Author: Karis Shearer

British modernist poet, Basil Bunting (1900-1985), was born in Scotswood-on-Tyne, Northumberland, and passed away in Hexham, Northumberland. His life overlapped with both World Wars. He was drafted during World War I and subsequently imprisoned for being a conscientious objector. During World War II, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and worked for the British Intelligence as a translator in Persia (now Iran), staying on well beyond the tenure of his appointment. Despite numerous collections, Bunting’s autobiographical long poem, Briggflats (1966)—with references to medieval literary subject matter and style—is his most influential book of poetry. It exemplifies his lifelong interest in the sound of poetry and comes to life when read out loud. Bunting’s friendship with Peter Quartermain brought him to Vancouver in 1970 and 1984. Quartermain’s biography, Basil Bunting: Poet of the North, remains the authoritative study of Bunting’s life.

Robert Creeley (1926-2005) was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, and passed away in Odessa, Texas. As an important figure in twentieth-century American literature, he is well known for his association with the Black Mountain Poets, his professional friendships with William Carlos Williams and Charles Olson, and is celebrated for his influential poetic merging of concision and minimalism with robust affective momentum. His equal impact on Canadian poetry can be traced through his appearances at the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, the Sir George Williams poetry series, among other innovative and significant literary events of the time. Creeley is the author of over sixty books of poetry, prose, essays, and interviews. He was also an editor and professor at various institutions, including the University at Buffalo, Brown University, and a temporary appointment at the University of British Columbia in 1962. Creeley was the recipient of several honours, including the prestigious Bollingen Prize for achievement in American poetry, awarded in 1999.

Robert Duncan (1919-1988) was born in Oakland, California, and passed away in San Francisco, California. In fact, he spent the majority of his life in California—with some important exceptions during a stint in New York City, integrating into the downtown coterie surrounding Anaïs Nin, and later teaching at Black Mountain College—and played a foundational role in the poetry movement now known as the San Francisco Renaissance, promoting a local poetics. Duncan’s poetry was informed by the occult upbringing he received from his adopted parents. It is also collage-like, often serial in form, and deeply engaged with processual structures of language itself. His 1973 collection The Opening of the Field offers a clear nod in the direction of Charles Olson, a major influence and the subject of his 1961 lecture hosted at Ellen and Warren Tallmans’ basement in Vancouver. Duncan lived openly as a gay man and his landmark essay, “The Homosexual in Society,” preceded by a decade any organized queer rights movement in the U.S.

Earle Birney (1904-1995) was born in Calgary, Alberta, and passed away in Toronto, Ontario. He published over twenty books of poetry that vary greatly in form, content, and method, but that cohere along the lines of experiment, play, and a deep love of language. His writing won him a variety of prizes, notably the Governor General’s Award for poetry, both for David and Other Poems (1942) and for Now Is Time (1945), and the Stephen Leacock Medal for his darkly comic novel about the Second World War, Turvey (1950). Birney’s literary output extends across genres, including poetry, fiction, and playwriting, and his community outreach includes editorial work, as well as the founding and directing of the first Canadian creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. Birney’s impact on Canadian literature can be summarized, in George Bowering’s words: Birney was “the Dean of Canadian Poetry, […] the Federal Minister of Poetry” (Bowering at Birney Reading 23 February 1968, Sir George Williams Poetry Series, 00:00:23).

Lionel Kearns (1937-) was born in Nelson, British Columbia. His studied with Earle Birney and was friendly with the likes of George Bowering, Frank Davey, and Fred Wah, also contributing to TISH. Since his first publication in 1959, Kearns steadily released collections of poetry, fiction, and essays, and is especially known for his forays into digital poetics, including experiments with technological, media-based, and interdisciplinary methods. Although he later abandoned the term, his early, avant-garde work was composed according to an original practice called “stacked verse”—this notational system centers the most heavily stressed syllable of each line, creating a vertical spine down the page; the effect is to emphasize the musicality and breath of the work. Kearns taught in the English Department at Simon Fraser University for over twenty years and became the first Writer-In-Electronic Residence, helping to establish an impactful online creative writing school for children.