Andrew Burton has made the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for Where You From​?

Andrew Burton grew up in Winnipeg and is a social worker, poet, theatre artist, activist and the artistic director of the Street Spirits Theatre Company in Prince George, B.C. He has been writing poetry, plays, short stories and nonfiction for many years. His work has been honoured with the Otto Rene Castillo Memorial award for Innovation in Theatre, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Canada Peace Medal. Andrew has toured as a spoken word artist, theatre director and performer across North America and holds a M.Ed. in fine arts from Simon Fraser University.

Winnipeg, dark experience, street-life, lost souls.

"For years I worked 'street outreach' in a number of cities. This poem reflects the street culture of downtown Winnipeg, the archetypes of lonely and lost souls as I knew them. The view of the self and the view of the world held by people of the street, the beliefs and values develop from experience, colour and define street life leading to ways and means of being that perpetuate and redefine that experience until the gritty, painful and extreme seems natural and safe."

The winner of the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, will have their work published on CBC Books and will have the opportunity to attend a writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.