Barrie Phillip Nichol (30 September 1944 – 25 September 1988), known as bpNichol, was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, writer,

sound poet Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literacy and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntax, syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sou ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, Creative Writing

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

at York University in Toronto and

grOnk ''grOnk'', or GRoNK, was a Canadian literary magazine begun in 1967 by bpNichol and others (for example, David Aylward, David W. Harris (later David UU; co-editor for the first series (8 issues, 1967), and editor of most of the seventh series ( ...

/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work encompasses

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

, television scripts,

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

short fiction A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

, computer texts, and

sound poetry Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literacy and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poetr ...

. His love of language and writing, evident in his many accomplishments, continues to be carried forward by many.

Work

Nichol was born in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Though his early writing consisted of

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and lyrical poems, he first received international recognition in the 1960s for

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

. The first major publications included ''Journeying & the returns'' (1967), a purple box containing visual & lyrical poems and ''Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer'' (1969) a book of concrete poetry. He won the 1970

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

for poetry with four publications: the prose booklet ''The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid'' a collection of lyrical poems, ''Beach Head'', the boxed concrete sequence, ''Still Water'' and ''The Cosmic Chef'', a boxed

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

of concrete and

visual poetry Literary theorists have identified visual poetry as a development of concrete poetry but with the characteristics of intermedia in which non-representational language and visual elements predominate. Differentiation from concrete poetry As the l ...

. His best known work, ''The Martyrology'' (1972-1992) is an open-ended, lifelong poem that investigates language. The 'saints' are drawn from 'st' words (storm becomes St. Orm) and their spiritual quest provides a springboard from which linguistic issues of

textuality In literary theory, textuality comprises all of the attributes that distinguish the communicative content under analysis as an object of study. It is associated with structuralism and post-structuralism. Explanation Textuality is not just abou ...

, reading and writing are explored. Nichol frequently collaborated with other artists. The work of the sound poetry group,

The Four Horsemen The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand th ...

(Nichol, Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton and

Steve McCaffery Steven McCaffery (born January 24, 1947) is a Canadian poet and scholar who was a professor at York University. He currently holds the David Gray Chair at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. McCaffery was born in Sheffie ...

) has been documented in Volcano Theatre's stage performances of The Four Horsemen Project ( Dora Mavor Moore Award 2007 & 2015). He collaborated with Steve McCaffrey to form The Toronto Research Group (TRG), with Barbara Caruso, visual artist, with

R. Murray Schafer Raymond Murray Schafer (18 July 1933 – 14 August 2021) was a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book ''The Tuning of th ...

, Howard Gerhard and John Beckwith,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

s. Nichol's zest for publishing other writers was reflected in founding Ganglia Press with David Aylward in 1964 and

in 1967 with bill bissett and

David UU David UU (pronounced David W.), or David W. Harris, (1948–1994) was an accomplished concrete and experimental poet and an important small press publisher. Along with Bill Bissett and bpNichol, he was a pioneer of the concrete poetry movement in ...

( David W. Harris). He was a volunteer editor at

Coach House Books Coach House Books is an independent book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Coach House publishes experimental poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. The press is particularly interested in writing that pushes at the boundar ...

from 1975 to his death. In 1977, he was one of the

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

that established Underwhich Editions which edited, designed, published and distributed the works of worthy writers. During the 1970s and 80s, he was a contributing editor of Open Letter, a

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

. Nichol also had a large presence on screens of various sizes. In the mid-1980s, he became a writer for the children's television show, ''

Fraggle Rock ''Fraggle Rock'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock'' or ''Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets'') is a children's musical fantasy comedy puppet television series about interconnected societies of Muppet creatures, created by Jim H ...

'', created by

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

. Soon, scriptwriting for other children's television shows followed: ''

The Raccoons ''The Raccoons'' is a Canadian animated television series that ran on CBC from November 11, 1985 to March 19, 1991 in Canada and on Disney Channel from July 4, 1985 to August 28, 1992 in the U.S., with three preceding television specials from ...

'', ''

Under the Umbrella Tree ''Under the Umbrella Tree'' is a Canadian children's television series created by Noreen Young that originally aired on CBC from 1987 to 1993. It was produced by CBC and Noreen Young Productions, and later by The Disney Channel, which began airi ...

'', ''

Care Bears Care Bears are multi-colored bears, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. In 1983, the characters were turned into plush teddy bears. The characters headlined their own televis ...

'' and ''

Babar Babar ( ur, ), also variously spelled as Baber, Babur, and Babor is a male given name of Pashto, and Persian language, Persian origin, and a popular male given name in Pakistan. It is generally taken in reference to the Persian language, Persian ...

''. Several films include bp and his work, starting with

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...

's short film, ''Sons of Captain Poetry'';

Ron Mann Ronald Mann (born June 13, 1958), credited professionally as Ron Mann, is a Canadian documentary film director. His work includes the films ''Imagine the Sound'' (1981); ''Comic Book Confidential'' (1988); ''Grass'' (1999) and ''Go Further'' ( ...

's '' Poetry in Motion'' followed by full-length features ''bp: pushing the boundaries'', directed by

Elizabeth Yake Elizabeth Yake is a Canadian film producer, who is the founder and president of True West Films."Producer Yake goes Green in B.C.". ''The Province'', August 27, 2005. She is most noted for the films ''Everything's Gone Green'' and ''It's All Gone ...

and Brian Nash and more recently,

Justin Stephenson Justin may refer to: People * Justin (name), including a list of persons with the given name Justin * Justin (historian), a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527), or ''Flavius Iustinius Augustus'', Eastern Rom ...

's award-winning film, ''The Complete Works''. He died in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, five days shy of his 44th birthday. Since his death, there has been an upsurge of interest in ''First Screenings'', Nichol's 1984 computer poem (updated by Jim Andrews and his team ) which has been part of electronic exhibitions from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

to Oakville.

Commemoration

The bpNichol Chapbook Award, a prize for poetry publications between 10-48 pages, was established in 1986 by Phoenix Community Works Foundation. This annual award for excellence in Canadian Poetry in English is now administered by Meet the Presses collective. A street in

, Canada, is named in his honour. ''bpNichol Lane'' is located near Huron and Sussex Streets beside

Coach House Press Coach House Books is an independent book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Coach House publishes experimental poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. The press is particularly interested in writing that pushes at the boundar ...

. It features an eight-line poem by Nichol carved into the pavement: "A / LAKE / A / LANE / A / LINE / A / LONE".

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Cycles Etc.'' (Cleveland: 7 Flowers Press, 1965) *''Scraptures: second sequence'' (Toronto: Ganglia Press, 1965) *''Journeying & the returns'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1967) *''Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer'' (London: Writers Forum, 1967; Toronto: Weed/Flower Press, 1973; Toronto: Coach House Books, 2004) *''Still Water'' (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1970) *''The other side of the room'' (Toronto: Weed/Flower Press, 1971) *''Monotones'' (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1971) *''The Captain Poetry Poems'' (blewointment press, 1971; Toronto: BookThug, 2011) *''The Martyrology, Books 1 & 2'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1972) *''Love: A Book of Remembrances'' (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1974) *''The Martyrology, Books 3 & 4'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1976) *''Selected Writing: as elected'' (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1980) *''The Martyrology, Book 5'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1982) *''First Screening'' (Calgary: Red Deer College Press, 1984; vispo.com) *''Zygal: a book of mysteries & translations'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1985) *''The Martyrology, Book 6 Books'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1987) *''Gifts: the Martyrology Book(s) 7 &'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1990) *''Ad Sanctos: the Martyrology Book 9 - a performance work with Howard Gerhard'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1993) *''Truth: a book of Fictions'' (Toronto: Mercury Press, 1993. Irene Niechoda, ed.) *''Art Facts: a book of contexts'' (Arizona: Chax Press, 1990) *''a book of variations: love-zygal-art facts'' (Toronto: Coach House, 2013. Stephen Voyce, ed.) *''bp: beginnings'' (Toronto: BookThug, 2014. Stephen Cain, ed.)

Booklets

*''Cold Mountain'' (Toronto: Ganglia Press, Singing Hands Series 3, 1966) *''Ballads of the Restless Are'' (Sacramento: The Runcible Spoon Press, 1968) *''The true eventual story of Billy the Kid'' (Toronto: Weed/Flower Press, 1970) *''Beach Head'' (Sacramento: Runcible Spoon, 1970) *''Transformational Unit'' (1971, published in 1983 as a Christmas gift) *''ABC: the Aleph Beth Book'' (Toronto: Oberon Press, 1971) *''Aleph Unit'' (Toronto: Seripress, 1973) *''Translating translating Apollinaire: a preliminary report'' (Milwaukee: Membrane press, 1979) *''Extreme Positions'' (Edmonton: Longspoon Press, 1981) *''Continental Trance'' (Lantzville, BC: oolichan books, 1982)

Prose

*''Two Novels'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1971) *''Craft Dinner'' (Aya Press, 1978) *''Journal'' (Toronto: Coach House, 1978) *''Still'' (Vancouver: Pulp Press, winner of the 3-day novel writing contest 1983) *''Selected Organs: parts of an autobiography'' (Windsor: Black Moss Press, 1988) * *''organ music: parts of an autobiography'' ( Windsor: Black Moss Press, 2015) *''Trois Contes de l'ouest'' (Quebec: Le Quartanier, 2015. Christophe Bernard, translator)

Television Script Writing

*''

'' (Henson & Associates & CBC TV, 1984-1987) *''

'' (Noreen Young Productions & CBC Television, 1986-1987) *''

'' (Evergreen Raccoons Ltd, 1986) *''

;

Babar (TV series) ''Babar'' (, ; ) is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and US HBO, and subsequently was rerun on Qubo from its launch 2006 until its closure in 2021. Th ...

'' (Nelvana Studios, 1986-1988) *''

Blizzard Island ''Blizzard Island'' was a television show consisting of twelve episodes produced by CBC Television, CBC between 1987–1988. These episodes were later edited together to form the 1990 movie ''The Argon Quest''. History The Canadian children's tel ...

'' (Studio East & CBC Television, 1985-1988)

Critical studies and reviews of Nichol's work

;''Rational geomancy'' *

Related Books

*''bpNichol: What History Teaches'' (

Stephen Scobie Stephen Scobie (born 31 December 1943) is a Canadian poet, critic, and scholar. Born in Carnoustie, Scotland, Scobie relocated to Canada in 1965. He earned a PhD from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver after which he taught at the Un ...

, Talonbooks, 1984) *''Read the Way he writes: A festschrift for bpNichol'' (Open Letter, Sixth Series, No. 5-6, 1986) *''Tracing the Paths: Reading ≠ Writing the Martyrology'' (Line Magazine, No. 10 & Talonbooks, 1988) *''Rational Geomancy: the collected research reports of the Toronto Research Group 1973-1982'' (Steve McCaffery & bpNichol, Talonbooks, 1992) *''A Sourcery for Books 1&2 of bpNichol's Martyrology'' (Irene Niechoda, ECW Press, 1992) *''Meanwhile: the critical writings of bpNichol'' (Roy Miki, ed., Talonbooks, 1992) *''An H in the Heart: bpNichol: A Reader'' (George Bowering & Michael Ondaatje ed., McClelland & Stewart, 1994.) *''bpNichol Comics'' (Carl Peters, ed., Talonbooks, 2002) *''The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader'' (Darren Wershler-Henry &

Lori Emerson Lori Emerson is an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and founder of the Media Archaeology Lab, a museum dedicated to obsolete technologies spanning from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. She is kn ...

, ed., Coach House Books, 2007)

References

External links

bpNichol.ca
an online archive for bpNichol

sound poems

Homepage away from home for bpNichol

(.mp3 files)

bp: pushing the boundaries, a film by Brian Nash & Elizabeth Yake

The Complete Works, a film by Justin Stephenson
Mongrelmedia.com
a film by Michael Ondaatje

bpNichol Chapbook Award *

Lori Emerson, Media Archaeology Lab, University of Colorado at Boulder {{DEFAULTSORT:Nichol, BP 1944 births 1988 deaths 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Writers from Vancouver Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian male writers