Brian Brett

Date: May 7, 1999

Born in Vancouver in 1950, Brian Brett studied literature at Simon Fraser University from 1969 to 1974. Writing and publishing since the late 1960s, he has also been involved in an editorial capacity with several publishing firms such as the Governor-General Award winning Blackfish Press. In the early seventies, he began working as a freelance journalist and critic for various publications and newspapers, including the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Vancouver Sun, the New Reader, Books In Canada, the Victoria Times Colonist, and the Vancouver Province, where he was the poetry critic for two years and had his own column. He is currently writing a weekly column called CultureWatch for the Yukon News. Brett inaugurated the BC Poetry-In-The-Schools program, introducing children in schools to world poetry for a period of several years, and has taught or given workshops on writing across Canada. His last two books are The Colour of Bones in a Stream and Allegories of Love and Disaster, and he is presently working on a novel called Coyote Sunset. Brett currently lives on a farm with his family on Salt Spring Island BC, where he cultivates his garden, guards his privacy, and creates ceramic forms.