Listening to the Bees

Listening to the Bees is a collaborative exploration by two writers to illuminate the most profound human questions: Who are we? Who do we want to be in the world?

Through the distinct but complementary lenses of science and poetry, Mark Winston and Ren e Saklikar reflect on the tension of being an individual living in a society, and about the devastation wrought by overly intensive management of agricultural and urban habitats.

Listening to the Bees takes readers into the laboratory and out to the field, into the worlds of scientists and beekeepers, and to meetings where the research community intersects with government policy and business. The result is an insiders' view of the way research is conducted--its brilliant potential and its flaws--along with the personal insights and remarkable personalities experienced over a forty-year career that parallels the rise of industrial agriculture.

Mark Winston is the recipient of the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-fiction for his book Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive. One of the world's leading experts on bees and pollination, Dr. Winston is also an internationally recognized researcher, teacher and writer. He directed Simon Fraser University's Centre for Dialogue for twelve years, where he founded the Centre's Semester in Dialogue.

Renée Saklikar's ground-breaking poetry book about the bombing of Air India Flight 182, children of air india, won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Prize. Trained as a lawyer, Saklikar is a mentor and instructor for SFU's writing and publishing program, as well as the city of Surrey's first Poet Laureate. She is the co-founder of the poetry reading series Lunch Poems at SFU and has served for two years as a national advocate for The Writer's Union of Canada. Saklikar is currently serving as the Writer in Residence for UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, BC.