Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Artist Award;

Much to my shock, on Tuesday night I won the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Artist Award [see the link to the shortlist announcement here]. Enormous thanks to Michele Provost for nominating me for such an award, the judges, my fellow nominees, everyone at CAO and to Monty Reid, Amanda Earl, Sean Wilson and Marcus McCann for graciously and generously writing letters of support. Who knew? Fortunately, I listened to recent advice from RM Vaughan that I should dress like I was going to win (although "prepare a speech" might also have been good advice, fyi).

I sat beside the Mayor, handed out multiple "poem" leaflets and a few chapbooks, and even sold a copy of my new collection of short stories to a banker.

See the Ottawa Citizen blog post on the awards gala and other winners here. Photos by Pete Laporte.