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ALISON WATT's BOOKS:

THE LAST ISLAND - A naturalist's sojourn on Triangle Island
CIRCADIA - A book of poetry


Alison Watt’s first book The Last Island – a Naturalist’s Sojourn on Triangle Island, is an attempt to recall and share the summer she spent with Anne Vallée, a serious young biologist whose dedication to her field made her a formidable and inspiring mentor. The book, written in diary form, recounts the author’s initial time on the island and her secondary visit 16 years later, following Vallée’s death. The author returned to continue her research of Vallée’s work and was flooded by memories of their time together.

Published by Harbour Publishing in 2002, it won the Edna Staebler Award for a first or second book of Canadian non-fiction: “The judges felt The Last Island was a beautiful and emotional blending of native legends, evolutionary theory, scientific knowledge and an appreciation for the delicate balance of life,” says Staebler award administrator Kathryn Wardropper. “The beautiful language combined with the watercolour paintings transports the reader to the island.”

Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Event, Room of One’s Own, Arc, and the League of Canadian Poets Anthologies. She has won the Backwater Review and subTerrain magazines’ poetry prizes and placed second in Prairie Fire’s Bliss Carmen competition. Her poems have also appeared in two chapbooks “Poems from the Basement” and “The Invention of Birds”, published by Leaf Press.

Alison's first book of poetry, Circadia has just come out with Pedlar Press. One of Alison’s paintings appears on the cover of this book; her meticulous drawings of small ordinary objects are scattered through the text. 

Presently she is working on an historical fiction set in 1920’s – the story of a young woman who has survived the Halifax explosion, a Shetland mariner who has endured the convoys of the First World War and the disappearance of his ship, loaded with old growth timber bound for Australia, shortly after their marriage and immigration to North Vancouver.

 

 
 

 

 

 

NEWS AND EVENTS

 

The Last Island
can be purchased for $32 + shipping.
Contact Alison to order.

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Circadia can be purchased for $20 + shipping. Contact Alison to order.

 

 

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copyright © 2005 alison watt