Milton Acorn and Gwendolyn MacEwen honoured in Toronto
Prince Edward Island poet Milton Acorn and his former wife, Gwendolyn MacEwen, are being honoured with a plaque unveiling Friday on Toronto Island.
The pair were both famous writers who met and married in Toronto.
The idea for the memorial came from Toronto's current poet laureate George Elliot Clarke. He is a fellow Maritimer who is fond of the love story between these two.
"They met in Toronto. They had a brief marriage, their whirlwind love affair and both of them still went on to have very influential and very distinct literary careers in Canada," said Candice McCavitt, the plaques and markers coordinator for Heritage Toronto.
The Heritage Toronto plaque will be located in a small park which is a short distance from their former home on Second Street on Ward's Island.
Acorn and MacEwen lived there because it was one of the more affordable places to live in the city at that time.
The couple were married a year said McAvitt.
"Acorn won a number of awards, was presented with the first People's Poet Award or medal in 1970. They both won Governor Generals Awards," she said.
MacEwen published more than 20 books before her death in 1987.
Acorn died a year earlier in 1986.
