About Kees Kapteyn*
*(pronounced 'Kase Kaptine')

I was born in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario in 1966. 

My father had a (nearly) 6 acre fruit farm, and it was a great place to grow up.  There was room to roam, space to run, all in an environment close to nature and spirituality.  There was work to do, but when there wasn’t, I made sure to use the freedom as much as I could. I made sure of that.

I was a shy, small kid growing up.  I didn’t play hockey, or listen to music.  I really didn’t do anything that would have helped me fit in with a clique. I didn’t care much for having a gang.  

At around the age of 12, I developed a talent for drawing, mostly from a nightly routine of sitting in the kitchen with a pad of paper after supper.  It was the most quiet activity my brothers and I could do while my father took his post-supper nap.  My mother picked up oil painting at this time, and with the lessons she was learning, she taught me the basic rules of composition, lending me how-to books with which to learn more.
After finishing a funny story project in Grade 7, one of my classmates used me as a definition for the word 'prolific', which completely mystified me.  I had only been horsing around with words.  But later in high school, my teachers saw I had a talent.  One teacher in particular, Mr. Palma, asked me to read one of my short story assignments aloud.  It about a young woman confronted with an accidental pregnancy and wrestling with the thought of disclosing it to her parents.  The story brought some of my female classmates to break down in tears.  It was unsettling at the time, knowing I had reached them so strongly, and my shy, introverted nature wanted to shrink away from this contact, but deep inside, I was amazed to have written something so powerful.
From there, on my own, I tried poetry, only succeeding in writing trite, derivative stuff.  I sent samples to Mary Di Michele to get some guidance, and was instructed to read more.  The experience showed me how inexperienced and raw I actually was.  A friend of my father’s offered me a chance to talk to the CanLit great, Irving Layton, but hearing about how gruff and critical Layton could be, I declined, and continued to fumble blindly through my verses and concepts.

Taking Mary Di Michele’s advice, I did start reading more, but not poetry.  I indulged in short prose and novels,  discovering Robertson Davies, Hugh Maclennan, Paul Quarrington and Douglas Coupland, then exploring the Beats, Kerouac in particular.  My true awakening to the style I wanted to make my own came when I discovered Mark Anthony Jarman’s “Salvage King, Ya!”, with its poetic, lyrical voice and its frenetic but lush rhythms.  From there, I took the baton and RAN.  Around that same time, I developed a keen interest in the music of The Tragically Hip.  In particular, I was zeroing in on the lyrics and vocal style of Gord Downie, who wrote his lyrics in a deep cryptic manner with special attention paid to certain common, or uncommon, figures of speech.  Also, in singing his lyrics, Downie had a very unusual cadence and his phrasings beheld a rhythm rarely seen in both song and poetry.  He also became a strong influence.

In the early nineties, I began my career in self-publishing,  Creating a small press zine called Rhododendron, wherein I could published my poetry and stories, as well as promote local musical talent and broader Canadian culture.  The zine had some appeal in the zine scene around Canada and earned good reviews in Broken Pencil and Exclaim magazine.  A poetry chapbook entitled ‘grubstreet’ was released, as well as a book of poetry and short stories entitled ‘coffee salt’.  I began submitting poetry and short stories around Canada and eventually earned honourable mentions in two different Canadian Authors Association Niagara Branch anthologies.

I moved to Ottawa in 2011 and have tried to make myself available to the art and literary community that very richly exists in the city.  I published my first flash-fiction chapbook entitled ‘Temperance Ave.” with Grey Borders Books and continue to engage myself in writing and art projects, especially in my summers off from my day job of working as an educational assistant. Since then, I've had several pieces published in various magazines and anthologies. In 2024, my short story "A Hierarchy of Needs" was  shortlisted for the Gilmer Prize. I've self published novellas (Holocene and individe) and short fiction collections (coffee salt and Temperance Avenue 2nd. edition), with a novel and other fiction collections looking for a publisher.