Person

Nichol, B. P., 1944-1988

• bpNichol, 1944-1988
• Nichol, BP, 1944-1988

1944-1988

Barrie Phillip Nichol, "bpNichol," was born on September 30, 1944, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, and Professor of Creative Writing at York University in Toronto. He first received international recognition in the 1960s for concrete poetry. 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 for poetry with not one but four publications: the prose booklet, “The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid,” a collection of lyrical poems, “Beach Head,” a box of concrete poetry cards, "Still Water," and “The Cosmic Chef,” a boxed anthology of Canadian concrete poems Nichol edited. He performed sound poetry in solo concerts, with various other performers, and as part of the group The Four Horsemen. In the early 1980s, Nichol programmed on a primitive Apple IIe "First Screening" (1993), a set of computer concrete poems. During the 1970s and 80s, he was a contributing editor of a literary magazine, Open Letter. In the 1980s, he also wrote for several children's television shows, e.g., Fraggle Rock, The Raccoons, Under the Umbrella Tree, Care Bears, and Babar. His best-known work, “The Martyrology” (1972-1992), is an open-ended, lifelong poem that investigates language. The bpNichol Chapbook Award, a prize for excellence in Canadian Poetry in English, was established in 1986 by Phoenix Community Works Foundation.

In 1980, he married Eleanor Hiebert. He died on September 25, 1988, in Toronto, Ontario.