He originally wanted to study architecture but did poorly in calculus and was enrolled in English courses in the Faculté Saint-Jean at the University of Alberta. He became a poet upon realization that there were fewer factors affecting his ability to excel in his chosen vocation.[2][better source needed] In 1986, he graduated from the University of Western Ontario, with a Master of Library and Information Science.[3] Also, Barton studied Book Editing at the Banff Publishing Centre in 1994.[4]
Since 1980 his poems have appeared in seventy-five magazines and thirty anthologies in North America, the United Kingdom, India, and Australia.[5]
Barton was co-editor of Arc Poetry Magazine from 1990 to 2003. He edits The Malahat Review[6] and was poetry editor for Winnipeg's Signature Editions from 2006 5 to 2008. He co-founded the Poem of the Year Contest in 1996. He was writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library from September 2008 to May 2008.[7] During the 2010/11 academic year, he was writer-in-residence at University of New Brunswick and in the fall 2015 term, at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Additionally he worked as a librarian and editor for five museums in Ottawa between 1986 and 2003.[8] He has lived in Victoria, British Columbia since 2004.
He and Billeh Nickerson co-edited the anthology Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay Male Poets, published in 2007 by Arsenal Pulp Press. In 2012 his Selected Poems were published by Nightwood.
Awardsedit
1986: Patricia Hackett Prize, University of Western Australia
1987: West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a Self-Portrait. Penumbra Press
1993: Notes Toward a Family Tree. Quarry Press. 1993. ISBN 978-1-55082-066-9.
1994: Designs from the Interior. Anansi. 1994. ISBN 978-0-88784-558-1.
1998: Sweet Ellipsis. ECW Press. 1998. ISBN 978-1-55022-354-5.
1999: West of Darkness: Emily Carr, a self-portrait 2nd ed edition. Dundurn Press Ltd. 1999. ISBN 978-0-88878-402-5.
2001: Hypothesis. House of Anansi Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-88784-659-5.
2009: Hymn. Brick Books
2012: For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems. Nightwood Editions
2014: Polari. Goose Lane Editions
Chapbooksedit
1995: Destinations, Leaving the Map, above/ground press
1999: Oxygen, above/ground press
1999: Shroud. Viola Leaflets. 1999. ISBN 978-0-9684308-0-4.
2003: Runoff. Viola Leaflets. 2003. ISBN 978-0-9684308-1-1.
2004 Asymmetries, Frog Hollow Press Book One: House of the Present; Book Two: The Strata.
2012: Balletomane: The Program Notes of Lincoln Kirstein. JackPine
2016: Reframing Paul Cadmus: Pictures from an Exhibition. above/ground press
Criticismedit
"Trends in Canadian Poetry", Educational Insights, 11(1)
Editoredit
John Barton, ed. (1998). We all begin in a little magazine: Arc and the promise of Canada's poets, 1978-1998. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 978-0-88629-325-3.
John Barton, Billeh Nickerson, ed. (June 1, 2007). Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay Male Poets. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 978-1-55152-217-3.
Referencesedit
^"Who's". www.poets.ca. Archived from the original on 2000-01-15.
^"GVPL | Reader's Café | Capital Verse". Archived from the original on 2010-05-07. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
^"John Barton » Greater Victoria Public Library | Literacy, lifelong learning and community enrichment for all". Archived from the original on 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
^"Who's". www.poets.ca. Archived from the original on 2000-01-15.
^"John Barton - Interview | Literary Photographer". Archived from the original on 2009-06-21. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
^"John Barton » Greater Victoria Public Library | Literacy, lifelong learning and community enrichment for all". Archived from the original on 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2010-11-03.
External linksedit
Canadian Poets, University of Toronto
"John Barton - Interview", Literary Photographer, October 24, 2008