Sherbrooke,
October 4, 2023. Invited
authors Mark Abley and Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt are to be featured at
a Books & Brunch offered by the Townships
Sun.
The free event is Sunday, October 15, in Lennoxville.

Mark
Abley

Mark
Abley will be talking about his most recent book, Strange Bewildering
Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail
(House of Anansi Press, 2023).

As
a young man in 1978, he made a three-month journey with a friend.
Based on his meticulous journals, Strange Bewildering Time chronicles
his own rite of passage, “a transformative time,” and also
reflects on the complex politics of the region and the long-term
impact of the “hippie trail.” This acclaimed book combines
memoir and literary travel for a fascinating read.

Ably
is a well-known and thoughtful writer and poet living in Montreal. He
has authored eight books of nonfiction, four of poetry, and two
children’s books, and many articles in the Montreal Gazette. He grew
up in western Canada, and won both a Rhodes Scholarship and a
Guggenheim Fellowship. He also won the National Newspaper Award for
critical writing, and received an honorary doctorate from the
University of Saskatchewan.

Tanya
Bellehumeur-Allatt

In
1982, Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt’s family took her to Israel and
Lebanon where her father was a United Nations peacekeeper during a
tumultuous time of civil war, a wave of terrorism, the murder of
thousands of Palestinians, and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Like
Abley, Bellehumeur-Allatt is also a poet and wrote a detailed journal
during her journey. Peacekeeper’s Daughter: A Middle East Memoir
(Thistledown, 2021) tells her story in hair-raising detail,
interweaving family dynamics from her perspective as a 12-year-old
and “the shattering effects of violence and war.”

Now
a Townshipper, Bellehumeur-Allatt has an MA in English Literature
from McGill University and an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. and
also recently published a book of poetry, Chaos Theories of Goodness
(Shoreline Press, 2022), in addition to short stories and creative
nonfiction appearing in a variety of publications.

Books
& Brunch

This
is the first of the Townships
Sun‘s
series of literary community get-togethers for book lovers, offering
a chance to chat with selected authors. The Books & Brunch is 11
a.m. to 2 p.m., with Abley and Bellehumeur-Allatt to speak between
12:30 and 1:30 p.m.

“So
we can plan the brunch and because seating is limited, we ask people
attending to please reserve by emailing TownshipsSunRSVP@gmail.com,”
said organizer Angela Leuck.