Barbara Nichol


Barbara Nichol is a Canadian writer.
She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of John Lang Nichol and Elizabeth Fellowes, founder of the Equinox Gallery, and was educated at Westcot Elementary School and Crofton House School in Vancouver, at Elmwood School in Ottawa, The Branson School in Ross, California and St Clare's, Oxford. She attended the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia but did not graduate from either. She has written and produced over 25 radio documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and has written comedy and humour for radio, magazines and television. Nichol wrote scripts for the Canadian version of Sesame Street from 1985 to 1994 and worked as a script editor on the international edition of the show.
In 1996, she won a Genie Award and a Golden Spire Award for Best Short Film under 15 minutes for The Home for Blind Women.
She was a founding editor of the Canadian magazine The Walrus.
Barbara wrote the book and lyrics for the Canadian musical "The Sparrow Songs" which was featured at The Summerworks Festival, ran at Hugh's Room in Toronto and the festival of the arts at Canadian Stage.
She has received a Canadian Juno award, for her original, multi platinum recording of Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a Canal + award for The Home For Blind Women, has been a Governor General's Award finalist for her children's book ''Dippers'and won the Mr. Christie Prize for "Biscuits in The Cupboard", a book of verse'. She was nominated for a Juno Award as well for producing and directing the children's play series "A Story For A Child." The series was released as a recording by BMI.
She received an Emmy nomination for her Sesame Street special "Basil Hears a Noise."
Her sisters are Marjorie Nichol, a radio producer and journalist, most recently the executive producer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Sunday Edition", and Sarah Milroy, a prominent critic and writer on the visual arts, now the Head Curator of the McMichael Gallery.

Selected books