BpNichol

SS undefined

Barrie Phillip Nichol (Vancouver, British Columbia 30 Sep 1944 - Toronto, Ontario 25 Sep 1988), who often went by his lower-case initials and last name, with no spaces (bpNichol), was a Canadian poet. He became widely known for his concrete poetry in the 1960s. He received his elementary teaching certificate from the University of British Columbia in 1963, but he only worked a brief stint as a teacher. He had audited creative writing courses while in university, and his life moved in that direction after about a year of teaching.

His most famous published work is probably The Martyrology, a long poem encompassing 9 books in 6 volumes.

Nichol also worked in a wide variety of other genres, including musical theatre, children's books, collage/assemblage, pamphlets, spoken word, computer texts, fiction, and television. For having such a brief lifespan, Nichol produced a highly prolific volume of work. However, it was often ephemeral, such as performance.

Life
Although Nichol had been writing since 1961, he first attracted public notice in the mid-1960s with his hand-drawn or "concrete" poems, and received international acclaim. The "visual book" Still water, together with the booklets The true eventual story of Billy the Kid and Beach Head as well as the anthology of concrete poetry, The cosmic chef, won the Governor General's Award for poetry.

In 1970, he began to collaborate with fellow poets Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, and Steve McCaffery, forming the sound-poetry group The Four Horsemen. "Earlick", a project devoted to collecting and performing songs written by Canadian writers and poets, was undertaken in 1986-88 in collaboration with Victor Coleman and Whitney Smith.

He was known as a promoter of poetry and the small press, a manipulator of the lines between genres, and a prolific Canadian word artist. He founded Ganglia Press in 1965 with David Aylward and grOnk (magazine) in 1967 with bill bissett and David UU (David W. Harris).

Recognition
His early work in sound poetry was documented in Michael Ondaatje's film Sons of Captain Poetry (1970); in Borders, a small phonodisc included with his poetic work Journeying & the returns (1967); and in the long-playing record Motherlove (1968). Also, the 1998 film bp/pushing the boundaries was made on Nichol and his contributions to art by Brian Nash (director) and Elizabeth Yake (producer).

A street in Toronto, Canada, is named in his honour. bpNichol Lane is located in the Annex district behind Coach House Press. It features an eight-line poem by Nichol carved into the pavement: "A / LAKE / A / LANE / A / LINE / A / LONE". (An employee at Coach House regularly waters the word "LAKE".)

Publications
Note: this list is not complete.

Poetry

 * Cycles Etc. (7 Flowers Press, 1965)
 * Scraptures: second sequence (Ganglia Press, 1965)
 * Cold Mountain. Singing Hands Series 3 (1966)
 * Journeying & the returns (1967)
 * Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (Writers Forum Quartos, 1967; Weed Flower Press, 1973; Coach House Books, 2004)
 * Still Water (Talonbooks, 1970)
 * Monotones (1971)
 * The Captain Poetry Poems (1971)
 * The Martyrology, Books 1 and 2 (1972) - Complete text (Martyology 1 - 6) at Coach House Books
 * Love: A book of remembrances (Talonbooks, 1974)
 * The Martyrology, Books 3 and 4 (1976)
 * Selected Writing: As Elected (Talonbooks, 1980)
 * The Martyrology, Book 5 (1982)
 * First Screening (computer poems) (1984)
 * Zygal: A Book of Mysteries & Translations (1985) - Complete text at Coach House Books
 * The Martyrology, Book 6 Books (1987)*Gifts: The Martyrology Book[s] 7& (1990)
 * Ad Sanctos (a choral performance work) (1993)

Booklets
From 'The Capitain Poetry Poems' (1971) (and many others)
 * Ballads of the Restless Are (The Runcible Spoon, 1968)
 * The true eventual story of Billy the Kid (1970)
 * Beach Head (1970)
 * Transformational Unit (1971) - Complete text at Coach House Books
 * Aleph Unit (1973) - Complete text at Coach House Books
 * From 'The Capitain Poetry Poems' (1971)

Prose

 * Two Novels (1969)
 * Craft dinner (1978)
 * Journal (1978)
 * Still (1982), winner of the Three-Day Novel Contest

Visual Books

 * Still water (1970)
 * ABC: the Aleph Beth book (1971)
 * Extreme Positions (Longspoon Press, 1981)

Recordings

 * Motherlove (1968)

Television

 * Fraggle Rock (co-writer with Dennis Lee and David Young)
 * Care Bears (animated series)
 * Blizzard Island