Born in Vancouver in 1944, barrie philip Nichol's career was so mult-faceted as to make it virtually impossible to introduce.

From his first published poem, "Translating Apollinaire" which appeared in bill bissett's BLEWOINTMENT in 1964, to date, ten years after his death, there have been literally hundreds of publications, in just about every medium. Not to mention his own editing and publishing work with grOnk, Coach House Press, and Underwhich Editions, to name a few.

In 1970, Nichol received the Governor General's Award for Poetry. This year also saw the formation of the Four Horsemen, the sound poetry performance group which was comprised of Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery and Nichol.

Two years later, in 1972, the first two volumes of The Martyrology were published, beginning what would be a life-long poem. Or perhaps longer than life, as the last volume was not published until 1992, four years after his death. In 1987, Nichol said

When we write as we write we are always telling a story. When I write as I write I am telling the story of how I see the world, how it's been given to me, what I take from it. In the long poem I have the time to tell you that in all its faces or, at least, in as many faces as I've seen so far. Even when I'm not telling a specific story, I'm telling you that story. A narrative in language. The long poem. How I see the world.