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bill bissett (born William Frederick Bissett, November 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet famous for his anti-conventional style. He deliberately does not capitalise his name.

Life

bissett was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He attended Dalhousie University (1956) and the University of British Columbia (1963 - 1965). bissett dropped out of both universities because of an overriding desire to live as a free agent, writer and painter unencumbered by any academic constraints. He did complete course requirements for his two majors in English and Philosophy. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1958. Five years later he started the blew ointment magazine. He later launched blewointment press, which has published volumes by Cathy Ford, Maxine Gadd, Michael Coutts, Hart Broudy, Rosemary Hollingshead, Beth Jankola, Carolyn Zonailo, bpNichol, Ken West, Lionel Kearns and D. A. Levy. bissett is based in Vancouver and Toronto, Ontario, alternating between the two cities.

Career

He is known for his use of a unique orthography and incorporating visual elements in his printed poetry, and his performance of "concrete sound" poetry, sound effects, chanting, and barefoot dancing during his poetry readings. He has also had large exhibits of his paintings and made audio recordings. He was the lyricist and vocalist in the Ontario band, Luddites. His work typically ranges from the mystical to the mundane, incorporating humour, a sense of wonder and sentimentality, and political commentary.

In 2006, Nightwood Editions published radiant danse uv being (Jeff Pew & Stephen Roxborough, eds.), a poetic tribute to bissett with contributions from more than 80 writers, including Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Lorna Crozier, Patrick Lane, Steve McCaffery, P. K. Page and Darren Wershler-Henry. In 2006 he was also featured in an episode of the television series Heart of a Poet produced by Canadian filmmaker Maureen Judge.

Bibliography

• Th Jinx ship nd othr trips: pomes, drawings, collage - (1966)
• Th gossamer bed pan - (1967)
• Lebanon voices - (1967)
• Where is Miss Florence Riddle? - (1967)
• What Poetiks - (1967)
• Awake in th red desert! - (1968)
• Of the land divine service: poems - (1968)
• Liberating skies - (1969)
• The Lost Angel Mining Co. - (1969)
• S th story I to: trew adventure - (1970)
• Tuff shit: [love pomes] - (1970)
• Why dusint the League of Canadian Poets do sumthing nd get an organizer for cross country poetry reading circuit: [sic] press release. - (1970)
• Blew trewz - (1971)
• Dragon fly - (1971)
• Nobody owns th earth - (1971)
• Ice - (1972)
• Pomes for Yoshi - (1972)
• Th first sufi line - (1973)
• Pass th food release th spirit book - (1973)
• Living with the vishyun - (1974)
• Medicine my mouth's on fire - (1974)
• Space travl - (1974)
• What - (1974)
• Yu can eat it at th opening - (1974)
• Image being - (1975)
• Stardust - (1975)
• Th fifth sun - (1975)
• Venus - (1975)
• An allusyn sic to macbeth - (1976)
• Sailor - (1978)
• Selected poems: beyond even faithful legends (editor) - (1980)
• Northern birds in color - (1981)
• Seagull on Yonge Street - (1983)
• Canada gees mate for life - (1985)
• The Last Blewointment anthology (editor) - (1986)
• Animal uproar - (1987)
• What we have - (1988)
• Hard 2 beleev - (1990)
• Inkorrect thots - (1992)
• Th last photo uv th human soul - (1993)
• Th influenza uv logik - (1995)
• Loving without being vulnrabul - (1997)
• Scars on th seehors - (1999)
• B leev abul char ak trs - (2000)
• peter among th towring boxes / text bites - (2002)
• narrativ enigma / rumours uv hurricane - (2004)
• northern wild roses / deth interrupts th dansing - (2005)
• ths is erth, thees ar peopul - (2007)
• sublingual - (2008)
• griddle talk: a yeer uv bill n carol dewing brunch - (2009)

See also

• Bayard, Caroline. (1986). "Bill Bissett: Subversion et poesie concrete." Etudes Litteraires vol. 19 no. 2, 81-108.
• Coupal, Michel. (1993). "Quelques aspects de l'identite culturelle canadienne dans l'oeuvre de Bill Bissett." Annales du Centre de Recherches sur l'Amerique No. 18, 47-54, 360. ISSN 0399-0443
• David, Jack. (1977). "Visual Poetry in Canada: Birney, Bissett, and bp." Studies in Canadian Literature vol. 2, 252-66.
• Early, Len. (1976). "Bill Bissett: Poetics, Politics & Vision." Essays on Canadian Writing vol. 4, 4-24.
• Enright, Robert. (1997). "Composition by feeled the visual art of bill bissett." Capilano Review series 2 no. 23, 105-7.
• Maylon, Carol. (1997). "we ar always on th 401: the use of fiction in bissett's poems." Capilano Review series 2 vol. 23, 113-6.
• Pew, Jeff, and Roxborough, Stephen (editors). (2006). radiant danse uv being: A Poetic Portrait of bill bissett. Nightwood Editions. ISBN 0-88971-210-7
• Precosky, Don. (1990). "Bill Bissett: Controversies and Definitions." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews vol. 27, 15-29.
• Precosky, Don. (1994). "Self selected/selected self: bill bissett's Beyond Even Faithful Legends." Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews vol. 34, 57-78.
• Twigg, Allan. "bissett, bill" on BC Bookworld.
• Wershler-Henry, Darren. (1997). "Vertical excess: what fuckan theory and bill bissett's concrete poetics." Capilano Review series 2 no. 23, 117-24.

External links

• paintings by bill bissett
• bissett's poems at University of Toronto
• bill bissett's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia