Lionel Kearns

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.