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Brief Biography
Brian Bartlett was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, in 1953, grew up in Fredericton, lived for 15 years in Montreal, and moved to Halifax in 1990 to begin teaching creative writing and literature at Saint Mary's University, where he can still be found today. He has published five collections and four chapbooks of poems, as well as Wanting the Day: Selected Poems, which was published internationally (by Peterloo Poets of Cornwall, England, and Goose Lane Editions in Canada) and won the 2004 Atlantic Poetry Prize. His other honours have inclued Malahat Review Long Poem Prizes in 1991 and 1998, a Banff Writers' Studio Scholarship, and first prize in the Petra Kenney poetry awards; and he has traveled to Scotland on a Hawthornden Castle International Writer's Retreat fellowship.
He has also edited a book of prose, Don McKay: Essays on His Works, and a selection of poetry, Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski, and is currently editing The Essential James Reaney. For many years he has been publishing many kinds of prose -- reviews, essays, memoirs, introductions, journals, tributes -- that he recently gathered into a book, Living with Poetry. His wife is Karen Dahl, Youth Services Manager for the Halifax Regional Library system, and their two children are Joshua and Laura.
Selected List of Publications
- The Watchmaker's Table. Goose Lane Editions, 2008. ISBN 978-0-86492-508-4.
- "The poems in this book represent an impressive variety of forms...all intricately flexed with a striking sensitivity to the sound of words and the rhythmic shape of the sentence; an effective, witty, often brilliant use of line breaks, and a talent for metaphor that can intensify his very clear images by fusing them with characteristics from other perceptual fields[...] there is lots more to say about this book, but if you read poetry for the many pleasures it can provide, I have six words of advice. Buy it. Read it out loud." -- George Amabile, The Fiddlehead
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- Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski. (Editor). Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-55458-008-8.
- Don McKay: Essays on His Works. (Editor). Guernica Editions, 2006. ISBN 978-1-55071-252-0.
- Travels of the Watch. Gaspereau, 2004. ISBN 1-894031-97-0.
- Wanting the Day: Selected Poems. Goose Lane Editions, 2003. ISBN 0-86492-357-0.
- Winner of the 2004 Atlantic Poetry Prize.
- "...an intense volume of selected poems... a lovely glimpse into a poetic world infused with wonder and lingering mystery." - Heather Fitzgerald, Quill & Quire
- "This book will remind fans of his consistent beauties, while introducing new readers to a stirring lyricism that smoothly combines whimsy and reason, all the while delighting in the everyday and nature.... The latter poems emphasize a strategy of shifting from one startling proposition to another." - George Elliott Clarke, The Sunday Herald
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- The Afterlife of Trees. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7735-1910-6.
- Shortlisted for the 2003 Atlantic Poetry Prize.
- "Mostly, what strikes me about The Afterlife of Trees is the very distinctive voice that, once opened, it shows forth. I'd recognize it among many. The words, the lines, just keep on justifyng one's eyes being there. They speak in the thoughtful and intelligent voice of a human life in midjourney. If there's a higher mode to aim at, I don't know what it is." - Don Coles
- "Bartlett's poems are so relaxed and light-footed, so alert in their wonder and agile in their leaps, that it's easy not to notice their artfulness. Whether Bartlett is musing on fatherhood or training his keen sights on wildlife, there's a rich grain and high polish to The Afterlife of Trees." - Barbara Carey, The Toronto Star
- "These poems spiral inward from sensual details to metaphysical truths in a process which recognizes the limits of knowing ... The poems in The Afterlife of Trees are sensitive, meditative, and artistically mature. They do not rely on technical cleverness, or rhetorical gimmick, but on much thought and attention to the world and poetic craft. They come from that mysterious and elusive place of composition which cannot be taught. With this collection, Brian Bartlett deserves to be considered one of Canada's major poets." - Kevin Bushell, The Antigonish Review
- Granite Erratics. Ekstasis Editions, 1997. ISBN 1-896860-15-X.
- "For a number of years, and without fanfare, Brian Bartlett has been quietly providing us with some of our best poetry ... No series or review quotations can do justice to the density, texture, and nuance, the lush foliation of Bartlett's diction ... This is poetry that is thick and suggestive; its rhythm both subtle and sinewy." - Ross Leckie, The Fiddlehead
- "His poetry has granite strength and texture and something of an ammonite about it too -- a sense of connection with history and continuity. There is a tenderness to his poems too which makes them very moving. I find them a constant delight." - Barbara Colebrook Peace
- Underwater Carpentry. Fredericton, Goose Lane Editions, 1993. ISBN 0-86492-133-0.
- Bartlett is adept with historic subjects, and he brings to surface hiden artifacts and shares them with wisdom and good humour... Bartlett's images are unabashedly sensuous and tactile. This is poetry where wind has shapes, smells have colours and minds are 'pineapple rich'." - Muriel Gibson, Atlantic Books Today
- "In an age where many Canadian poets seem to be writing for fellow scribes and academics, Brian Bartlett has done something rare. Underwater Carpentry is not only euphonious and intelligent; it is also accessible ... The pleasure of reading Underwater Carpentry will not soon fade from the memory" - Claire Rothman, The Gazette (Montreal)
- Planet Harbour. Fredericton, Goose Lane Editions, 1989. ISBN 0-86492-102-0.
- "It isn't often that a first volume of poetry displays the maturity and depth of Brian Bartlett's Planet Harbour ... this collection comes as a major surprise ... a sense of widely lived experience, of the voices that have spoken throughout this volume with intensity and grace." - Carolyn Smart, The Gazette (Montreal)
- "[...] the result of high crafting. There is a spiritual quality at the root of his poems, this spirituality sharpened by Bartlett's obvious love for elements of nature. Humour, sometimes sureal, sometimes wonderfully off-kilter, underlines the rhythms [...] a poet with a wonderfully keen sense for detail." - Peter Doncroft, Zymergy
- Cattail Week. Montreal, Villeneuve, 1981. ISBN 0-920288-04-9.
- "What Brian Bartlett discovers and uncovers for us in his landscapes is more than a region, it is a whole world.... His craft, together with his feeling for the mystery of connections, makes him a true poet. In these day when loose verbiage, journalistic observations and cute jottings lounge about posturing in the name of poetry, it is a pleasure to encounter the real dancing thing." - Elizabeth Jones, Arts Atlantic
- Brother's Insomnia. Fredericton, New Brunswick Chapbooks, 1972.
- Finches for the Wake. Fredericton, Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1971.
