DUCKS
DUCKS
by author Kate Beaton
Read by Yvonne Pelletier
Before Kate Beaton became the New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, she was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, resident of a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush and encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence, yet is never discussed.
Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.
Yvonne Pelletier reads Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, representing the community of West Grey.
E. Yvonne Pelletier moved to the Grey-Bruce area in 2018 after several years in academia. A specialist in nineteenth-century transatlantic literature, she has taught poetry, the novel, creative writing, film and literary theory at the University of Tennessee and the University of Minnesota. Yvonne has published articles and presented papers on a variety of topics, including travel narratives, culinary aesthetics, road trips and confidence games. She received her PhD in English from the University of Toronto; prior to that, she worked in advertising in Chicago and Toronto. She is the Coordinating Director of the Words Aloud Poetry Festival and is currently working as a writer and editor, as well as learning the art of beekeeping. Always seeking to become more active in local arts and literary communities, Yvonne also serves on the boards of the West Grey Public library and the Durham Art Gallery. She has always been an avid reader, both on the job and off, and is delighted to participate in West Grey Reads this year.
More to come.
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