Accession 94-21 - Brett Balon

Brett Balon, who has also written under the name John Peterson, was born in Regina in 1953. He studied at the University of Regina from 1971 until 1976, when he received his Bachelors of Arts (Honours). He also studied French at the University of Victoria in 1971, the CEGEP de Jonquiere in Quebec in 1973, and at the Universite de Laval, also in Quebec. He received a Master of Library Science from the University of Western Ontario in 1978 and his Ph.D. from Greenwich University, Hilo, Hawaii, in 1993.

Balon was branch supervisor at the Southeast Regional Library in Weyburn from 1978 until 1982, when he joined the City of Regina as records management supervisor.

He contributed to various anthologies such as Cracked Wheat (1984), More Saskatchewan Gold (1985), Heading Out: the New Saskatchewan Poets (1987), 200% Cracked Wheat (1992), and Black Water II (1990). He edited Survival of the Imagination: The Mary Donaldson Memorial Lectures (1993) with Peter Resch, and wrote many articles on records management, librarianship and archives for a number of different publications. Balon received an Honourable Mention in the Children's Literature category of the Saskatchewan Literary Awards for 1981.

Among his various activities, Balon co-founded and was president of the Weyburn Writers Group, chair of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, president of the Saskatchewan Library Association and a board member of Coteau Books.