceded to the London Township Treaty; and having trained as a percussionist under Rob Larose and studied theatre under the late Ian Watson in Stratford, Ontario and M.J. Kidnie in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, England via Western University, where he acted in student plays, wrote acerbically for the student daily, and published poetry, Heslop lives abroad, having taken artist residencies in Belgrade, Serbia at the Belgrade Art Studio (May, 2023); Hämeenkyrö, Finland at Arteles Centre for Creativity (June, 2023); Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, France at BRAŻŻA (July, 2023); Ilhabela, Brazil at Casa Na Ilha (Nov-Dec 2023); Boiçucanga, Brazil at Kaaysá Artist Residency (Dec-Apr, 2024); Ebeltoft, Denmark at Earthwise Residency (June, 2024); Viborg, Denmark at Ørslev Kloster (July, 2024); and Fuji, Japan at SaikoNeon (Aug-Sept, 2024), with a three-month residency in São Paulo, Brazil with Teatro Oficina to take place from January to March of 2025.