Barry Dempster

Barry Dempster was born in Toronto, Ontario, and educated in child psychology. He is the author of two novels, a children’s book, three volumes of short stories and eighteen collections of poetry. He has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award twice; for his first book, Fables for Isolated Men, and for The Burning Alphabet, which won the Canadian Authors Association Award for poetry. From 1990 to 1997, he was Poetry and Reviews Editor for Poetry Canada. In 2010 and 2015, he was a finalist for the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and in 2014, he was nominated for the Trillium Award for his novel, The Outside World.

He has been on the faculty at The Banff Centre as mentor for the Writing Studio, Wired Writing and Writing with Style programs; has conducted master classes all across the country and as far away as Chile; and has been the Writer-in-Residence at the Richmond Hill Public Library twice. For years, he was also a Senior Acquisitions Editor with Brick Books.

His most recent books include Invisible Dogs, Tread & Other Stories and the soon to be published Being Here: the Chemistry of Startle from Frontenac House. Barry currently lives in the Greater Toronto Area with his wife, Karen.

Visit Barry’s website.


Books by Barry Dempster