Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities

Two of Canada’s most acclaimed and knowledgeable science writers open the Spring Edition with a special Earth Day discussion on water -- the true lungs of the planet -- and the environmental impact of human activity in altering the temperature, salinity, acidity, ice cover, volume, and circulation ... (more)of the seas, and, of course, the life within them. Wayne Grady, the general editor of this series of literary anthologies devoted to the world’s natural wonders including The Sea: A Literary Companion, is the winner of three Science in Society awards from the Canadian Science Writers’ Association. His most recent book is The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region. Alanna Mitchell was the science and environment reporter at the Globe and Mail for fourteen years and is an associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Named the best environmental reporter in the world by the Reuters Foundation in 2000, her latest book is Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis.

The twin crises of climate change and peaking oil production are converging on us. If they are not to cook the planet and topple our civilization, we will need informed and decisive policies, clear-sighted innovation, and a lucid understanding of what is at stake. We depend on carbon energy to fuel our ... (more)complex economies and societies, and at the same time this very carbon is fatally contaminating our atmosphere. We still have a chance to tackle two monumental challenges with one innovative solution: clean, low-carbon energy. Join editor Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Ingenuity Gap and The Upside of Down, and contributor William Marsden, author of Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn’t Seem to Care) for a conversation on their new book Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future.

Join two stellar poets for a team Masterclass on poetry. Jeramy Dodds, recently shortlisted for the Griffin Prize, and Matthew Tierney, author of The Hayflick Unit and Full speed through the morning dark, for an exploration of the intersection of science and poetry.

A look inside the culture of online diaries, amateur broadcasters, and “social networking sites.” Once there was no text messaging. No email and no social network sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. The way we live has apparently been transformed by new ways of communicating. But where did these ... (more)trends start? And if they can change our behaviour, can they also change the way we think? In Cyburbia James Harkin describes how the architecture of our digital lives was built over seventy years. Gripping, revelatory and fiercely intelligent, this extraordinary book will change forever the way you think about everything you do.

Le Guin leads an intensely private life, with sporadic forays into political activism and steady participation in the literary community of her city. Having taught writing workshops from Vermont to Australia, she is now retired from teaching. She limits her public appearances mostly to the West Coast. ... (more)This visit to Ottawa is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear this extraordinary writer, whose work has had a profound impact on the lives and art of millions. Tickets are available online at www.writersfestival.org and by phone at 613-562-1243. Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for students and seniors, and free for Festival Members and Carleton University students (please call or email leslie@writersfestival.org to reserve your ticket.) Also see Facebook event http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid...

Tickets: $20 / $15 Student or Senior Free for Festival Members and Carleton Students “Put Cormac Mccarthy, Franz Kafka and Benny Hill together in a Brighton seaside guesthouse, and they might just come up with Bunny Munro…. this novel [is] the work of one of the great cross-genre storytellers of ... (more)our age.” — IRVINE WELSH Twenty years after the publication of his first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, Nick Cave brings us The Death Of Bunny Munro, the story of a salesman in search of a soul. At turns dark and humane—and with all the mystery and enigma fans will recognize as Cave’s singular vision—The Death of Bunny Munro questions the nature of sin and redemption, and lays bare the imprints that fathers leave on their sons.

Tickets: $20 /$15 Student or Senior Free for Festival Members and Carleton Students The Canadian Premiere of an innovative multi-disciplinary literary event directed by Janet Irwin. Featuring the iconic author as narrator, Mary Ellis as Toby, Todd Duckworth as Adam One and Kate Smith as Ren. Songs of ... (more)the Gardeners performed by the Calixa Lavallee Ensenble and conducted by Mark Wilkinson. Special VIP Tickets including an organic pre-show feast also available. Funds raised will be used to purchase permanent bicycle parking at Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts and Humanities. (go to website for menu)

Join Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother, for a look at what could happen when security and individual freedom clash, and how one tech-savvy teenager fights back.

Tickets: $15 /$10 Student or Senior Free for Festival Members and Carleton Students From the bestselling author of A History of God and The Great Transformation comes a balanced, nuanced understanding of the role religion plays in human life and the trajectory of faith in modern times.

Hosted by Jay Ingram... Tim Flannery is one of Australia’s leading thinkers and writers. An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, Tim’s books include the definitive ecological histories of Australia (The Future Eaters) and North America (The Eternal Frontier). He has ... (more)published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers. As a field zoologist he has discovered and named more than thirty new species of mammals (including two tree-kangaroos) and at 34 he was awarded the Edgeworth David Medal for Outstanding Research. His pioneering work in New Guinea prompted Sir David Attenborough to put him in the league of the world’s great explorers and the writer Redmond O’Hanlon to remark, “He’s discovered more new species than Charles Darwin.”

For more information contact the Ottawa International Writers Festival. She is also appearing at 8:30pm: EXTRAORDINARY CANADIANS Daniel Poliquin, Jane Urquhart and Mark Kingwell Hosted by John Ralston Saul