Shane Koyczan
Quick answer: How Shane Koyczan builds poems: narrative accumulation, childhood detail and crescendo endings, from To This Day to the Olympics, plus practice advice.
Shane Koyczan reached two audiences most poets never touch: an Olympic stadium and the world's bullied kids. The Canadian poet, born in 1976 in Yellowknife and raised in Penticton, British Columbia, performed his poem We Are More at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, and in 2013 his anti-bullying poem To This Day became a viral animated film viewed by tens of millions, followed by a TED talk.
Before all that, he won the individual championship at the US National Poetry Slam in 2000, one of the first non-Americans to do so. His craft is narrative at heart: long-breath storytelling that accumulates small remembered details until the ending arrives with the force of testimony.
Who he is
Koyczan was raised largely by his grandparents and has spoken openly about being bullied as a child, experiences that became the raw material of To This Day. His books and recordings include Visiting Hours, Our Deathbeds Will Be Thirsty and A Bruise on Light, and he has toured with musicians and orchestras, often performing with the band Short Story Long.
He matters as proof that spoken word can hold the biggest civic stages without going generic. We Are More was a national self-portrait commissioned for a global broadcast, and it stayed particular: local jokes, named places, real texture.
The signature moves
His poems are long, but their engines are simple and observable.
What you can learn
Trust inventory over adjective. Where a draft says childhood was cruel, list what was actually said, worn, thrown and nicknamed. Koyczan's power is evidentiary; the feelings are conclusions the audience reaches on their own.
Practise the long breath by writing one grammatically complete sentence that runs at least twelve lines, then reading it aloud without faking a pause. You will learn where clauses need air, which is where line breaks belong. Save your crescendo though: an ending can only rise if the middle held something back, so mark the one moment in your draft allowed to go loud.
Where to start
Watch the animated To This Day and his TED talk To This Day ... for the bullied and beautiful. Then find We Are More from the 2010 Olympics for the civic register. In print or audio, Visiting Hours is the recommended first collection.
What poets can take from this
- Replace adjectives about the past with inventories of exact remembered detail.
- Write one twelve-line sentence and let its breath points teach you line breaks.
- Hold volume back through the middle so the ending has room to rise.
- Turn a private story outward at the close, addressing everyone who shares it.
- Collaborate with musicians once; timing against music sharpens solo delivery.
Try it yourself
List ten exact details from your school years: nicknames, insults, games, seating plans. Build a poem that uses at least seven of them and ends by speaking directly to someone living that year now.
Questions
What is Shane Koyczan's most famous poem?
To This Day, an anti-bullying poem whose animated film went viral in 2013 and led to a widely viewed TED talk. We Are More, performed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, is a close second.
Did Shane Koyczan perform at the Olympics?
Yes, he performed We Are More at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, bringing spoken word to a global broadcast audience.
What style does Shane Koyczan write in?
Long-form narrative spoken word: accumulated childhood detail, extended sentences built for breath, and endings that rise to direct address.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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