BOOK LAUNCH – Bird Calls: The Island Responds (December 2016)
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 | 7 p.m.
Upstreet Craft Brewing,
Allen Street, Charlottetown
Launch of Bird Calls: The Island Responds, by Jane Ledwell
In 1854 British travel writer Isabella Lucy Bird visited Prince Edward Island for six weeks and published an account of her stay here that was both scathing and charming. Paris may be the gayest city in the world, she wrote, and London the richest, but Charlottetown was “the most gossiping.”
“I never saw a community,” she continued,” in which people appear to hate each other so cordially.”
Contemporary Island poet Jane Ledwell was both fascinated and exasperated by Bird’s haughty, privileged judgement and decided to “write back” – 160 years later. The result is Bird Calls, the latest title published by Island Studies Press at UPEI.
Bird Calls weaves the travel prose of Isabella Lucy Bird with Ledwell’s poems written in response, and delivers an intriguing conversation for the reader which contrasts PEI then and now, and showcases the talents of two accomplished writers, from very different generations.
Bird Calls was launched Wednesday evening, December 14, at Upstreet Craft Brewery on Allen St., Charlottetown.
The book is available in local bookstores, and the UPEI bookstore.
Click here for more details and to purchase a copy
For more information contact Island Studies Press: ispstaff@upei.ca.