About

Neil Surkan was born in Penticton, BC. He is the author of two full-length poetry collections — Unbecoming (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), which was selected as one of three finalists for the City of Calgary’s W.O. Mitchell Award, and On High (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018) — and the chapbooks Ruin (Knife|Fork|Book, 2023), Their Queer Tenderness (Knife|Fork|Book, 2020), and Super, Natural (Anstruther Press, 2017). His award-winning poems have appeared in numerous Canadian magazines.

Neil earned a PhD in English from the University of Calgary in 2021 after completing an MA-CRW at the University of Toronto and a BA (Hons) at the University of Victoria. A Professor in the Department of English at Vancouver Island University, he lives in Nanaimo, on the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, with Luca, Edi, and Lloyd.