Brian Bartlett

Brian Bartlett (poet, editor, and English professor)

was born 1 October 1953 in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. His publications include six collections of poetry: The Watchmaker’s Table (2008), Wanting the Day: Selected Poems (2003), The Afterlife of Trees (2002), Granite Erratics (1997), Underwater Carpentry (1993), and Planet Harbour (1989). He has also published five chapbooks: Being Charlie (2009), Travels of the Watch (2004), Cattail Week (1981), Brother’s Insomnia (1972), and Finches for the Wake (1971). Bartlett has also edited three compilations: Don McKay: Essays on His Works (2006), Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski (2007), and The Essential James Reaney (2009).

Though born in St. Stephen as the third of six children, Bartlett moved to Fredericton in 1957 with his parents, Lester and Marjorie (Wills). Lester worked as a high school science teacher, and subsequently with the New Brunswick Department of Education as the Director of Curriculum. Brian attended public school in Fredericton, moving between Albert Street School, Connaught Street School, and Montgomery Street School during his primary years. For secondary education, he attended Albert Street Junior High School and then Fredericton High School. As a child, he enjoyed reading, writing, bird watching, studying nature, and playing baseball and hockey.

While attending the University of New Brunswick for his Bachelor of Arts degree (English with Honours), Bartlett encountered renowned poet and creative writing teacher Fred Cogswell, who called his work “kaleidoscopic” (qtd. in Compton 139). Cogswell’s sentiments were later echoed by Clark Blaise at Concordia University in Montreal, where Bartlett obtained his MA degree. He then attended the Université de Montréal for his PhD, where he wrote a thesis on the work of A.R. Ammons, a principal and sales executive who, like Bartlett, wrote a personal poetry that transcends the personal viewpoint.

After graduating with his PhD, Bartlett lived in Montreal for fifteen years while teaching at Concordia University. In 1990, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia to teach English at St. Mary’s University. He still (as of 2010) resides in Halifax with his wife, Karen Dahl, and their children, Joshua and Laura.

In an interview with Mark Medley for the National Post, Bartlett said that he finds inspiration in a wide variety of poets: Don McKay, P.K. Page, Don Coles, and Don Domanski are his favourites among Canadian poets, while A.G. Bailey, Alden Nowlan, Bob Gibbs, Bill Bauer, and M. Travis Lane —all New Brunswick poets— made an impact on Bartlett in his youth. As Bartlett has said: “I’m convinced it’s most rewarding to soak up influences from all over the place” (qtd. in Compton 150).