Biography

Rob Taylor is the author of four poetry collections: Strangers (Biblioasis, 2021), Oh Not So Great: Poems from the Depression Project (Leaf Press, 2017), The News (Gaspereau Press, 2016) and The Other Side of Ourselves (Cormorant Books, 2011). In 2017 The News was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and in 2010 the manuscript for The Other Side of Ourselves won the Alfred G. Bailey Prize. Rob is also the editor of What the Poets are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation (Nightwood Editions, 2018) and the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2019 (Biblioasis, 2019). In addition to his books, Rob is the author of six poetry chapbooks, most recently The Green Waves: Poems from Roblin Lake (845 Press, 2019) and Łazienki Park (The Alfred Gustav Press, 2017).

Rob’s individual poems, short stories, essays and interviews have appeared in more than sixty journals and magazines, including The Walrus, Brick, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, and the Literary Review of Canada. In 2014 he was named one of the inaugural writers-in-residence at the Al Purdy A-frame, and in 2015 he received a City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for the Literary Arts.

In 2004 he co-founded Simon Fraser University’s student poetry zine High Altitude Poetry, and in 2007 he co-founded One Ghana, One Voice, Ghana’s first online poetry magazine. He was also the poetry editor at Red Fez from 2007 – 2010, and the poetry editor at PRISM international in 2014-15. Rob has run a blog devoted to Canadian (especially Vancouver) poetry, Roll of Nickels, since 2006. In 2011 he was part of the team that “resurrected” Vancouver’s Dead Poets Reading Series, which he helped coordinate until 2018. Over the past decade, Rob has conducted almost 100 interviews with poets and authors.

Rob lives with his wife and children in Port Moody, BC, on the unceded territories of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-waututh) peoples. He teaches creative writing online at Simon Fraser University and plays far too much Ultimate Frisbee.

Awards

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Finalist), 2017
City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for the Literary Arts (Emerging Artist), 2015
PULP Literature Hummingbird Prize for Flash Fiction (Winner), 2014
Alfred G. Bailey Prize (Winner), 2010
The Malahat Review Far Horizons Award for Fiction (Finalist), 2021
The New Quarterly Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest (Runner-up or Honourable Mention), 2015, 2018 and 2019
subTerrain Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry (Runner-up), 2010
OCW Magazine Poem of the Year (Co-winner), 2010

Interviews with Rob

Interview with Red Alder Review (print), 2021
Interview with Tri-Cities Dispatch (print), 2021
Interview with Page Fright Podcast (audio), 2021
Interview with TheCommentary.ca (audio), 2021
Interview with Train Poetry Journal (print), 2020
Interview with elm & ampersand (audio), 2020
Interview with Page Fright Podcast (audio), 2020
Interview with Biblioasis (print), 2019
Interview with Read Local BC (print), 2018
Interview with Wax Poetic (audio), 2018
Interview with rob mclennan (print), 2017
Interview with Oscar Martens (print), 2017
Interview with CBC North by Northwest (print), 2016
Interview with CBC North by Northwest (audio), 2016
Interview with Wax Poetic (audio), 2015
Interview with Wordworks Magazine (print), 2012
Interview with Vancouver is Awesome (print), 2012
Interview with Lena Garabedian (print), 2012
Interview with Michael Hingston (print), 2011