Events
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Montreal Author Ann Lambert - Social Justice issues and Creative Writing
Time: 12pm EST
The MCW is excited to welcome Montreal novelist Ann Lambert as our guest speaker. Ann will discuss her work with a focus on her most recent novel The Dogs of Winter. Her talk will address the challenge she takes on when weaving social justice issues into a story:
“I have always, as a playwright and now novelist, tried to weave individual stories into a larger historical, political and cultural backdrop, hopefully in ways that broaden our experience through the juxtaposition of the personal and political,” said Lambert. In The Dogs of Winter, among other hot button topics we gain insights into current Indigenous issues, from the tragedy experienced by Joyce Echaquan to disputed calls of systemic racism to the delayed action of the Viens Commission’s report. Lambert examines all this through the eyes of both Francophone and Anglophone characters, beautifully interweaving a captivating plot with both sensitivity and humour (including fun Québécois expressions).
Registration
About Our Speaker
Ann Lambert
Ann Lambert’s first novel, The Birds That Stay, was published in 2019 and was a finalist for the Concordia Best First Book Prize. Her second book in the Russell and Leduc series, The Dogs of Winter, came out in October, 2020. Ann has written over 25 stage and radio plays which have been produced in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia. In Montreal, she has worked with The Centaur Theatre, Infinitheatre, Mainline Theatre, and Right Now! the company she co-founded with Laura Mitchell. She just retired after 30 years of teaching English Literature at Dawson College where she also wrote, directed and produced over a dozen shows with The Dawson Theatre Collective. Ann, along with Alice Abracen, Laura Mitchell and Danielle Szydlowski is the c0-founder of Theatre Ouest End in Montreal, which was launched in the spring of 2019. Ann is the former head of The Playwriting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada. Ann is also the vice-president of The Theresa Foundation (www.theresafoundation.com), dedicated to supporting AIDS-orphaned children and their grandmothers, the education of Malawian girls, and alleviating food insecurity in several villages in Malawi, Africa.