Bernadette Rule grew up in Kentucky, and has spent her adult life in Canada, teaching, writing and editing. She’s had 10 collections of poetry published, most recently The Window Washer of Chartres (2023), and Deep Breath (2021). In 2024 she released her second nonfiction novel, The Arithmetic of Color, which tells the true story of Tom Johnson, a Graves County man of mixed race whose storied life put him at the center of the American experience. Her first nonfiction novel, Dark Fire (2021) was published to coincide with the centenary of the events it describes. Both novels are based on true events, but Rule uses the tools of fiction to tell the story. It belongs to the genre known as Creative Nonfiction. Dark Fire was shortlisted for a 2022 Hamilton Literary Award, and for a Whistler Independent Book Award. Rule is on the executive of the Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science & Art, one of the oldest cultural institutions in North America.

“Many of Rule’s poems speak to the ancestral history of ritual, and the similarity and continuance that underlies contemporary incidents, and provides a reprieve from the more alienating, fellowship-threatening aspects of modern life” (Jason Camlot, Journal of Canadian Poetry).

Rule's books are available through Lulu.com, your local independent bookstore, as well as from Chapters, Coles, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Contact Rule directly through this website to order her poetry books.