Brent Wood

Brent Wood is a Sessional Lecturer III in the Department of English and Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga, specializing in poetry and poetics, Canadian literature, North American musical literature, poetry in performance, and tragedy. He teaches courses including Reading Poetry, Canadian Poetry, Creative Writing, and specialized topics on Leonard Cohen and Myth in Crisis.

Wood's research interests span Canadian poetry criticism and Grateful Dead musicology. His work examines poetic techniques, rhythmic dynamics, and thematic elements across traditional Canadian poetry and rock music lyrics. He focuses on the intersection of literary analysis and musical performance, particularly in countercultural contexts.

His publications reveal a consistent exploration of rhythmic complexity and thematic depth, moving between Canadian literary figures like Margaret Avison, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and Don McKay, and the lyrical innovations of the Grateful Dead. The recurring theme across his work is the examination of how artistic expression navigates between tradition and innovation, structure and freedom.

Wood has authored the book The Tragic Odes of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead: Mystery Dances in the Magic Theater (Routledge 2020) and co-edited Listening for the Heartbeat of Being: the Arts of Robert Bringhurst (McGill-Queens University Press 2015), demonstrating his commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship that bridges literary and musical analysis.