The Random Ambassador
April 03rd, 2018
Wendy Morton started the Random Acts of Poetry movement, which encourages poets across Canada to read poems and give copies of their books to passers by.
She also helped create the Planet Earth Poetry reading series in Victoria that brings live poetry to audiences every Friday night.
In 2017, she received a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General and the Order of British Columbia for her work.
Now the Sooke poet has received the Federation of British Columbia Writers’ 2018 Honourary Ambassador Award. The FBCW Honourary Ambassador Award, launched in 2015, is given in recognition of a person whose work and achievements in the community bring attention to the value of writers and writing.
“We are delighted that Wendy has accepted this award from the Federation and look forward to many more years of partnering with her on behalf of writers and especially young writers,” said Ann Graham Walker, president of the FBCW, in announcing the award.
“Wendy was chosen this year in part because of her work as creator of the Elder Project — an initiative that brings indigenous students together with their elders to capture cultural narratives and empower the students to write poems and publish them in a chapbook.”
The Federation of British Columbia Writers has been a partner with Morton on the Elder Projects since 2017, having secured funding for the project from the British Columbia Arts Council. Morton’s award comes with a lifetime membership to the Federation.
Nominations for next year’s award will open on the FBCW website, bcwriters.ca, in November. For more information contact Ann Graham Walker at president@bcwriters.ca.
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Wendy Morton was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1970. She moved to Canada in 1970 and now lives in Sooke. She has worked as an insurance investigator for more than twenty years. As the coordinator of the Mocambopo reading series in Victoria, Morton became an influential figure in the landscape of B.C. poetry, releasing her second collection of poetry, Undercover (Ekstasis 2003), as a follow-up to Private Eye. As the founder of “Random Acts of Poetry,” she has instigated unusual poetry promotion campaigns with Westjet Airlines, Daimler-Chrysler, Prairie Naturals Vitamins, Fairmont Hotels, Fujifil and AbeBooks. Morton has also hosted Planet Earth Poetry in Victoria, a weekly poetry venue for more than a decade. She believes that poetry is the shortest distance between two hearts.
BOOKS:
What Were Their Dreams? Valleys of Hope and Pain: Canada’s History (2009)
Gumshoe (Black Moss Press, 2007)
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Emdash Books, 2006)
Shadowcatcher (Ekstasis Editions, 2005)
Undercover (Ekstasis Editions, 2003) $19.95 1-894800-21-4
Private Eye (Ekstasis Editions, 2001)
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