Alden Nowlan (1933–1983)

Alden Nowlan, poet (b at Windsor, NS 25 Jan 1933; d at Fredericton, NB 27 June 1983). Largely self-educated, Nowlan was a former newspaperman whose many collections of poetry grew steadily in their power and intensity. Primary among them are Bread, Wine and Salt (1967, Governor General's Award), Playing the Jesus Game (1970) and Between Tears and Laughter (1971), all of them rich in regional sensibility and in affection for ordinary people but connected by Nowlan's intelligence, temperament and reading to a literary world far beyond folk culture. He was also a playwright, a story writer and, with Various Persons Named Kevin O'Brien (1973), a novelist; several other Nowlan books appeared posthumously. He was often at the centre of the literary community in Fredericton and Atlantic Canada generally, through the vivid example of his craftsmanship, through his work at University of New Brunswick, where he became writer-in-residence in 1969, and through his individualistic personality.