FRANK WESTCOTT
Congratulations on your achievement. 1st. Place co-winner in the prestigious Exile/Gloria Vanderbilt Short Fiction Award, 2011 for your story The Poet.
You can read Frank's award winning story in the current issue of EXILE: The Literary Quarterly - Volume 35 No.1 or in the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Anthology Series Book One available from Exile Editions August 15, 2011.
Photo of Frank and Gloria Vanderbilt at the awards dinner, Turf lounge, Toronto, May 28, 2011.
Photo taken by Michelle Westcott
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CLICK FOR "HAVING FUN WITH FRANK WESTCOTT" - ACCESS COPYRIGHT INTERVIEW, SUMMER 2011
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"GRAMPA FRANK !" AKA Frank Westcott
Frank
at CBC-TV May 2010
Just
Frank, 2011
ABOUT THE DUDE !
Frank lives in a small hamlet called Loretto, just north of Toronto.
He has written for most of his life. This includes books, stories, poems, lyrics and music. His work spans all ages and many genres. He even wrote a wee play called Pigeons. In May, 2011 he was presented with a co-win, two first prizes were awarded, of the Exile/Gloria Vanderbilt Short Fiction Award.
His books to date are:
SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER (non-fiction)
THE BEAVER NATURE’S MASTER BUILDER (non-fiction)
BEING (aphorisms)
SMALL THINGS (aphorisms)
HER LIGHT WAS LIKE UNTO A STONE (poetry)
CAPTAIN DREAMER (poetry)
BASIC LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR (education)
THE OLD MAN AND THE HIDDEN FOREST (children's)
Frank taught school from 1971-2002. He taught grades 4,5,6,& 7 as well as many years working in Special Education with the mentally challenged, gifted, developmentally handicapped, and learning disabled. He was even a principal of a school for the developmentally handicapped.
His award winning story THE POET appeared in ELQ-Exile the Literary Quarterly,Volume 35 #1 and in THE CVC ANTHOLOGY SERIES, BOOK 1 selections made by Gloria Vanderbilt. This award and anthology are in honour of Gloria Vanderbilt’s son, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper who passed away in 1988.
Although having written for many, many years, Frank believes he is just beginning to emerge as a writer. He feels, in recent times and for the first time in his life, he is beginning to find his true literary voice.
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GRAMPA FRANK’S!" YEARS AS A SCHOOL TEACHER ! AND SUCH ! ! !"Grampa Frank!" taught many, many kids how to read, write, do math, and lot’s of other school-ish things like that. He taught grades lots of grades and ages. Wee little kids to almost grown up kidlets, too. "Grampa Frank!" was even a Special Education Teacher for a bunch of years, too. He is an Ontario, Canada Certified Specialist in Special Education. Some of his favourite years were working with Developmentally Handicapped young people. He was even a principal of a school for these children for about a year and a half ! "Grampa Frank!" went to university in a place called Hamilton, Ontario. The university is called McMaster. They have his picture in their Alumni Gallery ‘cause they think he writes pretty good. Sings, too ! Makes songs, too ! Cool !
Many of "Grampa Frank’s!" song and story ideas came when he was teaching. Many ! Many ! Many ! Now, they come from his memories of teaching and from his love for his grandchildren. He is a lucky man, he says! A friend of his says, "You gotta be willing to be lucky!" Grampa Frank! Believes that, too. Grampa Frank! Adds,"And…, you gotta be willing to let luck happen where it wants to." Good advice !
"Grampa Frank!" feels lucky that you are reading this, and maybe are going to enjoy some of his songs & stories, and maybe even color one of his pictures ! That’d be swell !
Bye for now.
Remember, be good to you and all you love !
LUV, "GRAMPA FRANK!"And of course in case you haven't heard or read, Frank Westcott is a multi-talented, multi-faceted singer, songwriter, composer, entertainer, and musician. He is also a writer of fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry for both children and adults. With over 140 songs written for his personal songwriting catalogue, singing is his greatest joy. His songs range from show tune-ish to children's to pop to folk to just plain old happy songs and plain old story telling songs. Other than his love for his family, Frank loves to perform & sing his songs more than anything else in the world.
Some of Frank's songs and his voice can be heard on demo CDs:
FLY TO ME IN THE SUN
Each song by Frank except Nothin’ Compares written by Michael Hanson for Frank.
The tracks are: Let's Get Agoin', Goin' on a Stroll, What'd I See, Eagles Flyin' to Their Destiny, *Nothin' Compares, My Room, Eagles Ridin' Skywaves, Love-Love-Love, Fly to Me in the Sun, You Walk with Me All the Way, Ghostly Haunting Sea.
AS I AM
This demo contains nine, often humorous, songs: THE BUTT SONG, AS I AM, WIGGLES, ME & MY BABY , WHAT'S THAT SWINGIN' ?, ARE YOU SAD TODAY?, WISHES, TEDDY BEARS & LEPRECHAUNS, A STONE IN MY SHOE, and DRUNK AS A SKUNK!
Some solo drumming:
DRUMMIN' WITH THE MAN!
A full kit drummer for many years, Frank's drum solo CD is divided into two suites of rhythm focus: Native Summer Suite and African Suite.
AFRICAN SUITE: Sunset Over Kilimanjaro, Jungle Drumming, Rainin' Down Africa, Thunder Trying, Lightning the Way, and Djembe Dancer.
NATIVE SUMMER SUITE: Arrival, Doors Opening, Entering Summer, Summer, Speeding, Home.
Other than Djembe Dancer, each track is performed a full drum kit.
Each track is a live performance. There is no dubbing.
Writing has always been Frank's other grand passion. A sample of some new work can be seen in the book section of this site. A professional writer for many years, Frank's books published to date are:
THE BEAVER - NATURE'S MASTER BUILDER (Non-fiction/Hounslow/1989[Now The Dundurn Group, Toronto.),
SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER (Non-fiction/Vesta/1983),
CAPTAIN DREAMER (Poetry/Vesta/1982),
THE OLD MAN AND THE HIDDEN FOREST (Children's/Vesta/1981)
BEING (Original Sayings/Blue Heron/1981),
HER LIGHT WAS LIKE UNTO A STONE (Poetry/Blue Heron/1981),
BASIC LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR (Education/Vesta/1980),
SMALL THINGS (Original Sayings/Blue Heron/1979)
Some more history:
During his writing career, Frank has published numerous columns, articles, poems, and short stories. In addition to bringing a variety of book projects to conclusion in the recent past, Frank writes an occasional column CELEBRATING THE WRITTEN WORD !
To balance the interior component inherent in all good writing, Frank regularly performs short shows of his original songs, poems, and comedy for both adults and children.
In recognition of his writing talent, McMaster University honored Frank by selecting him to their Alumni Gallery in 1984. In 1987, John Robert Colombo chose three pieces from Small Things and one piece from Being for inclusion in his Colombo's New Canadian Quotations, Hurtig, 1987.
There have been many highlights in Frank's musical and literary careers. On numerous occasions as a drummer, singer, songwriter, composer or playing guitar or keyboard, he has performed for adults, children, or both. Over the years, Frank has appeared on CBC Radio, CKVR-TV's Moira Hunt Show and Jayne Pritchard's Good Company. Frank has published a vast quantity of prose, poetry, and fiction in India, Canada, and the United States. Besides having books published, some publications his work has appeared in are: Canadian Author & Bookman, Books in Canada, Exile - The Literary Quarterly, Writers' Lifeline, and The Christian Monitor (India). Besides Frank's CDs, musical highlights include performing at the Canadian National Exhibition, The Eden Mill's Writers' Festival (children's section) , the Tottenham Talent Show, CHCH-TV, numerous daycare centers, the Haliburton Folk Society (Annual Weekend), the Dufferin County Museum, Museum on the Boyne, & with great joy as the "Fun" part singing a few songs for a "Fun & Fit Class" in the Dance Studio at the University of Toronto . In the workshop/lecture arena, Frank has conducted sessions for elementary schools, high schools, universities, libraries, literary groups, private clubs, and special events. He has facilitated professional development workshops for teachers on the subject: Creativity and Education. Frank had great fun speaking on the short story at a national conference of the Canadian Authors' Association. And he loved reading from his work, performing a few songs, and giving his workshop Writing from the Inside Out over a two day literary arts celebration put on by Spirit of the Hills -- The North Cumberland Arts Association, Campbellford, Ontario.
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