Geoffrey Nilson is the author of four chapbooks including the most recent, In my ear continuously like a stream (2017) from above/ground press. Nilson's poems and essays have appeared in publications such as Poetry is Dead, The Capilano Review, Event, PRISM international, Glasgow Review of Books, subTerrain, Lemon Hound, The Rusty Toque, Qwerty and CV2. He has been shortlisted for The Malahat Review Far Horizons Award for Poetry and his book-length manuscript won Honourable Mention for the 2015 Alfred G Bailey Poetry Prize.
Nilson is a contributing editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, the former social media editor for The Rusty Toque, and holds a BA in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He lives in New Westminster with his daughter on the unceded territories of the Qayqayt First Nation.
Nilson is a contributing editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, the former social media editor for The Rusty Toque, and holds a BA in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He lives in New Westminster with his daughter on the unceded territories of the Qayqayt First Nation.
QUOTES
"Images that dislocate meaning...technical skill applied to the glosa...elegant couplets... expressionistic...dramatic and imagistic eloquence...Paraphrases from a public whiteboard exhibits much truth and daring with flair and considerable skill." -Alfred G. Bailey Prize Jury
"Geoffrey Nilson pays homage to a poet in his glosa 'Fractals,' which borrows a few lines from Michael Ondaatje’s 'The Time Around Scars.' Nilson shape-shifts through words, a bookstore, 'a spider of airborne static / between dust & light.'" -PRISM international
"The images are vivid, the metaphors unexpected. One hears traces of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. The poems seek to both depict and question the importance of the places we inhabit...the characters are tigers, victims, colonizers, rescue medics and suburbanites. Geoffrey invites us into their complicated and very alive worlds." -Jen Currin
"Geoffrey Nilson's writing is both grounded in hard-won personal experience and elevated by mysterious notes of grace. Like the musician he is, he knows how to hit notes that please and transport, but he also insists on challenging his readers. Geoffrey has an affinity for experimental language and a deft ability at juxtaposition, which leads to new insights, new ways of seeing and thinking. For all the risks he takes as a writer, he remains committed to craft and to an unspoken pact with his readers to both connect and astonish." -Rachel Rose
"Images that dislocate meaning...technical skill applied to the glosa...elegant couplets... expressionistic...dramatic and imagistic eloquence...Paraphrases from a public whiteboard exhibits much truth and daring with flair and considerable skill." -Alfred G. Bailey Prize Jury
"Geoffrey Nilson pays homage to a poet in his glosa 'Fractals,' which borrows a few lines from Michael Ondaatje’s 'The Time Around Scars.' Nilson shape-shifts through words, a bookstore, 'a spider of airborne static / between dust & light.'" -PRISM international
"The images are vivid, the metaphors unexpected. One hears traces of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. The poems seek to both depict and question the importance of the places we inhabit...the characters are tigers, victims, colonizers, rescue medics and suburbanites. Geoffrey invites us into their complicated and very alive worlds." -Jen Currin
"Geoffrey Nilson's writing is both grounded in hard-won personal experience and elevated by mysterious notes of grace. Like the musician he is, he knows how to hit notes that please and transport, but he also insists on challenging his readers. Geoffrey has an affinity for experimental language and a deft ability at juxtaposition, which leads to new insights, new ways of seeing and thinking. For all the risks he takes as a writer, he remains committed to craft and to an unspoken pact with his readers to both connect and astonish." -Rachel Rose