When Wendy Morton's first book of poetry, Private Eye, was published in 2001, she knew she had to find some way to turn her poetry into currency. One day she called up WestJet Airlines, suggested she read poems for the pasengers and write poems for them in exchange for flights. After some enthusiastic urging, they said yes, and so she became WestJet's Poet of the Skies. She has turned her poems into the currency that has proved her with a PT Cruiser from DaimlerChryler, luxurious hotel rooms from The Fairmont Hotels, vitamins from Prairie Naturals, a digital camera from Fuji. The queen, in Alice in Wonderland, says to Alice, " Why, when I was your age, I imagined 6 impossible things before breakfast." Wendy imagined that poets all across Canada could commit " random acts of poetry" on strangers: read them a poem and give them a book.
In 2004 and 2005, 27 poets across Canada did just that with the sponsorship of abebooks and an anonymous sponsor. Random Acts of Poetry became a national week long event celebrating literacy.
Her poetic memoir, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast will be published in the spring by emdash press.
Selected Publications
Private Eye (Ekstasis, 2001) ISBN 1-896860-91-5
Invitation for Happiness letterpress chapbook (Frog Hollow
Press) 2001.
Undercover (Ekstasis Editions, 2003) ISBN 1-894800-21-4.
Shadowcatcher (Ekstasis Editions, 2005) ISBN 1-894800-66-4
Selected Anthologies
Blindfolds (Outlaw Editions, 1999)
Community of Monsters (Outlaw Editions, 1998)
Mocambo Night, (Ekstasis Editions, 2001)
Who Comes, Jean Paul? (Firescreen Press, 2001)
Women of Glenairley (Gap Press, 2001)
Moving Small Stones (Frog Hollow Press, 2002)
Dinner Party (Leaf Press, 2003)
Masks (Leaf Press, 2004)
Letters we never sent (Leaf Press, 2004)
Object (Leaf Press, 2005)
Surprise (Leaf Press, 2005)
Books in Print
Morton, Wendy
Private Eye (Ekstasis, 2001) ISBN 1-896860-91-5
Invitation for Happiness, letterpress chapbook (Frog Hollow
Press, 2001).
Undercover, Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2003) ISBN 1-894800-21-4.
Shadowcatcher, Poetry (Ekstasis Edition, 2005) ISBN 1-894800-66-4
Wendy Morton, PO Box 496, Sooke, BC, V0S 1N0
e-mail: wendymorton@shaw.ca