Gerry Gilbert (April 7, 1936 in
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
- June 19, 2009 in
Vancouver
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 ...
) was a Canadian poet famous in underground literature for his deliberate eschewing of all awards and competitions as he felt that personal ambition in art led to a lack of sincerity. He was known as Vancouver's bicycle poet.
bicycle poet
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Life
Gilbert was a multimedia artist who worked comfortably as writer, film-maker, photographer, performance artist and more. He was born in 1936 during a trip between Toronto and Vancouver forcing his parents to stop briefly in Calgary. His art reflects this unique birth as much of its allure is a kind of tension between remaining and continuing. He attended the University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
(1954–56) before traveling to England and further study there. Gilbert then returned to Vancouver and although he died there he managed to live and travel across Canada and Europe in his younger years.
Gerry became a well known local fixture in the Vancouver art scene and began a periodical anthology of writing that he distributed himself called the British Columbia Monthly (later becoming simply B.C. Monthly) in 1972 placing him among the ranks of Canadian artists participating in the mimeograph revolution. To some he was known as 'the Jude the Obscure of Vancouver poetry'.
Gerry hosted a radio show for many years on CFRO-FM
CFRO-FM, licensed and owned by Vancouver Co-operative Radio, is a non-commercial community radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is a legally registered co-operative and is branded as ''Co-op Radio''. The station broadcasts on 100.5 MH ...
Radio called radiofreerainforest. Gilbert's film and photography have been exhibited by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in an award-winning building designed by architect Peter Cardew and o ...
, the Western Front, and the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver)
The Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) is a non-profit public contemporary art gallery in downtown Vancouver. The CAG exhibits local, national, and international artists, primarily featuring emerging local artists producing Canadian contemporary art. ...
. He was a prolific writer whose work spanned from the early sixties into the beginnings of the 21st century. His largest and most comprehensive work is Moby Jane published by Toronto's Coach House Books in 1987.
Bibliography
*1964:''White Lunch'', Periwinkle Press
*1969:''Phone Book'', Weed Flower Press & Ganglia Press
*1970:''Doi,ngng'', National Film Board of Canada,
*1971:''And'', blewointment press
*''Money'', Georgia Straight Writing Supplement
*1972:''Lease'', Coach House Press
*1974:''Skies'', Talon Books
*1974:''Journal to the East'', blewointment press
*1976:''Grounds'', Talon Books
*1977:''From Next Spring'', Coach House Books
*1987:''Moby Jane'', Coach House Press
*1988:''So Long Song'', Gorse Press
*1989:'' The 1/2 of It'', Wave 7 Press
*1991:''Azure Blues'', Talon Books
*1994:''Year of the Rush'', Underwhich Editions
*1995:''Sex and the Single Mushroom'', Letters
*1998:''Poem Boooooooooooook'', above/ground press
*''Canadian Answers: Zap Poetry'', Laurel Reed Books
*2006:''Perhaps'', Bookthug
See also
* Canadian literature
*Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry is poetry of or typical of Canada. The term encompasses poetry written in Canada or by Canadian people in the official languages of English and French, and an increasingly prominent body of work in both other European and Indigenou ...
* List of Canadian poets
References
*From There to Here, by Frank Davey pp119–122, 1974 Press Porcepic
*In The Works: Back Roads to Next Spring's Gerry Gilbert Bibliography, by Nick Drumbolis, Letters, 1991, 370 p.
*New Star Books, News, Gerry Gilbert 1936-2009 http://www.newstarbooks.com/news.php?news_id=40034
*Vancouver Art in the Sixties, People/Gerry Gilbert http://www.vancouverartinthesixties.com/people/32
*ABC BookWorld/Gerry Gilbert http://www.abcbookworld.com/view_author.php?id=3429
External links
6 poems
*Alex Waterhouse-Hayward
Gerry Gilbert's Bicycle
*Robert Thompson
Studies in Canadian Literature
*Jamie Reid
Schroedinger's Cat
Gerry Gilbert tribute siteRecords of Gerry Gilbert are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare BooksGerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection at Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Gerry
20th-century Canadian poets
Canadian male poets
21st-century Canadian poets
2009 deaths
1936 births
Poets from Vancouver
20th-century Canadian male writers
21st-century Canadian male writers