Biography

Sean Arthur Joyce is an author of poetry, Canadian history, a collection of essays, and a novel. He is better known in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada as Art Joyce for his popular newspaper columns and books on local history. Joyce has been a freelance journalist since 1990, retiring in 2025 after 20 years as a reporter and Arts and Culture Editor for the Valley Voice, one of the last independently owned newspapers in BC. (www.valleyvoice.ca)

He has published two books of West Kootenay history (see Publications page) and in 2014 published Laying the Children’s Ghosts to Rest: Canada’s Home Children in the West (Hagios/Radiant Press) on the little-known phenomenon of the 100,000 poor children exported from the UK to work as indentured child labourers on Canadian farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The book was supported by a national tour of 24 communities and reached the top 10 nonfiction bestsellers list in Calgary. It remains a top seller for Radiant Press. https://www.radiantpress.ca/shop/laying-the-childrens-ghosts-to-rest-canadas-home-children-in-the-west

In 1997 he was among those chosen for the League of Canadian Poets Mentoring Program as among Canada’s most promising emerging poets, studying with Robert Priest. Joyce’s poems and essays have appeared in Canadian Author, Canadian Poetry, The Fiddlehead, Whetstone, The New Quarterly, Acumen (UK), Quills, CCPA Monitor, New Orphic Review, Horsefly, Elephant Mountain Review and other journals.

In 2006 he appeared in an international anthology, The Book of Hopes and Dreams, featuring work by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Margaret Atwood. The anthology was a fundraiser for UK charity Spirit Aid for child victims of war in Afghanistan. With Sandra Stephenson of the Peace Studies program at John Abbott College in Montreal, he co-founded Poets Against War Canada, with the blessing of PAW founder Sam Hamill.

In 2001 with funding from BRAVO TV Joyce wrote and directed the poetry video, The Muse: Chameleon Fire. He produced his second poetry video in 2016, Dead Crow: Prologue, with music composed by Noel Fudge and video production by Isaac Carter. Several more poems have been released on YouTube, including “Summer of Fire,” “Lost Highway,” “Star Seeds,” and “The Day After Covid,” with filming and video editing by Noel Fudge of Sandhill Studios.

Joyce has published chapbooks of poetry since 1990 under his own imprint, Chameleon Fire Editions. The Charlatans of Paradise, his first major collection of poetry, was published by New Orphic Publishers of Nelson, BC, in 2005. Canadian poetry icon bill bissett said simply of Charlatans: “excellent.”

Award-winning Saskatchewan poet, the late Mick Burrs (Steven Michael Berzensky), wrote of Joyce’s second book of poetry with New Orphic, Star Seeds (2009): “Joyce already possesses many of the gifts… which take a lifetime to master.”

The Price of Transcendence (New Orphic, 2015) has been described by Tom Wayman as “a first-rate collection.” He has since published four more collections of poetry: Dead Crow & The Spirit Engine (Chameleon Fire, 2020); Diary of a Pandemic Year (Chameleon Fire, 2021); Blue Communion (Ekstasis Editions, 2023); and Pole Shift & Other Poems (Ekstasis Editions, 2024).

Joyce’s novel, Mountain Blues (NeWest Press, 2018) has been compared by readers to Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Renowned Canadian poet Gary Geddes wrote of the novel: “Joyce ... brings a unique toolbox of writing skills to bear in Mountain Blues that makes for crisp, lyrical prose, an engaging narrative, memorable characters ... and a lightness of touch that is as surprising as it is delightful.” https://newestpress.com/books/mountain-blues

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1) A Perfect Childhood: One Hundred Years of Heritage Homes in Nelson, local history (Nelson Museum & Historical Society, 1997) ISBN 0-9680038-1-8

2) Hanging Fire & Heavy Horses: A History of Public Transit in Nelson, BC, local history (City of Nelson, 2000) ISBN 0-9686364-0-3

3) The Charlatans of Paradise, poetry (New Orphic Publishers, 2005) ISBN 1-894842-07-3

4) Star Seeds, poetry (New Orphic Publishers, 2009) ISBN 978-1-894842-16-7

5) Laying the Children’s Ghosts to Rest: Canada’s Home Children in the West, history / creative nonfiction (Hagios Press, 2014/ reissued by Radiant Press 2017) ISBN 978-1-926710-27-3

6) The Price of Transcendence, poetry (New Orphic Publishers, 2015) ISBN 978-1-894842-25-9

7) Mountain Blues, novel (NeWest Press, 2018) ISBN 978-1- 988732-30-5

8) Dead Crow & the Spirit Engine, poetry (Chameleon Fire Editions, 2020) 978-0-9952401-4-8

9) Diary of a Pandemic Year, poetry (Chameleon Fire Editions, 2021) 978-0-9952401-6-2

10) Words From the Dead: Relevant Readings in the Covid Age, essays (Ekstasis Editions, 2022) 978-1-77171-458-7

11) Blue Communion, poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2023) 978-1-77171-488-4

12) Pole Shift & Other Poems, poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2024) 978-1-77171-556-0

NOT CITED: Individual newspaper or magazine articles and literary essays or out-of-print collections, including 6 limited edition, handcrafted chapbooks published under the author’s imprint, Chameleon Fire Editions (established 1990).

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Poetry:

• Joyce’s three collections of poetry published by New Orphic Publishers were each reprinted in two editions of 100 copies; all sold out (600 in all).

• Joyce’s poems and essays on poetics have appeared in Canadian, American and British literary journals, including The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, Whetstone, Canadian Author, New Orphic Review, Horsefly, Quill, Acumen and many others. 

• His poems have been appeared in numerous anthologies, including Nature & Myth (Corbel Stone Press, UK, 2017); An Anthology of Nanaimo Poetry (Nanaimo Public Library, Canada, 2016); Fire and Sky (Brydge Builder Press, Canada, 2016); Awake in the World II (Riverfeet Press, Montana, 2019); and a forthcoming anthology from the American website Poets Reading the News. 

• A thesis-length essay on poetics, A New Romanticism for the 21st Century, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Canadian Poetry (University of Western Ontario) and British literary journal Acumen.

• One of the poems from The Charlatans of Paradise (New Orphic, Canada, 2005) is included in an international anthology, The Book of Hopes & Dreams (2005), featuring Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other notable poets from around the world. The anthology was published as a fundraiser for Scottish charity Spirit Aid, to benefit child victims of the conflict in Afghanistan. 

• In 2007 Joyce and poet Timothy Shay edited the anthology Homeless in Paradise, a poetry fundraiser for a Nelson BC shelter. It was published by Joyce’s Chameleon Fire Editions. 

• In 2006 Joyce was co-founder with Sandra Stephenson of Poets Against War Canada (www.poetsagainstwar.ca). His anti-war poem The Jinn in the Nightmare’s Eye has been published several times across Canada in various publications, including the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) newsletter The CCPA Monitor. 

• In 2001 Joyce was published in Bread and Bones, a limited edition anthology of West Kootenay poets. 

• His limited editions imprint, Chameleon Fire Editions (established 1990) has published his own work as well as poets Timothy Shay, Catherine Owen, Chad Norman, and Margaret Hornby. 

Poetry Videos:

• In 2001 Joyce produced a short poetry video, The Muse: Chameleon Fire, with funding from BRAVO TV’s BRAVOFact Foundation. The lead role was performed by actor Dawn Bird (née Scott); music for the video was composed by Steve Montgomery. (See video link.)