Ontario Scene Presents Close to Home with Rhonda Douglas, Helen Humphreys and James Bartleman
Hosted by Carleton University’s Susan Birkwood
Absorbing, richly characterized, and marked by smart, delightful twists and turns, the novel’s fruitful visitation of war and its aftermath never fails to captivate. If there is such a thing as a cultural vocabulary of war, Humphreys adds welcome new words to it.
From our bedrooms to the boardroom, from battlefields to hospital waiting rooms, conflict is our constant companion. We welcome three acclaimed Ontario authors for a session on war, peace, and the spaces between the two.
In her collection Welcome to the Circus, Ottawa’s Rhonda Douglas offers ten strikingly original stories that explore love and escape. Helen Humphreys, winner of Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, presents The Evening Chorus, a brilliant, beautiful evocation of place and a natural history of both war and the human heart. And in Exceptional Circumstances, former lieutenant-governor of Ontario James Bartleman plots a turbulent thriller set in 1970 and based on events he witnessed first-hand.