Robert Bringhurst

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Robert Bringhurst (born October 16, 1946) is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He is the author of The Elements of Typographic Style - a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type. He has also translated works of epic poetry from Haida mythology into English.

He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, British Columbia (approximately 170 km northwest of Vancouver) with his spouse, Jan Zwicky, the poet and philosopher.

Life
Born in Los Angeles, California, he was raised in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta, and British Columbia. Bringhurst studied architecture, linguistics, and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Utah. He holds a BA from Indiana University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia.

Bringhurst has taught literature, art history and history of typography at several universities and held fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Both his poetry and his work on typography have been widely acclaimed, but his translations of the Haida legacy have raised an interesting controversy. On one side, his high-profile translations have led to a revival of the Haida culture and their language, which linguist M. Dale Kinkade had classified in 1991 as among the Native languages in Canada "likely to be lost unless strong efforts are made very quickly to perpetuate them". On the other side, Bringhurst has been locally criticized by Haida communities and their leaders for failing to acknowledge and spend time inside the Haida culture. There is also resentment around the covers of his translations, which feature his name. Traditionally Haida stories, songs, crests, and other intellectual property were considered more sacred than physical property. It was customary for the violation of intellectual property rights to result in corporal punishment. Because of this controversy he has been accused of academic exploitation and cultural appropriation. These are often perceived by Haida communities as extensions of the colonial legacy.

Recognition
In 2005, Bringhurst won the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence which recognizes British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the Province.

Poetry

 * The Shipwright's Log – 1972
 * Cadastre – 1973
 * Eight Objects – 1975
 * Bergschrund – 1975
 * Tzuhalem's Mountain – 1982
 * The Beauty of the Weapons: Selected Poems 1972–82 – 1982 (nominated for a Governor General's Award), 1985 (Copper Canyon Press)
 * Tending the Fire – 1985
 * The Blue Roofs of Japan – 1986 (Barbarian Press)
 * Pieces of Map, Pieces of Music – 1986, 1987 (Copper Canyon Press)
 * Conversations with a Toad – 1987
 * The Calling: Selected Poems 1970–1995 – 1995
 * Elements (with drawings by Ulf Nilsen) – 1995
 * The Book of Silences – 2001
 * Ursa Major – 2003 (shortlisted for the 2004 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)
 * New World Suite Number Three: A poem in four movements for three voices – 2006
 * Selected Poems – 2009

Prose

 * Visions: Contemporary Art in Canada (with Geoffrey James, Russel Keziere & Doris Shadbolt) – 1983
 * Ocean/Paper/Stone – 1984
 * The Raven Steals the Light (with Bill Reid) – 1984
 * Shovels, Shoes and the Slow Rotation of Letters – 1986
 * The Black Canoe (with photographs by Ulli Steltzer) – 1991
 * Boats Is Saintlier than Captains: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Morality, Language, and Design – 1997
 * Native American Oral Literatures and the Unity of the Humanities – 1998
 * A Short History of the Printed Word (with Warren Chappell) – 1999
 * The Elements of Typographic Style – 1992, revised 1996, 2004, 2005 and 2008
 * The Solid Form Of Language: An Essay On Writing And Meaning – 2004
 * ''The Tree of Meaning: Thirteen Lectures 2006
 * ''Everywhere Being is Dancing 2007
 * The Surface of Meaning: Books and Book Design in Canada – 2008

Translated

 * A trilogy entitled Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers:
 * A Story As Sharp As a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World – 1999 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
 * Nine Visits to the Mythworld – (a reinterpretation of the stories of mythteller Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas, as collected in 1900 by John Reed Swanton ) – 2000 (shortlisted for the 2001 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize)
 * Being in Being: The Collected Works of a Master Haida Mythteller - Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay – 2002
 * Parmenides, The Fragments – 2003