Writers Read at Concordia is pleased to announce a special cross-genre reading with authors Julie Salverson and Peter C. van Wyck, January 27th, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. in the York Amphitheatre (EV. 1.605), 1515 Ste. Catherine West. In their respective works—libretto and historical non-fiction—Salverson and van Wyck explore Canada’s hidden role in one of history’s most destructive acts of war: a subarctic mine in the Northwest Territories provided Canadian uranium for the bombs detonated over Japan in August 1945. The two authors will offer a collaborative reading, followed by a Q&A moderated by series curator Sina Queyras.

Julie Salverson writes plays, essays and libretti, and has published extensively about the artist as witness, historical memory, ethics and the imagination. Her feature “They Never Told Us These Things” appeared in Maisonneuve Magazine (Summer 2011). Shelter, her clown opera about the atomic bomb (libretto) will premiere with Edmonton Opera in November, 2012. Julie teaches drama at Queen’s University.

Peter C. van Wyck is a writer, researcher and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. He is author of The Highway of the Atom (McGill-Queen’s, 2010), a methodological and historical study tracing origins of the atomic bomb in Canada’s North; Signs of Danger: Waste, Trauma, and Nuclear Threat (Minnesota, 2005); and Primitives in the Wilderness: Deep Ecology and the Missing Human Subject (SUNY, 1997).