Brian Bartlett

Brian Bartlett

Brian Bartlett (born October 1, 1953) is a Canadian poet, essayist, nature writer, and editor. He has published 14 books or chapbooks of poetry, two prose books of nature writing, and a compilation of prose about poetry. He was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and lived in Fredericton from 1957 to 1975. While a high-school student and an undergraduate he attended the informal writers workshop the Ice House (a.k.a. McCord Hall or Tuesday Night); there and elsewhere he benefited from the generosity and friendship of writers such as Nancy and William Bauer, Robert Gibbs, Alden Nowlan, A.G. Bailey, Kent Thompson, Fred Cogswell, David Adams Richards, and Michael Pacey. After completing his B.A. at the University of New Brunswick, including an Honours thesis entitled "Dialogue as Form and Device in the Poetry of W.B. Yeats," Bartlett moved to Montreal Quebec, and stayed there for 15 years. He completed an M.A. from Concordia University, with a short-story-collection thesis (advisor: Clark Blaise), and a PhD at Université de Montréal (dissertation: "Speech and Address in the Poetry of A.R. Ammons"). While living in Montreal, Bartlett worked as a proofreader, tutor, manual laborer, office assistant for an academic journal, and part-time instructor. In 1990 he relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia to teach Creative Writing and English at Saint Mary's University. https://www.writers.ns.ca/members/profile/24< http://www.stu-acpa.com/brian-bartlett.html https://www.writersunion.ca/member/brian-bartlett During his final dozen years of teaching, Bartlett edited several other poets' selected works, a compilation of essays on one poet, and Collected Poems of Alden Nowlan. After 28 years leading workshops in several genres (poetry, non-fiction prose, fiction), teaching fields of literature ranging from Study of Poetry, Study of Short Fiction, 20th-century Poetry, and 19th-century American Prose to Beginnings of Canadian Literature, Contemporary Canadian Poetry, The Writer and Nature, and Canadian Nature Writing, as well as overseeing the Saint Mary's Reading Series, Bartlett retired from teaching in 2018. A long-time dedicated reader of Thoreau, he has given presentations at Thoreau conferences in Concord, Massachusetts and Gothenburg, Sweden. His writing of poetry and prose, and his editing, continue. His wife, Karen Dahl (b. 1963), is a Senior Manager for the Halifax Regional Library system; their children are Josh (b. 1997) and Laura (b. 2000).

Update this biography »
Complete biography of Brian Bartlett »