Ian Burgham is an associate of the League of Canadian Poets. Though raised in Canada, he was born in New Zealand and later in life taught school there. He lived in Scotland for a number of years and worked in the publishing industry as both an editor for Canongate Publishing and as Publisher of Macdonald Publishers.

His first degree was attained from Queen's University at Kingston. Later, he attended the University of Edinburgh where he studied the work and poetic theory of William Blake.

In 2004 he won the Queen's University Well-Versed Poetry Award. He has three collections of poetry. A chapbook, A Confession of Birds, was published in the UK in 2003, and The Stone Skippers, published in 2007. Nominated for the 2008 ReLit Award for poetry, The Stone Skippers was published in Canada (Tightrope Books), New Zealand, Australia and the UK. His latest collection, The Grammar of Distance, is to be published in April, 2010.

Burgham's work has been published in many Canadian literary journals including Queen's Quarterly, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, the Literary Review of Canada, Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2), dANDelion, Harpweaver, Precipice, Jones Avenue, Ascent Aspirations and Poetry'z Own

Burgham works as a medical research and education consultant. He holds the position of Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine and works in the Centre for Studies in Primary Care in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's University. He is married to Catherine West, an internationally known arts and music education specialist, and has three adult children.

Praise for The Stone Skippers:
"There's exceptionally thoughtful and complex writing here, writing that always seems willing to enter emotions with great courage and finesse. I admire the honesty. The poems are genuinely moving."
- Barry Dempster

"I admire The Stone Skippers greatly. The poems have a hardness and succinctness. This concision, leanness, and directness, brings out the emotion in them, the sense of distance and space and wind-sweep both emotional and imagistic, wonderfully well. There are poems that stay with one. There are many items of praise I could include, but just let me say, Burgham has written a good book, and good poems!"
- A.F. Moritz

"The Stone Skippers is a rare volume: a book filled with generous emotion as well as craft and polish. What is said is as important as how it is said. Each line break, each simile, each rhythmic construct: all these things display both care and wisdom, and that's a treasure."
- Carolyn Smart

"Here's a gifted new poet, madly dashing his love-torn heart against the poetic stones of the universe. Impetuous, inspired, wild, unadorned, unrepentant, desperate, occasionally eloquent-this is a voice you don't want to miss. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Ian Burgham."
- Di Brandt

"Here is a writer capable of great subtlety, fusing the turning point moment of short story, depth and length of novel, 'in-breath' of exalted verse. Use of form, poetic device, economy, and choice of language, blurring of fancy and fiction-all are employed with intelligence and readerly insight. Burgham demonstrates the dancing quality and length of well-crafted poetry . . . The poems are to be savoured, lingered over, allowed to resonate and be remembered. Strongly recommended!"
- Kevin Gillam, Five Bells, Australian Poets Union

"I feel a great sense of discovery. These poems mark the emergence of a mature and distinctive poetic voice. The language is sure and elegant; most importantly it is infused with a quiet musicality that is a rare and remarkable gift. This is the work of one who has the ear for the possibilities of language."
- Alexander McCall Smith

"The Stone Skippers is a wonderful collection that needs to be read over and over again. I often judge the worth of poems by my own willingness to return to a book. I enjoy a wide range of poetry and poets but there are only a few books that I keep close so that I can re-read them when I need them. And it is a need-they serve a purpose at times when you want to know how another person has given a new perspective, has caught the world in an image that you can carry around with you, that satisfies something within. The Stone Skippers is such a book."
- Roland Leach

"The Stone Skippers is a wonderful, terrible collection, and a pleasure to read."
- Christina Decarie, The Antigonish Review

The Grammar of Distance
Jeanette Lynes, Poet and GillerPrize Nominee writes of "The Grammar of Distance";

"His poems crackle with sonic energy; they whinny and stamp. They whistle in the dark. His poetic landscapes frequent the windswept coasts of Scotland; but in this collection, we also find him doing terribly Canadian things like snowshoeing, surveying, chopping wood. I sometimes hear Al Purdy in Burgham's voice and, occasionally, Patrick Lane. Fists are known to fly in Burgham's poems, and the writing is often marked by a visceral quality. His penchant for storytelling and Celtic elegiac moods makes him a solid candidate for the position of poetic counterpart to Alistair MacLeod."

Read more about The Grammar of Distance: to be launched at the POW! Festival
http://tightropebooks.com/?s=Ian+Burgham