Robert Bringhurst

Robert Bringhurst, poet, translator, linguist, critic, typographer, and book designer (b at Los Angeles, US 16 Oct 1946). The son of a migrant couple, Robert Bringhurst, was raised in Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Alberta, and British Columbia communities. Bringhurst spent 10 years as an undergraduate, studying physics, architecture, and linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and philosophy and oriental languages at the University of Utah, before obtaining a BA in comparative literature from Indiana University. 

He holds an MFA in creative writing from the UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA and taught there between 1977 and 1980. Though an independent scholar, he lectures frequently and has served as poet-in-residence and writer-in-residence at a number of Canadian, American, and European universities.

Much of Bringhurst's work is in the area of book design and typography and reflects his interest in the relationship between language and written script. He was a contributing editor to Fine Print: A Review for the Arts of the Book (1985-90) and provided a seamless revision of Warren Chappell's key text, A Short History of the Printed Word. 

Bringhurst's own 1992 The Elements of Typographic Style is considered a classic in its field. Likewise, The Surface of Meaning: Books and Book Design in Canada (2008) is a substantial contribution to knowledge. In 2009 Bringhurst was awarded the American Printing History Association award for his achievements.

His first book, The Shipwright's Log (1972), a collection of verse, was published in an edition of 260 copies. Subsequent collections, such as The Beauty of the Weapons, short-listed for the 1982 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD, received greater distribution; however, much of Bringhurst's poetry has appeared in limited editions, chapbooks, and broadsides. 

While his earliest verse showed, the influence of modernist poets such as Ezra Pound and Wallace Stevens that followed has demonstrated an increasing diversity in language and technique. Beginning with The Blue Roofs of Japan (1986), Bringhurst has written polyphonic verses intended for performance. 

New World Suite no. 3 (2006), what the poet terms "chamber music for speaking voices" is composed of lines written for three voices talking simultaneously. Ursa Major (2003) is a multilingual work employing English, Cree, Greek, and Latin to explore cultural variations on the myth of the constellation. The Calling: Selected Poems 1970-1995 (1995) and Selected Poems (2009) provide overviews of his work.