WORD VANCOUVER 20 TALK | Exploring the Multiverse: Poetry, Science, and the Environment

Free virtual event | Registration required

Lynn Quarmby, author of Watermelon Snow: Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear, joins poets and writers with diverse backgrounds in science and art to explore the impact of science in the interconnected world. They look at the response to environmental threats such as global warming and loss of biodiversity, and how this influences creative lives and work.

Lynne Quarmby is professor of cell biology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University.

This event is part of Word Vancouver 2020 Festival, running 19-27 September 2020.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Watermelon Snow weaves memoir, microbiology, and artistic antics together with descriptions of a sublime Arctic landscape. At the top of the warming world, Quarmby struggles with burnout and grief while an aerial artist twirls high in the ship's rigging, bearded seals sing mournfully, polar bears prowl, and glaciers crumble into the sea. In a compelling narrative, sorrow and fear are balanced by beauty and wonder. The author's journey back from a life out of balance includes excursions into evolutionary history where her discoveries reveal the heart of human existence. The climate realities are as dark as the Arctic winter, yet this is a book of lightness and generosity. Quarmby's voice, intimate and original, illuminates the science while offering a reminder that much about the human experience is beyond reason.