About the Author

Photo by Mark Klassen

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, Poetry Ireland Review, Best Canadian Poetry 2021, Best Canadian Poetry 2024, and is featured on BC’s Poetry in Transit. One of her poetry collections, The Gladys Elegies, received the Pat Lowther Award. Her children’s titles include Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach, which won a B.C. and Yukon 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. Her third poetry collection, Essential Tremor, was released by Caitlin Press to critical acclaim. A children’s novel, Dear Peter, Dear Ulla, won the High Plains Book Award (US and Canada), and was a finalist for the 2022 B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, and several young readers’ choice awards, including the Rocky Mountain Book Award. Her latest book, with Ian Hampton, is Quodlibet: A Year in Music (September 2026). Barbara lives and writes in Yarrow, British Columbia, on the Stó:lo territory of the Pilalt and Ts’elxwéyeqw.