{"id":3561,"date":"2018-03-21T18:57:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T18:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.library.ualberta.ca\/ualbertapressblog\/2018\/03\/21\/alice-major-launches-welcome-to-the-anthropocene\/"},"modified":"2018-12-20T10:15:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T17:15:54","slug":"alice-major-launches-welcome-to-the-anthropocene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.library.ualberta.ca\/ualbertapressblog\/2018\/03\/21\/alice-major-launches-welcome-to-the-anthropocene\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice Major Launches "Welcome to the Anthropocene""},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 1st we launched\u00a0Welcome to the Anthropocene<\/em><\/a> at the University of Alberta Conservatory with great success.\u00a0More than 70 eager readers gathered to celebrate Alice Major’s 11th poetry collection; they were welcomed by Sharon Morsink, Associate Professor at the\u00a0Faculty of Science – Physics. Peter Midgley, Senior Editor at UAP<\/a> said a few words about Alice in introduction.<\/p>\n

Duane Froese<\/a>, Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, provided a little background on the Anthropocene \u2013 what is it? How do we know we\u2019re in it? We learned that most of the audience will have been born before the start of the Anthropocene, which may well be determined to be 1964 \u2014 when there was significant above-ground nuclear testing, with concomitant results in the Earth’s crust.<\/p>\n

Alice’s reading was most enjoyable: she was informative, serious, and sometimes also made us laugh. After the science and poetry, there was an opportunity to step outside and take a look at the stars. Unfortunately, the moon was hiding.<\/p>\n

A reception, book sales, and author signings followed.<\/p>\n

There were some great media sidenotes to the launch… The event made it onto the Edmonton Journal<\/em>‘s Top Ten Things to Do<\/a>, Codie\u00a0McLachlan took great photos to post to the\u00a0Social Seen<\/a> column,\u00a0and\u00a0Global TV sent a camera to take some footage. Finally,\u00a0Welcome to the Anthropocene<\/em> hit number 1 on Edmonton’s Bestsellers list on March 11 \u2014 a rare position for a book of poetry, but well deserved!<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Alice<\/a> and a large thank you to all the organizers and attendees. A special thanks goes to Audreys Books<\/a>, Edmonton’s Independent Bookseller.<\/p>\n