Biography

Rob Taylor is the author of five poetry collections: Weather, (Gaspereau Press, 2024), 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).

Rob’s books have been shortlisted for, or won, a number of awards, including the Raymond Souster Award (Weather, 2025), the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (The News, 2017) and the Alfred G. Bailey Prize (The Other Side of Ourselves, 2010). 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 eighty journals, magazines and anthologies, including The Walrus, Brick, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Literary Review of Canada and Best Canadian Poetry. His poem “Summer” was selected for inclusion in BC’s Poetry in Transit program. Over the past decade, Rob has conducted over 100 interviews with poets and authors.

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. Rob currently serves as the director of the Fraser Valley Writers Festival.

Rob lives with his wife and children in Port Moody, BC, on the unceded territories of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and Stó:lō peoples. He teaches creative writing at the University of the Fraser Valley and plays what some would consider an unreasonable amount of Ultimate Frisbee.

Short Bio (For Event Introductions)

Rob Taylor is the author of five poetry collections, including Weather and The News, and the editor of the anthologies What the Poets Are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation and Best Canadian Poetry 2019. He teaches creative writing at the University of the Fraser Valley, where he also runs the Fraser Valley Writers Festival, and lives with his family in Port Moody, BC, on the unceded territories of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

Awards

Honorary Prizes
City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for the Literary Arts (Emerging Artist), 2015

Book Prizes
Raymond Souster Award (Finalist), 2025
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Finalist), 2017
Alfred G. Bailey Prize (Winner), 2010

Poem and Short Story Prizes
ARC Poem of the Year (Finalist), 2025
The Malahat Review Far Horizons Award for Fiction (Finalist), 2021
Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize (Longlisted), 2021 and 2024
The New Quarterly Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest (Runner-up or Honourable Mention), 2015, 2018 and 2019
PULP Literature Hummingbird Prize for Flash Fiction (Winner), 2014
subTerrain Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry (First Runner-up), 2010
OCW Magazine Poem of the Year (Co-winner), 2010

Anthologies

In addition to my books and chapbooks, you can read my writing in a variety of anthologies, including:

On Occasion: Poems for the People (Coach House Books, 2026) – “”My Mother’s Birthday Card” and “My Mother Died a Week Ago”
Best Canadian Poetry 2024 (Biblioasis, 2023) – “Sunlight”
Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry (Mountaineers Books, 2023) – “Idaho Giant Salamander”
Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees (Caitlin Press, 2022) – “Evergreen Lines”
Resonance: Essays on the Life and Craft of Writing (Anvil Press, 2022) – “The Power of Adjacency”
Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds (Caitlin Press, 2020) – “Weather in Dublin”
Beyond Forgetting: Celebrating 100 Years of Al Purdy (Harbour Publishing, 2018) – “On Realizing Everyone Has Written Some Bad Poems”
Love Me True: Writers Reflect on the Ins, Outs, Ups and Downs of Marriage (Caitlin Press, 2018) – “The Time of Useful Truths”
Refugium: Poems for the Pacific (Caitlin Press, 2017) – “&”
Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food (Anvil Press, 2017) – “Seven Weeks”
In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry (Caitlin Press, 2016) – “You Can’t Lead a Horse”
The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (Anvil Press, 2015) – “The Wailing Machines”
Alive at the Centre: Contemporary Poems from the Pacific Northwest (Ooligan Press, 2013) – “The Wailing Machines”
A Verse Map of Vancouver (Anvil Press, 2009) – “Down one at The Nat”
Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2008) – “Grey Diamond Wallpaper”