Born in 1942, David Dawson, from a working class family in Burnaby, was one of the co-founding editors of the TISH poetry magazine at UBC. After many years of teaching in Washington State, he retired in Vancouver and died of lung cancer in November of 2008. "His death is a shock," wrote poetry colleague Jamie Reid, "because he always seemed so vigorous physically. He was a gentle and cultivated spirit. His poetry both in its ideas and its music was always related to music and light-footed dancing."

[BCBW 2008] "Poetry"