Born on February 14, 1972 in Halifax, Billeh Nickerson is a former editor of PRISM international, and a contributing editor for Geist Magazine. In 2005 he became editor of Event magazine for Douglas College. He holds a BFA in Writing from the University of Victoria and a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. His columns, essays and poems have appeared in numerous publications and he has been a literary producer for events such as the Vancouver International Writers Festival. He and Malahat Review editor John Barton gathered the work of 57 Canadian gay male writers, including material dating back to the 1890s, for an unprecedented anthology, Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay May Poets (Arsenal 2007). West Coast contributors include Robin Blaser, Stan Persky, Andy Quan, Michael V. Smith and George Stanley.

Also a humourist and founding member of the performance group Haiku Night in Canada, Nickerson has recorded his experiences as an employee under the golden arches of McDonalds for McPoems (Arsenal $15.95). It's an amusing collection of recollections and confessions of the counter culture of the nineties, battling the mundanity of a McJob. McPoems was published while he was teaching creative writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

His follow-up, Impact: The Titanic Poems, was published to mark the 100th anniversary of the disaster on April 15, 1912. Having conducted research in Belfast and his birthplace of Halifax, Nickerson attempts to enter the hearts and minds of Titanic passengers during the ship's maiden voyage.

He is the Chair of the Creative Writing department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

DATE OF BIRTH: Feb. 14, 1972

PLACE OF BIRTH: Halifax, NS

ARRIVAL IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: 1973

AWARDS: 2002 Publishing Triangle Gay Men's Poetry Prize Nomination, 2002 Community Achievement Award in the Arts from Xtra! West

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

The Asthmatic Glassblower (Arsenal Pulp, 2000) - Poetry

Let Me Kiss It Better: Elixirs For The Not So Straight and Narrow (Arsenal Pulp, 2002) - Prose

Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay May Poets (Arsenal 2007). Co-editor. 1-55152-217-9

McPoems (Arsenal 2009) $15.95 978-1-55152-265-4

Impact: The Titanic Poems (Arsenal 2012) $14.95 9781551524429

Artificial Cherry (Arsenal 2014) $14.95 978-1-55152-541-9

[BCBW 2014] "Poetry" "Disaster"