Pat Buckna

Pat Buckna lives on the upper Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and shares his time between his home in Powell River and his studio on Texada Island. He writes, composes, records and performs music in the region, and organizes online literary events.

Pat Buckna performing at the Texada Blues and Roots Festival, 2017. Photo: Sherry McKnight

Pat Buckna has lived in Alberta (Calgary and High River), the Northwest Territories (Fort Smith and Yellowknife) and the southwest coast of BC (Aldergrove, Abbotsford, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam).

In 2002 and 2008, Pat attended The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, where he worked with Stephen Osborne, and Wayde Compton. He attended Betsy Warland’s Manuscript Intensive and several writing seminars at the Banff Centre with mentors Elizabeth Philips, Edna Alford and Curtis Gillespie. Since moving to Powell River in 2010, he has worked with a senior’s memoir writing group through the Powell River Public Library.

Pat spent all of 1979 on the road as a country-western singer using the stage name of Chris Miller. Early in 1980, he left the road and settled in Fort Smith, NWT where he became a child-care worker and journalist/photographer. He formed the first music label in the NWT several albums of original music, including Flint & Steel, a collaboration with poet Jim Green. He moved to Yellowknife in 1982, became artistic director the Folk on the Rock Music Festival and president of the newly-opened Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC).

In 1985, Pat relocated to Vancouver to manage the cultural and special events programs of the NWT Pavilion at Expo ’86. He was commissioned to write an environmental soundscape (Echoes of the Northland) that was heard by the close to 2 million visitors to the pavilion. Pat also selected and presented over 750 musicians, artists and craftspeople from all 65 communities of the as-yet undivided northwest territories to a world-wide audience.

After Expo, he returned to school and earned an Associate Diploma in Computer Systems Management and for the next 25 years worked an an instructor and management consultant specializing in Project Management.

In 2002, a short remembrance was included in the book Remembering Peter Gzowski: A Book of Tributes (Douglas Gibson Books), an earlier draft of one of Pat’s childhood memories was included in Betsy Warlard’s 2010 non-fiction book, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing, and others were included in Slices: a memoir anthology and Taboo: an e-book anthology, both published by the Powell River Public Library .

In 2019, Pat Buckna released Only Children – a family memoir. The book is available in paperback directly from the author, in print on demand from Amazon, and in electronic versions (Kindle and Kobo).