We wish our warmest congratulations to EVENT poetry editor Joanne Arnott, winner of a 2017 City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Literary Arts. Awards were presented at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre in Vancouver on October 11, 2017.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

Huge happiness for Joanne Arnott for her big award at #mayorsartsawards ! pic.twitter.com/7sTvXaSOIm

— Elee KG (@eleekg) October 12, 2017

What lovely news to wake up to! Congrats Joanne Arnott! https://t.co/tsOX6xmhFN

— Kevin Spenst (@kevinspenst) October 12, 2017

So happy for our DPRS co-organizer, Joanne Arnott. Joanne, you are not on Twitter, but I’m going to post this so loud that you might hear!! https://t.co/sxoQHTH0QC

— Dead Poets Reading (@DeadPoetReading) October 12, 2017

Joanne Arnott is a Métis/mixed-blood writer and arts activist, originally from Manitoba, at home on the West Coast. Her first book, Wiles of Girlhood, won the Gerald Lampert Award (LCP 1992). She published eight further books, including Halfling spring (Kegedonce 2014), A Night for the Lady (Ronsdale 2013), Mother Time (Ronsdale 2007), and (as editor) Salish Seas: an anthology of text + image (AWCWC 2011).

Her essays and poetry appear in over 25 anthologies and a similar number of journals. She has been called to judge poetry and nonfiction on behalf of BC Book Prizes, the Governor General’s Awards, and others. A frequent performer, Arnott was a founding member of the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast, a past volunteer with The Writers Union of Canada (National Council) and The Writers’ Trust of Canada (Author’s Committee). A grand multipara, mentor, editor, and blogger, Arnott is currently Poetry Editor for EVENT Magazine.