Bill Bissett
| bill bissett | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Frederick Bissett November 23, 1939 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | Dalhousie University |
| Occupation | poet |
| Years active | 1950s–present |
bill bissett (born William Frederick Bissett, November 23, 1939) is a Canadian poet known for his unconventional style.
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. In 1962, he started blewointment magazine. He later launched blewointmentpress, 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. In 1983, he sold blewointment press to focus on his own writing and visual art; financial hardship resulting from the bissett Affair has been cited as another reason that he sold the press.
Bissett is based in Vancouver and Toronto, Ontario, alternating between the two cities. In the Paris Review, Jack Kerouac called bill bissett one of "the great poets."
In 1977, Bob Wenman and a group of other Conservative Members of Parliament objected to the funding of some Canadian poets, bill bissett in particular, by the Canadian Council for the Arts. Wenman and others objected to bissett's poetry on moral grounds; Wenman, when speaking to Jean Chrétien (then a Minister of Finance), described bissett's work as "disgusting and pornographic."
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