Barbara Nickel grew up in Saskatchewan and attended Goshen College in Indiana, where she studied music (violin) and English literature. She received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, where she also taught. Barbara writes for adults and young people. Her poetry for adults had been published in many anthologies and magazines, including The Walrus and Poetry Ireland Review. One of her poetry collections, The Gladys Elegies, received the Pat Lowther Award for the best book of poetry by a woman in Canada.

 

Her children’s titles include Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach, which won a B.C. Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. Her picture book, A Boy Asked the Wind, was recently published. Barbara lives in Yarrow, British Columbia with her husband and two sons, and is at work on an eco-poetry book for children, a middle-grade novel, a poetry book for adults, and editing the memoir of the cellist Ian Hampton.

 

Check out Barbara's web site at www.barbaranickel.ca.