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John J. Guiney Yallop

John J. Guiney Yallop is a parent, a partner and a poet. John was born (John Joseph Guiney) in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He grew up on the island in a small outport community - Admiral's Cove. John wrote poetry as an adolescent and as a young adult. His earliest work was published in The Newfoundland Quarterly and The Newfoundland Herald. In 1982, John completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, after which he left St. John's, his favourite city in the whole world, and ended up in Toronto, which he also fell in love with after a brief visit in 1980, and where he knew he'd have to live someday. There, in 1985, he met his partner, Gary Yallop. After John completed his Bachelor of Education at University of Toronto in 1988, he and Gary moved to Brampton, Ontario, where they lived for most of John's elementary school teaching career. In 2002, when John completed his Master of Education at Brock University, Gary encouraged him to continue with his graduate studies and apply for a doctorate program. On their eighteenth anniversary, June 29, 2003, John Joseph Guiney and Gary Michael Yallop were married; their last name now has two words, no hyphen. A few days after their wedding, Gary dropped John off at The University of Western Ontario to begin his doctoral studies. Less than a year later, John and Gary became parents when their daughter, Brittany Nicole, entered their lives. On March 12, 2008, John successfully defended his doctoral dissertation. For his dissertation, John used poetic inquiry to explore emotions, identities and communities. John's doctoral studies enabled him to reawaken the poet and to rediscover his poetic voice. Shortly after his dissertation defence, John was hired by Acadia University as an Assistant Professor in the School of Education. Since his reawakening and rediscovery, John has been writing and publishing poetry. His writing draws on place and memory and opens spaces for conversation. Readers and listeners are invited into those spaces, and invited to bring their own places and their own memories with them.