Compulsory Figures

Overview

Who are the people who mark our lives? Must we know them personally or is influence also exerted from the distant past, the grave, or even from the pages of a book? Devastated by the sudden death of one of his sisters in 2015, award-winning poet John Barton, over the decade since, felt moved to answer these and other questions for himself in Compulsory Figures, his thirteenth collection of poems.

Author Biography

John Barton’s twelve previous collections of poetry include Lost Family: A Memoir, a nominee for the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Coeditor of the landmark anthology, Seminal: Canada’s Gay Male Poets, he also wrote a book of essays, We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos and was the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2023. A three-time winner of the Archibald Lampman Award as well as a recipient of a National Magazine Award and a CBC Literary Award, he was made a lifetime member of the League of Canadian Poets in 2021.