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Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

Wendy Morton

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 passengers 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 provided her with a PT Cruiser from DaimlerChrysler, 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, 27 poets across Canada did just that with the sponsorship of abebooks, and National Random Acts of Poetry Week was born.  In 2005, there were 27 in Canada and 9 in England, Scotland,  Ireland and Northern Ireland committing Random Acts of Poetry.

She has published two other books of poetry, Undercover and Shadowcatcher, published Ekstasis Editions.  Her memoir, 6 Impossible
Things Before Breakfast will be published in the spring of 2006 by
emdash press.