Loved ones mourn Barry McKinnon, credited with kicking off Prince George, B.C.'s literary scene

In 1969, fresh from graduating with a master's in creative writing at the University of British Columbia, Barry McKinnon was delivering pizzas in Vancouver.

That changed when, after a midnight interview at the Vancouver Hotel, he was offered a position as a founding faculty member at the newly opened College of New Caledonia, roughly 800 kilometres north.

So McKinnon and his wife packed up their '57 Plymouth and drove into the "heat and the stink and the logging trucks" of a city that, at the time, was a booming mill town, which had more than doubled in size in a single decade on the strength of the local lumber industry.

What McKinnon found was a far cry from the literary scene he had known down south.

"People were kind of drunk all the time," he recalled in a 2015 interview looking back on his career with the Seattle-based poet Paul E. Nelson.

But after having a few stiff drinks himself, and meeting the other faculty members, McKinnon and his wife decided to stay, attracted by the community of new arrivals eager to transform the city.

McKinnon died on Oct. 30 this week after being admitted to hospital with multiple organ failure, according to a post on Nelson's site and from several other friends.

He is being remembered as a teacher and friend who helped create a northern B.C. literary scene, that brought internationally acclaimed poets to town while mentoring generations of new writers.

Poet Barry McKinnon is being remembered for helping create a literary scene in Prince George, B.C. (Red Shuttleworth)

A gifted writer and teacher

Born in Calgary in 1944, McKinnon moved to Montreal in 1965 where he attended Sir George Williams University and was taught poetry by one of the country's preeminent poets, Irving Layton.

From there, McKinnon earned his master's from UBC and graduated the same year he moved north.

Barry McKinnon in his home office circa 1998. (Donna Kane)

He went on to publish countless poems and more than 20 books and chapbooks, including Governor General's Literary Award finalist The the. in 1980 and the 1992 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize winner Pulp Log.

But he was perhaps best known for the boisterous poetry readings he would create, bringing in visitors that over the years included Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, Michael Ondaatje and dozens of others.

Early in his career, McKinnon acquired a printing press that had been owned by the legendary local construction and brewing millionaire "Uncle" Ben Ginter, followed by a second he recovered from the historic gold-mining town of Barkerville, a two-hour drive southeast of Prince George.

He would use these presses to create handset poems he gifted to visitors, and to publish work written by his students.

Friend and colleague John Harris said he believes that seeing their words brought to life in this way served as a source of inspiration to many of McKinnon's students.

"It really involved them," he said, as did the ability to see major literary figures in person despite being so far from Canada's cultural centres.

'A soft spot in a tough town'

In a comment to CBC News, McKinnon's son described him as a "soft spot in a tough town," a sentiment Harris echoed.

He said he settled happily into fatherhood, fixing up a heritage home in one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, and starting a radio show devoted to jazz music.

Among those paying tribute to McKinnon this week is Donna Kane, herself a Governor General's Award finalist based in B.C.'s northeast, who says seeing him read in a Prince George basement in 1995 was her introduction to poetry and that he mentored her early in her career.

Award-winning writer Rob McLennan of Ottawa wrote in his blog that it felt like McKinnon "was a poet who deserved far more attention than he received, and how moving north to Prince George to teach in 1969 put him on the outskirts of literature ... despite the enormous amount of activity he encouraged, prompted and hosted during his time in the north."

Kane said McKinnon will be remembered for his "many, many contributions to the literary scene in Prince George, and his influence on writers like me."

Barry McKinnon playing drums at Mount Royal College in Calgary, circa 1963. McKinnon had a lifelong love of jazz music. (Barry McKinnon personal collection/barrymcKinnon.com)

A memorial for McKinnon is being planned and Harris said work is underway on creating an anthology of his work.

But though he mourns the loss of his longtime friend, Harris said all he has to do is read one of his poems and it feels like he is with him again.

"We read his poetry and he comes right back to us."

An excerpt from McKinnon's 1981 Governor General's Literary Awards finalist book, The the. (Barry McKinnon/barrymckinnon.com)