With the new academic year about to start, SFU Library has announced its first non-fiction writer in residence.

This new initiative is part of an effort to help share academic knowledge, including research and scholarship stories, beyond academia and reach broader audiences.

SFU Library’s non-fiction writer in residence for 2020-2021 will be one of the world’s top experts on bees and pollination: Mark L. Winston, an SFU Centre for Dialogue professor and senior fellow, and biological sciences professor.

Winston was the director of the Centre for Dialogue for 12 years, and founded the Semester in Dialogue program that empowers students as leaders to address community issues. His career has included researching, teaching, writing, and commenting on agriculture, environmental issues, and science policy.

He is also an editor and writer, whose work has been published in books, magazines, and news publications—including the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, The Sciences, and Orion—and has appeared on CBC radio and television and National Public Radio.

In 2015, he received Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction for Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive. In addition, he received the Independent Publishers 2019 Gold Medal for Listening to the Bees, which he co-authored with poet Renée Saklikar.

As a writer in residence, Winston will offer a workshop series about non-fiction writing for the public, showcase non-fiction writing at public events, and provide manuscript consultations.  

More details are available at the SFU Library website.