Local writer, poet, teacher and horse logger Lorne Durfour adjudicated the Cariboo Festival 2012’s creative writing section of the festival during a writing workshop held April 13 at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre.
Dufour awarded Grade 3 student Marija Mederal the award for prose writing in her age group; Daniel Sellars won the award for poetry; and Grade 7 student Laine Grace won the prose section of the competition with her story Winter Wonderland. Look for the winning work by these young writers in future editions of the Tribune.
Adjudicator Dufour was born in Blind River, Ont. in a small lumber town on the north shore of Lake Huron.
He studied literature at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Ottawa University, and Michigan State University.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and studied toward a masters degree before the 1960s revolution caught up with him and he took a leave from university.
He later returned to university earning a teaching certificate in 1969.
Dufour took some time to join and travel with a theatre company, Little People’s Caravan. This was a gypsy-style, horse-drawn theatre group.
Dufour taught at Royal Rhodes University at Sooke, B.C. and also at Alkali Lake.
He has published two books of poetry, Spit on Wishes and Starting From Promise, which won the Poets’ Corner Award from Broken Jaw Press in 2000.
He published Jacob’s Prayer in 2010.
After 35 years working as a horse logger, Dufour is now retired though he still uses horses and enjoys their company.
His horse family has extended to a dozen horses over the last 36 years.
Dufour continues to write poetry and prose and has written for 10 years in the annually published Lived Experience of Lillooet B.C.
The Cariboo Festival 2012 wraps up with the Honours Concert taking place at Cariboo Bethel Church this Saturday night, May 5 starting at 7 p.m.