Award-winning author and Gazette columnist Mark Abley has been appointed as the first-ever writer-in-residence at the Pointe Claire Library.
"I’m very pleased. This represents a commitment by the city of Pointe Claire as well as the Conseil des Arts de Montreal to support a program like this," said Abley, whose column on language appears every second Saturday in The Gazette.
"I’m very much looking forward to this," Abley, a Rhodes Scholar and long-time Pointe Claire resident, added.
Abley, who worked for 16 years as a feature writer and book-review editor at The Gazette, has won many awards, among them the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. He has also been short listed for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal.
Mary Jane O’Neill, section manager of adult programs at the Pointe Claire library, said they were proud to have a writer of Abley’s calibre as the first-ever writer-in-residence.
"It’s exciting for us to have him share his expertise with West Islanders," O’Neill said.
During his term as writer-in-residence, Abley will compile and edit The City We Share, a collection of writings about Pointe Claire written by the people who live and work there.
As well, he will edit portions of local writers’ own works in progress and participate in activities organized by the library to promote writing, reading and literacy.
For an appointment with Abley, contact him by email at ableym@ville.pointe-claire.qc.ca or call the library and leave a message for him at 514-630-1218, Ext. 2209.
- Alycia Ambroziak, The Montreal Gazette
Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Gazette+columnist+named+writer+residence+Pointe+Claire/3498487/story.html
