Chantal Ringuet er gestahöfundur Bókmenntaborgarinnar Reykjavíkur nú í október. Hún segir frá verki sem hún vinnur nú að í Mengi miðvikudaginn 23. október kl. 17:30.
Verið hjartanlega velkomin á þennan fría viðburð sem verður á ensku.

Meet Chantal Ringuet, the Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature writer-in-residence. This event is open to all and free of charge. In English.

What if the trees were looking at us? How would that modify our vision of the world and of the environment? Can we reinvent the founding narratives of the Western world (such as the Bible and Homerus’ Odyssey) in a twenty-first century treeless landscape?

In this talk, Chantal will present her current project, a poetic odyssey which deals with landscapes threatened or destroyed by war, genocide and disasters. From a post-world war II Europe in ruins to a present-day tormented America, she will stress the powerful relationship between words and images (through Don McCullin’s photographs), while addressing the necessity to give voice to those who are victims – from “minorities” to ordinary people. Nowadays, as we are facing dramatic issues of climate change, this definition must be extended to trees, forests and lakes. Questioning a sense of exile and belonging in our twenty-first century world, this project will explore treelessness as a mode of being that welcomes the sacred as a “secret chord” (Leonard Cohen). As the narrator follows an intimate voice that no longer belongs to a prophet or a saint, she transports readers across wide spans of history, geography, spirituality and contemplation.

Chantal is Reykjavík‘s first invited writer-in-residence from another UNESCO City of Literature. She is a French speaking Canadian, born and raised in Québec City, a UNESCO City of Literature since 2017, but now lives in Montréal. Chantal is an award-winning author, scholar and translator. She has published two collections of poems, Le sang des ruines (2009 Jacques-Poirier literary award) and Under the Skin of War (inspired by the photographs of Don McCullin, BuschekBooks, 2013) and is the co-editor of the collective work Les révolutions de Leonard Cohen (PUQ, 2016), which received a 2017 Canadian Jewish Literary Award.