Colin Morton (born 1948) is a Canadian poet.
Personal life
Morton was born in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, but grew up in
Calgary,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
and has worked as a teacher and editor.
His poetry and fiction have appeared in ''Descant'', ''The Fiddlehead'', ''Arc'', ''Grain'', ''The Malahat Review'', ''Ascent'', and ''The North American Review'' among many other publications. He was a member of the performance group ''First Draft'' which recorded, published, and performed some 40 times across Canada in the 1980s. More recently, his poetry has explored aspects of world history.
In 1986 and again in 2001 he won the
Archibald Lampman Award
The Archibald Lampman Award is an annual Canadian literary award, created by Blaine Marchand, and presented by the literary magazine '' Arc'', for the year's best work of poetry by a writer living in the National Capital Region.
History
The ...
for poetry. His book of poetry ''The Merzbook'' was inspired by the life and work of
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany.
Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, Constructivism (art), constructivism, surrealism ...
, and was the basis for a dramatic production, ''The Cabbage of Paradise''. The sound-poem, ''Primiti Too Taa'', based on Schwitters' ''Ursonate (Sonata in primitive sounds)'', was made into an animated short film by Ed Ackerman, featuring Morton's voice and a
stop-motion animation of moving letters, made using a typewriter. It received several awards, including a Bronze Apple.
His book ''The Hundred Cuts: Sitting Bull and the Major'' is a poetic documentary about the exile in Canada of Lakota chief Sitting Bull, and his relationship with Major James Walsh of the NWMP.
He lives in
Ottawa, Ontario.
Selected bibliography
*
*
*''In Transit'' (1981), http://capa.conncoll.edu/morton.tran.htm
*''This Won't Last Forever'' (1985), http://capa.conncoll.edu/morton.last.htm
*''The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems'' (1987), http://capa.conncoll.edu/morton.merzbook.html
*''How to Be Born Again'' (1982),
*''Oceans Apart'' (1995), (novel)
*''Coastlines of the Archipelago'' (2000),
*''Dance, Misery'' (2003),
*''The Cabbage of Paradise'' (2007),
*''The Local Cluster'' (2008),
*''The Hundred Cuts: Sitting Bull and the Major'' (2009),
*''Winds and Strings'' (2013),
Edited
*''The Scream: First Draft, the third annual group show'' Ouroboros (1984),
*
References
External links
Poetry and fiction by Colin Morton*https://web.archive.org/web/20091007230844/http://www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/morton.htm
*http://library.stmarytx.edu/pgpress/authors/colin_morton/index.html
1948 births
Living people
20th-century Canadian poets
Canadian male poets
Writers from Calgary
Writers from Ottawa
Writers from Toronto
20th-century Canadian male writers
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