John Barton is a poet and the editor of one of Canada’s best literary magazines, The Malahat Review. He’s also MUN’s new writer-in-residence for fall 2015. This means he’s available to students and the general public looking for an expert’s eye on their latest work.

Anyone interested in scheduling an appointment with Mr. Barton can contact the Department of English at [email protected] for his office hours. Better yet, come meet him and hear this multi-award-winning poet read from one of his many books. The event is this Thursday, Sept. 24th, at Suncor Energy Hall (8pm).

Barton has previously been writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library and at the University of New Brunswick. He says he thinks of himself “as an inspiration coach” and enjoys mentoring writers one-on-one. He says often the people who come to see a writer-in-residence are at the beginnings of their vocation or are just discovering whether they have one.

“Working with them reminds me of what motivates people ― what motivated me ― to start writing, unimpaired by the careerist aspirations that can sometimes cloud a writer’s ambitions for his or her work once the writerly self becomes more firmly established.”

English professor and chair of the writer-in-residence search committee Dr. Robert Finley is looking forward to Mr. Barton’s residency. “John brings with him such a depth of experience not only as an important Canadian poet but as a mentor across several genres, and as the editor of one of the country’s foremost literary journals.”

While at Memorial Mr. Barton will conduct several workshops, including one on submitting to literary magazines, and a monthly evening discussion for LGBTQ writers. In between, he’ll be at work on his latest project: Contrapposto. The book features three protagonists who were part of the queer community in New York City in the decades before the Stonewall Riots (events which marked the beginning of gay liberation).