Join FBC Toronto for a virtual event with award-winning author Merilyn Simonds, author of Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay, on September 6th from 7-8pm Eastern time. To RSVP, please visit the FBC Toronto or MailChimp Registration page.

“Referred to as a Canadian Rachel Carson, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence lived and worked in an isolated log cabin near North Bay. After her husband was murdered by Bolsheviks, she refused her Swedish privilege and joined the Canadian Red Cross, visiting her northern Ontario patients by dogsled. When Elzire Dionne gave birth to five babies, Louise became nurse to the Dionne Quintuplets. Repulsed by the media circus, she retreated to her wilderness cabin, where she devoted herself to studying the birds that nested in her forest. Author of six books and scores of magazine stories, de Kiriline Lawrence and her “loghouse nest” became a Mecca for international ornithologists.

Lawrence was an old woman when Merilyn Simonds moved into the woods not far away. Their paths crossed, sparking Simonds’s lifelong interest. A dedicated birder, Simonds brings her own songbird experiences from Canadian nesting grounds and Mexican wintering grounds to this deeply researched, engaging portrait of a uniquely fascinating woman.” - ECW Press

Visit ECW Press, your local independent bookstore, or the public library to pick up your own copy of Women, Watching