Robert Bringhurst (born October 16, 1946) is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He is the author of The Elements of Typographic Style — a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type. He has also translated works of epic poetry from Haida mythology into English.
He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, British Columbia (approximately 170 km northwest of Vancouver) with his spouse, Jan Zwicky, the poet and philosopher.
Born in Los Angeles, California, he was raised in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta, and British Columbia. Bringhurst studied architecture, linguistics, and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Utah. He holds a BA from Indiana University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia.
Bringhurst has taught literature, art history and history of typography at several universities and held fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Locally, Bringhurst has been criticized by Haida communities and their leaders for failing to acknowledge and spend time inside the Haida culture. There is also resentment around the covers of his translations, which feature his name. Traditionally Haida stories, songs, crests, and other intellectual property were considered more sacred than physical property. It was customary for the violation of intellectual property rights to result in corporeal punishment. Because of this controversy he has been accused of academic exploitation and cultural appropriation. These are often perceived by Haida communities as extensions of the colonial legacy.
The Beauty of the Weapons: Selected Poems 1972–82 – 1982 (nominated for a Governor General's Award), 1985 (Copper Canyon Press)
Tending the Fire – 1985
The Blue Roofs of Japan – 1986
Pieces of Map, Pieces of Music – 1986, 1987 (Copper Canyon Press)
Conversations with a Toad – 1987
The Calling: Selected Poems 1970–1995 – 1995
Elements (with drawings by Ulf Nilsen) – 1995
The Book of Silences – 2001
Ursa Major – 2003 (shortlisted for the 2004 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)
New World Suite Number Three: A poem in four movements for three voices – 2006
Selected Poems – 2009
Prose
Visions: Contemporary Art in Canada (with Geoffrey James, Russel Keziere & Doris Shadbolt) – 1983
Ocean/Paper/Stone – 1984
The Raven Steals the Light (with Bill Reid) – 1984
Shovels, Shoes and the Slow Rotation of Letters – 1986
The Black Canoe (with photographs by Ulli Steltzer) – 1991
Boats Is Saintlier than Captains: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Morality, Language, and Design – 1997
Native American Oral Literatures and the Unity of the Humanities – 1998
A Short History of the Printed Word (with Warren Chappell) – 1999
The Elements of Typographic Style – 1992, revised 1996, revised 2004, revised 2005
The Solid Form Of Language: An Essay On Writing And Meaning – 2004
The Tree of Meaning: Thirteen Lectures 2006
Everywhere Being is Dancing 2007
The Surface of Meaning: Books and Book Design in Canada – 2008
Translation
A trilogy entitled Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers:
A Story As Sharp As a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World – 1999 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
Nine Visits to the Mythworld – (a reinterpretation of the stories of mythteller Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas, as collected in 1900 by John Reed Swanton Northwest Coast Books: Nine Visits to the Mythworld) – 2000 (shortlisted for the 2001 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize)
Being in Being: The Collected Works of a Master Haida Mythteller - Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay – 2002