RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
CP24 Breakfast Interview: In the Bear’s House — A Story of Fearlessness and Insight
On CP24 Breakfast, Bruce Hunter joined hosts ahead of World Sight Day to discuss In the Bear’s House — a moving novel where disability becomes a source of perception, courage, and connection.
In this 6-minute segment, Bruce reflects on the life experiences that shaped his writing, from growing up with profound deafness and low vision to learning to “hear” the world through observation and language.
He shares how his award-winning book bridges generations and cultures, blending the wilderness of Alberta with universal lessons on resilience, motherhood, and finding strength through limitation.
COMING EVENTS
Single Onion Poetry Reading Series
Join Bruce Hunter for Single Onion #214, part of Calgary’s longest-running poetry reading series.
📍 Where: Shelf Life Books, 1302 4 Street SW, Calgary
🕖 Time: Thursday, October 23, 2025 — 7:00 PM (MDT)
🎤 Featuring: Bruce Hunter, Lorne Daniel, Micheline Maylor-Kovitz, plus Clara A. B. Joseph and Sheri-D Wilson
🌐 Virtual Option: The reading will be streamed live via the Single Onion YouTube channel
This evening offers an opportunity to hear fresh voices and established poets in Calgary’s vibrant literary community. After the readings, stay for book signings and conversation with the authors.
Admission details, program order, and accessibility information will be posted closer to the date. Check back here or visit the Single Onion / Shelf Life Books channels for updates.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Photo Credit: Lisa Stein
Born in Calgary, Alberta, on Treaty Seven lands, Bruce was deafened as an infant and afflicted with low vision much of his adult life. After high school, he worked as a labourer, equipment operator, Zamboni driver, and completed his technical education as a gardener and arborist. In his late twenties, his poetry earned him a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts to study with novelist W.O. Mitchell and poet Irving Layton. He went on to York University to study the humanities and taught in the creative writing department before landing a position at Seneca College. He is an active writer, editor, speaker and mentor.
BOOKS IN PRINT
RECENT REVIEWS
ARTICOLO DI SARA CABITTA
NELLA CASA DELL'ORSO
William Dunlop nasce alle 5:29, a metà della terza settimana di maggio del 1952 presso il Policlinico di Calgary. Sua madre Clare è rimasta incinta a diciassette anni e aspettava Will da due mesi quando lei e Lowell si sono sposati, il novembre dell’anno prima. Ora è sola con il bambino, suo marito deve scontare due anni in carcere per aggressione. C’è stato un momento in cui ha pensato al divorzio, un’idea subito abbandonata, che potrebbe fare da sola con un bimbo piccolo? Ha conosciuto Lowell a quattordici anni, quando i suoi voti a scuola le permettevano di fare progetti per una borsa di studio e l’università. Non immaginava che quell’incontro al Caffè Lido a Sunnyside portasse a questo. Lowell era spavaldo, aveva due anni più di lei, indossava un completo Zoot e guidava una macchina truccata.
"Galestro"
- Giovanni Fierro, Fare Voci (Italy)
The poetry of Bruce Hunter, a Canadian author who in his book "Galestro" explores nature and childhood, pays homage to jazz, finds closeness and belonging to his native Canada and also to his beloved Tuscany, moves with a broad and deep breath. But not only that, his writing builds a spirituality where bonds, of love and friendship but not only, permeate his every word, every poem.
“Sleepless and dreamers, all of us, / afloat in the fresh blue bubbles of his hot jazz / which illuminated the black silk sky / where I courted my young love, / and I mentioned a couple of dance steps under the lamps, / all the possibilities of the road and of faith”, and it is already a sound that welcomes the reader, a listening that becomes dance, movement of soul and body, possibility of discovery and self-definition.
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