Murray Walford Biography and Publishing History

I have lived in and around Edmonton, in north central Alberta, my entire life. I have a Master of Arts in Integrated Studies, and I am a Certified Professional Coactive Coach. I nourish my creative urge as a writer, philosopher poet and through the offering of seminars and workshops on creative inspiration and life purpose. However, I am also a Chartered Professional Accountant who makes a living as the Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at a post-secondary educational institution in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

I have self-published a book of poetry entitled Ever Song. It is a poetic expression of the thoughts and epiphanies residing within The Awes of Being. It is a tribute to nature and the ‘sacred’ and resonates with a profound reverence for life. I have also self-published a non-fiction novel that integrates family, western Canadian, and Scottish history. A portion of this novel was submitted as my final Master of Arts project, for which I received a mark of 95% from historian Donald Wetherell, my supervisor. I also received a scholarship from the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation to conduct the research for and write this project and novel.

For a number of years, I was a member of Edmonton’s Stroll of poets and I also attended the popular weekly Raving Poets reading series, where many of the poems in Ever Song were born. One of my poems placed seventh in a December, 2007 Edmonton Journal Poetry Contest. One of my poetic essays was published in a past issue of the Blood Ink Literary Magazine (a student run magazine with the University of Alberta). This essay and another essay in a subsequent year were presented on stage at Edmonton’s Loud and Queer Cabaret.

I also have an article published in Athabasca University’s Journal of Integrated Studies. You can find “Interdisciplinary Studies – A Creative Force”, online at https://jis.athabascau.ca/index.php/jis/article/view/26/15 . It is from this article that The Awes of Being emerged.

Another of my works was published online by the Alberta Women’s Memory Project. “Naming Time – Mountains, Trails, Rivers, Rails and Ours” is the story of my Great- Grandmother Bess Gunn, for whom Mount Bess in the Alberta Rockies was named. You can find this creative narrative under My Works."