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 has 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, as well as a picture book, A Boy Asked the Wind, which was a finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award. Barbara lives in Yarrow, British Columbia with her husband and two sons, and is at work on a young adult novel, an eco-poetry book for children, and a poetry book for adults. She is the editor of the cellist Ian Hampton’s memoir in music, Jan in 36 Pieces, which was shortlisted for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize. The Mozart Girl, a reissue by Second Story Press of a children’s novel, was released in March 2019.