Acclaimed Prince George poet Barry McKinnon, a longtime English instructor at the College of New Caledonia, has passed away.
McKinnon was the author of more than twenty books and chapbooks over his career of more than 40 years. His 1980 book, the the, was a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist in 1981. A later book, pulplog, won the 1992 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for best poetry book in B.C.
“McKinnon favoured the long poem for the form’s ability to allow him to “articulate the poem’s central truth from various & variable angles & perspectives,’’’ his publisher Talonbooks wrote on its website. “McKinnon will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his friends, family, and community at this time.”
McKinnon was born in 1944 in Calgary, the biography on his personal website states He graduated in 1967 with a B.A. and in 1969 with an M.A. from UBC and was hired that same year to teach English at CNC, one of the original 19 members of the college’s faculty.
In The Caledonia Writing Series: A Chronicle, McKinnon wrote: “I remember my wife, Joy, crying as we crossed the Fraser River bridge into a hot stinky Prince George, and later that day, my own compounded anxiety after visiting the so-called college which consisted of two portable trailers and an office in an unused gym storage room at the local high school.”
He taught his first English class across the street in the welding shop at Prince George George Secondary School, he recalled in a 1987 story in the Prince George Citizen.
