Ladner author Nina Munteanu will read from her latest book and host a discussion at Stir Coffee House in Ladner Village next week.
Water Is has received much praise throughout the literary world since Munteanu released the book last year. It has been an Amazon bestseller for months and Margaret Atwood named it as her number one choice to read in The Year in Reading in the New York Times.
“We can't live without it, so maybe we should start respecting it. This beautifully designed book by a limnologist looks at water from 12 different angles, from life and motion and vibration to beauty and prayer,” Atwood stated.
The Stir Coffee House event is set for Thursday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m.
Munteanu was your typical Ladner parent raising a son alongside a slough into which he could dive when the water wasn’t filled with fertilizers.
“I knew about things like that and to check tide tables because I’m a limnologist (someone who studies freshwater),” she says. “I always wanted to write. Most of my writing is eco-fiction, which blends my love of storytelling with my love for nature and the environment.”
Her first book, Darwin’s Paradox, started her career in the science fiction genre.
“I moved on to write a book for writers, other speculative fiction and then came back to water in my publication Water Is … The Meaning of Water,” she says. “My short story The Way of Water has been making the rounds in magazines and anthologies in North America and Europe. It’s a dystopia about Canadian water in the near future and explores dire possibilities in geo-politics, corporate corruption and deception.”
Her upcoming novel A Diary in the Age of Water arose from the short story.
“You could say that I have water on the brain,” she says.
Her upcoming discussion at Stir Coffee House is one of many she has given throughout Canada — from Grade 8 ecology classes in Mississauga to corporate citizen groups in Langley.
“All share a common directive - to stir interest in our precious resource and to provide a new perspective on a substance Canadians tend to take for granted - at our own peril,” she says. “Through readings and discussion I will share personal stories as a mother, environmentalist and scientist.”
When she’s not writing, Munteanu teaches during the winter at the University of Toronto and spends her summers in Ladner.
