Bruce Meyer (born April 23, 1957) is a Canadian poet, broadcaster, and educator. He has authored over 60 books of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and literary journalism. He is a professor of Writing and Communications at Georgian College in Barrie and a Visiting Associate at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, where he has taught Poetry, Non-Fiction, and Comparative Literature.
He has appeared on TVO’s More to Life and Big Ideas and CBC’s This Morning with Michael Enright to discuss poetry and the classics. His CBC appearances remain the broadcaster's bestselling spoken-word CD series and inspired his 2000 bestseller The Golden Thread: A Reader’s Journey Through the Great Books.
Recent books of poetry include McLuhan’s Canary (2019), The First Taste: New and Selected Poems (2018), 1967: Centennial Year (2017), The Madness of Planets (2015), The Arrow of Time (2015), Testing the Elements (2014), A Litany of the Makers (2014), A Book of Bread (2011), and The Obsession Book of Timbuktu (2011).
From 1996 to 2003, he was Director of the Writing and Literature Program at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies where he created and directed the Creative Writing, Professional Writing, and Literary Studies programs. He has served as the City of Barrie's inaugural poet laureate.
He has organized dozens of literary conferences and festivals including Orillia's Leacock Summer Festival of Canadian Literature, Georgian College's International Festival of Authors and the first Indigenous Writers of Canada Conference, part of 2015's International Festival of Authors in Toronto.
He has given hundreds of talks on poetry, literature, mythology, creative writing, the works of William Shakespeare and the Homeric tradition. In 2000, he delivered the annual Whidden Lecture at McMaster University, a distinction previously bestowed on physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer and playwright Tom Stoppard.
His works have been published in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, India, Pakistan, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Chile, Mexico, Yemen, Greece, Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, and have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Hindi, Chinese, Urdu, Bangla, Greek, and Korean.
Education Certificate of Post-Doctoral Studies, McMaster University, 1990 Ph.D., Modern British Poetry, McMaster University, 1988 Master of Arts, English, University of Toronto, 1982 Bachelor of Arts, Honour English and Renaissance Studies, Victoria College, University of Toronto, 1980
Teaching Visiting Professor, Victoria College, University of Toronto, 2013- Professor, University Studies, Liberal Arts, Georgian College, 2007- Professor, Laurentian University at Georgian College, 2004-2015 Special Instructor, University of Toronto, St. Michael's College, 2003–2010 Professor, Seneca at York Program, 2005
Career Milestones
Inaugural Poet Laureate, City of Barrie, 2010-2014 Co-founder, Barrie Arts and Culture Council, 2007-2011 Artistic Director, Leacock Summer Festival of Canadian Literature, Orillia, 1998-2008 Founder and director, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, Creative Writing and Literary Studies program, 1997-2003 Writer-in-residence, University of Texas at Austin, 1999 Writer-in-residence, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, 1998 Researcher/developer, World War One Canadian Literature Collection, National Library of Canada, 1988-1994 Organizer, Indigenous Writers Conference, Georgian College, and International Festival of Authors, 2013 (a first for Ontario & Canada) Broadcaster (with Michael Enright), CBC's This Morning, The Sunday Edition, Great Books, A Novel Idea, Great Poetry: Poetry is Life and Vice Versa Discoverer and promoter of lost decade of Canadian Literature—Canada's World War One Trench Literature—published as We Wasn’t Pals: Canadian Poetry and Prose of the First World War (co-edited with Barry Callaghan, afterword by Margaret Atwood); Frank Prewett, The Selected Poems of Frank Prewett (Exile Editions); James Hanley, The German Prisoner (Exile Editions); W. Redvers Dent, Cry Havoc (Rocks Mills Press)
Select Awards Bath Short Story Award (UK), finalist, 2019, 2020 Bannister Poetry Competition, Niagara Branch, Canadian Authors’ Association, runner-up, 2020 Libretto Chapbook Poetry Prize (NIG), second runner-up, 2020 Fish Publishing Short Fiction Prize (IRE), finalist, 2020 Dr. William Henry Drummond Poetry Prize, third place, 2019 Thomas Morton Fiction Prize (CAN), runner-up, 2019 Bath Short Story Award (UK), finalist, 2019 Anton Chekhov Prize for Fiction (UK), winner, 2019 Retreat West Fiction Prize (UK), finalist, 2019 Tom Gallon Fiction Prize, Society of Authors (UK), short list, 2019 National Poetry Prize (UK), short list, 2019 London Independent Short Story Prize (UK), double short list, 2018 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize (IRE), short list, 2018 The Woolf Poetry Prize (Switzerland), winner, 2018 Freefall Poetry Prize (CAN), third place, 2015, 2018 Montreal International Poetry Prize, short List, 2015, 2017 Simcoe Medal for services to the Arts in Barrie, 2017 & Barrie Arts Award, 2015 Raymond Souster Prize (CAN), finalist, 2016 Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize (CAN), short list, 2015, 2016 Barrie Arts Awards, Excellence in the Arts, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2015 Gwendolyn MacEwen Prize for Poetry (CAN), best single poem winner, 2015, 2016 Fred Cogswell Prize for best book of poems in Canada, third place, 2015 Indie Fab Award Finalist (US), Independent Reviewers Association, 2015 IP Medal best book of poetry (US), Independent Booksellers Association of America, 2015 Inaugural Poet Laureate, City of Barrie, 2010-2014 Ruth Cable Memorial Prize for Poetry (US), 1996 E.J. Pratt Gold Medal and Prize for Poetry, 1980, 1981 Alta Lind Cook Award (CAN), 1981, 1982 TV Ontario Best Lecturer Competition, top-ten finalist, 2010 Lifetime Pass, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York, 1998 Quoted on Heritage Toronto Plaque, Queen and Broadview
Bibliography
Poetry
The Hart Island Elegies, Urban Farmhouse Press, Windsor (forthcoming, May 2021) Grace of Falling Stars, Black Moss Press, Windsor (forthcoming, April 7, 2021) Telling the Bees, Libretto Press, Lagos, Nigeria, 2020 McLuhan's Canary, Guernica Editions, Oakville, 2019 The First Taste: New and Selected Poems, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2018 1967: Centennial Year, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2017 To Linares, Accento and Universidad Technologica Linares, Linares & Guadalajara, Mexico, 2016 The Madness of Planets, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2015 The Arrow of Time, Ronsdale Press, Vancouver, 2015 The Seasons, Porcupine's Quill, Erin, Ontario, 2014 Testing the Elements, Exile Editions, Toronto, 2014 The Obsession Book of Timbuktu, Black Moss Press, Windsor A Litany of the Makers, Lyrical Myrical Press, Toronto, 2014 A Book of Bread, Exile Editions, Toronto, 2011 Alphabestiary: A Poetry-Emblem Book (with H. Masud Taj), Exile Editions, 2011 Bread: A Mass for Voices, Lyrical Myrical Press, Toronto, 2009 Dog Days: A Comedy of Terriers, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2009 Mesopotamia, Scrivener Press, Sudbury, 2009 As Yet, Untitled..., Lyrical Myrical Press, Toronto, 2006 Oceans, Word Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2005 Oceans, Exile Editions, Toronto, 2004 The Spirit Bride, Exile Editions, Toronto, 2002 Anywhere, Exile Editions, Toronto, 2000 The Presence, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 1999 The Presence, Story Line Press, Ashland, Oregon, 1999 Radio Silence, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 1991 The Open Room, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 1989 The Open Room, Aquila Press, 1989 Steel Valley (with James Deahl), Aureole Point Press, 1984 The Aging of America, Aloysius Press, 1982 The Tongues Between Us, SWOP, 1981 (36 pages)
Fiction The Hours: Stories from a Pandemic (short stories), AOS Publishing, Montreal, 2021 Down in the Ground (flash fiction), Guernica Editions, Oakville, 2020 A Feast of Brief Hopes (short stories), Guernica Editions, Oakville, 2018 A Chronicle of Magpies (short stories), Tightrope Books, Toronto, 2014 Flights (short stories), Canadian-Korean Literary Forum Press, Toronto, 2004 Goodbye Mr. Spalding (short stories), Black Moss Press, Windsor, 1996
Non-Fiction
Pressing Matters: A Story of Canadian Small Press Publishing, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2019 Portraits of Canadian Writers, Porcupine's Quill, Erin, 2016 Time of the Last Goal: Why Hockey is Our Game, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2014 Alphabet Table: Memoir of a Childhood in the Language, Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2010 Heroes: The Champions of Our Literary Imaginations, HarperCollins, Toronto, 2007 Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 282: The New Formalists, (co-edited with Jonathan Barron) Bruccoli Clarke Layman, Columbia, South Carolina, 2003 The Golden Thread: A Reader's Journey Through the Great Books, HarperCollins Canada, Toronto, 2000 Lives and Works: Interviews with Canadian Writers (with Brian O’Riordan), Black Moss Press, Toronto, 1991 In Their Words: Interviews with Canadian Writers (with Brian O’Riordan), Anansi, Toronto, 1985 Poetry Markets for Canadians (with James Deahl), League of Canadian Poets, Toronto, 1983
Works edited
That Damned Beaver: Canadian Comedy Writing, Exile Editions, 2018 Dent, W. Redvers. Cry Havoc, Rocks Mills Press, Oakville, 2018 Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, Exile Editions, Toronto, 2018 We Wasn't Pals: Canadian Poetry and Prose of the First World War 2nd Edition (with Barry Callaghan), Exile Editions, 2014 The White-Collar Book: Canadian Poetry and Prose of the Professional World (with Carolyn Meyer), Black Moss Press, Windsor, 2011 Hanley, James. The German Prisoner. Exile Editions, 2007 Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 282: The New Formalists (with Jonathan Baron), Bruccoli Clarke Layman, Columbia, South Carolina, 2003 Bae-Sa Moh: Writing by Korean-Canadian Youth, KCLF Press, Toronto, 2002 We Wasn't Pals: Canadian Poetry and Prose of the First World War (with Barry Callaghan), Exile Editions, 2001 Separate Islands: Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (with Carolyn Meyer), Quarry Press, 1987 The Selected Poems of Frank Prewett (with Barry Callaghan), Exile Editions, 1987 Arrivals: Canadian Poetry in the Eighties, Greenfield Press, 1986 Poetry Markets for Canadians (with James Deahl, 1st ed.), League of Canadian Poets, 1986
Edited selected works by other authors
Books by Michael Mirolla, Marty Gervais, Victoria Butler, Antonia Facciponte, Kate Story, Karen Lee White, Christine Ottoni. Clarke, James. Selected Poems. Exile Editions, Toronto, 2012 Stevens, Peter. Swimming in the Afternoon: The Selected Poems of Peter Stevens. [ed. and intro.] Black Moss Press, Windsor, 1992 Monteith, Lionel. And So He Went Sailing: The Collected Poems of Lionel Monteith. [ed. and intro.] Lincoln Publications, London, 1991 Tomlinson, Charles. Selected and New Poems. [ed.] Exile Editions, Toronto, 1989 Wevill, David. Figure of Eight: New Poems and Selected Translations. [ed.] Exile Editions, Toronto, 1987 Wevill, David. Other Names for the Heart: Selected Poems, 1964-1984. [ed.] ExileEditions, Toronto, 1985 Deahl, James. No Cold Ash: Selected Poems, 1966–1982. Sono Nis Press, 1984.
Cassette Tapes and CDs
Great Poetry: Poetry Is Life and Vice Versa (with Michael Enright), CBC Radio, 2006 The Great Books, Part One (with Michael Enright), CBC Radio, 1999 [The Bible, The Odyssey, The Theban Plays, The Aeneid, Metamorphoses] The Great Books, Part Two (with Michael Enright) CBC Radio, 1999 [Boethius, A Consolation of Philosophy; Saint Augustine, The Confessions; The Quest of the Holy Grail and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Dante, Inferno; Dante, La Vita Nuova; Shakespeare, The Sonnets]