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EV-6:
Writers and poets evening
Tuesday,
August 9,
7:30
PM - 10 PM
(Meet the authors and book signing
7:30
PM - 8 PM
followed by Program
8
PM - 10 PM
),
Meeting Rooms 510a-c,
Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Organizer:
Louis
Lefebvre for the
Montreal
Local Host Committee
Description:
Ever
since the Tucson Annual Meeting in 2002, ESA has held a Tuesday evening session
devoted to the works of local area authors and poets whose works have been
inspired by nature, ecological science, or the natural environment. Usually, the
Local Host Committee invites the writers and organizes this session to showcase
the range and diversity of local authors. This
year’s event will feature readings by naturalist journalist and poet, Richard
Sommer;
Quebec
novelist/columnist, Louis Hamelin;
biologist/poet, Jan Conn; and biologist/novelist, Louis Lefebvre. Attendees
will be able to purchase books after hearing authors read some of their works
and talk about their inspiration. This session is also open to the public. Light
refreshments will be served during the book sales and signings.
 Richard
Sommer has taught creative writing
at
Concordia
University
. He is the author of many books of poetry
and works part time as a volunteer game warden. He has also been a key player in
one of the most important environmental battles in Québec, the
Mount
Pinnacle
development project in Frelighsburg. The
battle has been the subject of an NFB documentary and has recently made
headlines after a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the town’s right to limit
development.
 Louis
Hamelin is one the major
francophone novelists in Québec. He initially studied biology, but soon
switched to full-time writing when his first novel La Rage, based on
Ottawa
’s expropriation of farmland to create the
much-maligned Mirabel airport, won the highest literary award in
Canada
, the Governor General’s. He has published
several novels and writes a weekly column on American fiction in the
newspaper Le Devoir.
 Jan
Conn is both a research biologist
at the
Wadsworth
Center
in
Albany
,
New York
, where she and her lab investigate mosquito
population genetics, and an award-winning poet. She has published five books of
poetry, most recently Beauties on Mad River, Véhicule Press, in 2000.
Amazonia
won second prize for poetry in the CBC
literary competition in 2003. Her sixth book, Jaguar Rain, about the
British-born Amazonian botanical illustrator and naturalist Margaret Mee, is
forthcoming from Brick Books in 2006.
 This
evening session is organized by Louis Lefebvre, who is professor of
biology at McGill University. In addition to research papers on cognition in
birds, he has published three novels: Le Collier d'Hurracan (1990; new
edition 2004, Boréal Compact), Guanahani (1992, Boréal), and Table
Rase (2004, Boréal). A fourth novel, Le troisième ange à gauche,
is due to come out in the fall of 2005.
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