Jennifer Yeates Camara is a poet living in Vancouver, Canada. She is the youngest of 13 children, born to an extremely poor family in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Jennifer grew up in an old house that someone had paid her father to haul away. The 5 acres of rural land he bought was zoned in such a way as to require the house meet a minimum square footage. After measuring into every closet under the deep eaves, the house squeaked by and their large family had a home, albeit without plumbing as the water was never hooked up! Jennifer’s early life in the 70’s included an outhouse, a well, and a wood-burning fireplace.

Jennifer’s sister Regan, one of several writers in the family, expands on their early life in the essay 'Eau de Toilet: The Fragrance of My Youth' (on regannuqui.com) and in the poignant essay published in Canada's The Globe and Mail in January 2019 entitled 'Elephants in the Classroom, and the Teacher Who Conquered Them.’

Despite such an impoverished beginning, the arts featured prominently in their family life and history. Jennifer’s parents were both avid readers and often recited the poems of Robert Service and others by memory.

At age 9, Jennifer moved to the coastal area of British Columbia with her mother and three siblings. After showing an aptitude for French lessons in grade 5, Jennifer was encouraged to join a late French immersion program starting from grade 6 (taught by the extraordinary Ms. Chin). It was around that time that Jennifer also started writing her own poetry.

Although Jennifer continued excelling academically, their family’s economic situation was still dire and she turned to poetry to express herself.

Once Jennifer started working, she eagerly frequented local bookstores, where the proprietors introduced her to poetry from many cultures, including Persia, China, Japan and India. During that period Jennifer also explored Biblical poetry and its unique aspects, like vivid verbs, concrete words for abstract concepts, short conjunctions for flow and rhymes of thought (parallel ideas or words used purposefully to connect different lines and allow groupings to make multiple points), and she passed many nights listening to recordings of the psalms.

For more information on Jennifer, please visit yeatescamara.com.