Canadian By Nature

Don Gayton is UVic’s 2009 Haig-Brown Centenary Writer-in-Residence

One of Canada’s most acclaimed nature writers, Don Gayton, is the University of Victoria’s Haig-Brown Centenary Writer-in-Residence. The position was created in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roderick Haig-Brown—noted author, conservationist, magistrate, and former UVic chancellor.

In this position, Gayton will be devoting time to mentoring young or beginning writers whose interests are both literary and ecological, and will also be participating in a number of public events. He will deliver the 2009 Haig-Brown public lecture “Canadian by Nature: Conflict and Paradox in our Relationship to the Natural World” at UVic on Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Harry Hickman Building, room 105. Admission is free.

“The UVic Faculty of Fine Arts is pleased to work with community and university partners to bring excellent nature writers to Victoria,” says Dean of Fine Arts Sarah Blackstone. “Building on the university’s focus on sustainability and research into environmental issues, the Haig-Brown lectures will bring new cultural and artistic perspectives to discussions around these concerns.”

Gayton is the author of four books, including Interwoven Wild, Kokanee, Landscapes of the Interior and The Wheatgrass Mechanism and writes for such popular magazines as Canadian Geographic and Equinox. He lives in the Okanagan, where he works as a grassland ecologist. He has also lived and worked in the western United States and South America.

The late cultural historian Thomas Berry described Gayton as “someone who has lived intimately and thought deeply about the mountains and forests and rivers and wildlife of this continent.”

The Faculty of Fine Arts is seeking donations from individuals and businesses to bring a visiting environmental writer to UVic every year. In 2008, poet and essayist Sean Virgo was the Haig-Brown Centenary Lecturer.

A photo of Don Gayton is available upon request.

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