History

 
NOW HEAR THIS! is a literacy outreach program administered by the Descant Arts & Letters Foundation, a not-for-profit, charitable organization with a mandate of education through the arts.
 

The Foundation also produces Descant magazine, a quarterly journal with a near 40-year history publishing fiction, poetry, essays, and visual art. Past contributors to Descant include: Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, Joan Barfoot, Edward Burtynsky, Catherine Bush, Anne Carson, Matt Cohen, Lorna Crozier, Anthony De Sa, Chris Dewdney, Stan Douglas, Larry Frolick, Camilla Gibb, Evelyn Lau, Tom McGuane, Mary Di Michele, Anne Michaels, Bruce Elder, John Drew, Timothy Findley, Northrop Frye, Barbara Gowdy, Michael Mitchell, Gwendolyn MacEwen, John McEwen, Michael Ondaatje, P.K. Page, Edeet Ravel, Michael Redhill, Josef Skvorecky, Susan Swan, Larry Towell, Jane Urquhart, Joyce Wieland, Balint Zsako and Jan Zwicky, to name but a few…
 
In 2005, The Descant Arts & Letters Foundation began organizing volunteer-led writing workshops for community organizations.
 
This project developed into a dedicated literacy outreach program called NOW HEAR THIS!