Lucky Budd

Robert "Lucky" Budd is a Canadian author, oral historian, and radio host known for books based on the oral histories and cultural heritage of British Columbia. He has collaborated with Canadian artist Roy Henry Vickers on a number of illustrated books.

Early life and education Budd received the nickname "Lucky" from his brother soon after his birth, and later adopted it as his preferred moniker. He moved to Victoria from Toronto in 1995 after completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in humanities from the University of Victoria and touring with a rock band. In 2002, he returned to the University of Victoria, where he completed a Master of Arts degree in history.

Career In 2000, Budd worked on the preservation and digitization of historical audio archives connected to British Columbia oral history collections, including recordings related to Nisga'a First Nation heritage. He later developed projects based on those recordings, including the books Voices of British Columbia: Stories from our Frontier (2010) Voices of British Columbia was nominated for a 2010 BC Book Prize.

Both publications were released alongside collections of archival pioneer recordings and were based in part on research connected to Budd’s master’s thesis and preservation work involving the audio archives. The books also appeared on Canadian national bestseller lists. Echoes of British Columbia received second prize for the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing in 2014.

Budd hosts the CBC Radio series Voices of B.C., which features recordings and stories related to B.C. pioneers collected by journalist Imbert Orchard during the 1950s and 1960s.

He is also the author of Ted Harrison Collected and served as project manager for the book Storyteller: The Art Of Roy Henry Vickers.

In October 2017, Budd's son Levi produced a short video related to the term Levidrome. According to reports at the time, Oxford Dictionary was considering the term for possible inclusion.

Collaborations with Roy Henry Vickers In 2013 Budd co-authored Raven Brings the Light with Roy Henry Vickers, who contributed 19 original art pieces to the book. Budd and Vickers continued their collaboration with the books Cloudwalker (2014), Orca Chief (2015), and Peace Dancer (2016). These books, sometimes referred to collectively as the Northwest Coast Legends Series, and was nominated for the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award and the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize.

In 2017, Budd and Vickers collaborated on the words board book Hello Humpback!, a board book on the landscapes and wildlife of the northwestern Canada. The book later appeared on British Columbia bestseller lists. They followed with One Eagle Soaring, the second volume in their First West Coast Books series. The book received a Moonbeam gold medal and was nominated for a BC book prize.

Also in 2018, Budd and Vickers released Voices from Skeena, a book centered on the Skeena River region of northwestern British Columbia. Voices from Skeena included interviews with Indigenous communities and early settlers connected to the region. It was later nominated for a BC Book Prize.

In 2019, Budd wrote a board book, Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue, which follows the shifting spectrum of the Pacific Northwest. It won the gold for Budd and Vickers at the 2019 Moonbeam Awards. Budd and Vickers followed with the book Raven Squawk, Orca Squeak in 2020. It appeared as the #2 bestseller of 2020 in British Columbia.

In 2021, they published their 11th book, A Is for Anemone; a children's book focused on literacy and the natural world. The book was nominated for a BC Book Prize in the Bill Duthie category. Budd also served as the project editor on the Roy Henry Vickers book Ben The Sea Lion, released in 2022. The book was later nominated for the 2022 Silver Birch Express Award and 2022 Shining Willow Award .