The sleepy village of Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean, NWT (photos by Nina Munteanu)
.
A few years ago, I travelled to the village Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories on the Arctic Ocean. I was researching my upcoming eco-fiction book Thalweg with Inanna Publications (scheduled for release in early 2027). I drove with my friend Anne Voute; we rented a Dodge Dakota truck and drove the Dempster Highway north from Inuvik and the recently completed NWT Highway 10 (completed in 2017), which provides the remaining 140 km stretch to the Arctic Ocean.
.
Black spruce forest along the Dempster Highway north of Fort McPherson, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Highway 10 to Tuk winds through the tundra and Husky Lakes, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
In Thalweg, main character Bobby-Jo is a Gwich’in limnologist who grew up in Fort McPherson in the Arctic Circle, land of permafrost.
.
Poster Child of Permafrost
Ibyuk Pingo, near Tuk, NWT (photo shot from Cessna 172 by Adam Jones, 2013; Wikipedia Commons)
.
The poster child of permafrost is the conical ice-cored pingo, common in the Pleistocene Coastal Plain. Pingo is an Inuit word that means conical hill.
Pingos form when a mass of water is trapped beneath permafrost under pressure. Also called hydrolaccoliths, these huge mounds of earth with ice cores can reach up to 70 meters in height and 600 meters in diameter. Pingos usually grow a few centimeters a year, with the largest having taken decades or even centuries to form. Pingos eventually break down and collapse. They collapse when the ice core melts. This may happen when cracks form on the sides of the pingo that may reach down as far as the ice core, exposing the ice to warm air and sunlight. Once the core completely thaws, what remains is a doughnut-shaped ring of raised tundra enclosing a small round lake. Evidence of collapsed pingos in an area suggests that there was once permafrost there.
Hydrostatic (closed-system) Pingo (illustration by E. Ginn, 2021)
Development of closed-system pingo (illustration by Encyclopedia Brittanica)
Map of major pingos in the Tuk area, NWT (pingos marked with black semi-circle)
.
One quarter of the world’s pingos, more than fourteen hundred of them, are in the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, part of the Mackenzie Delta of the Northwest Territories of Canada. The Inuvialuit and their Thule ancestors used these cone-like hills as navigational landmarks or lookouts when looking for caribou or whales. Hunters also used hollow pingos to freeze meat.
.
Ibyuk and Split Pingos (photos by National Air Photo Library, Ottawa)
.
Pingo National Landmark protects eight pingos with the most famous being Ibyuk and Split. Ibyuk is about 50 meters high; it is the tallest pingo in Canada and the second tallest in the world and estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. It is also the world’s largest growing pingo, up to recently growing at a rate of about half a centimeter per year. With ongoing climate change, this is also changing. A local information sign in Tuk mentioned that Ibyuk Pingo has stopped growing and is beginning to slump, which is changing its shape. Kilutqusiaq—Peninsula Point—is a pingo on the coast that is almost completely eaten away by erosion: having eroded about 35 metres since 2004.
.
Pingos viewed across tundra near Tuk, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Climate change in the Arctic has caused some permafrost thaw slumps on lake shores, rivers and coastlines; shoreline erosion and sea level rise has swallowed buildings and cultural sites in the Tuk area. Kilutqusiaq—Peninsula Point—is a pingo on the coast that is almost completely eaten away by erosion: having eroded about 35 metres since 2004.
.
Tuk sign on warming climate impact on pingos
.
In the time of the novel—2050s—hundreds of pingos near Tuktoyaktuk are caving in and forming circular ponds due to climate change. Giant ice-pimples are exploding as methane-rich gas hydrates decompose and form pressure bombs of combustible methane. The subsidence creates huge sink holes as wide as a house and deeper than hell.
.
Thalweg
Ibyuk Pingo seen from nearby sandspit, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
During her travels, Bobby-Jo thinks of her Inuvialuit friend Mary Steen in Tuk where giant pingos are thawing and exploding—thanks to climate change and permafrost thaw.
When we were kids, Mary took me up the Ibyuk Pingo, the giant cone mountain over a thousand years old. It’s the second highest in the world at forty-nine metres high and three hundred metres across and was still growing a few centimeters a year at its centre—despite the warming climate. Ibyuk is a hydrostatic pingo, which means it formed in an area of continuous permafrost and grew up from a large thermokarst lake. Expelled pore water from permafrost aggradation pushed up the old lake silts and sands from below, and the ice-mountain rose up like a giant frozen pimple above the ancient drained lake flats.
Ibyuk Pingo from a nearby spit of cottongrass and marsh grass, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
We shouldn’t have been there; regrowth from trampling is extremely slow, often taking over half a century. The tundra moss, lichen, shrubs and krummholtz help insulate the pingo against ice core melting. When the ice core of the ice-cone is exposed, particularly if the vegetation blanket has broken open by dilation cracks or through erosion, the ice thaws and the mountain eventually collapses. During our climb, Mary and I noticed deep furrows in the vegetated soil layer. They cut down the slope as if a giant bear had clawed it and revealed the pingo’s icy sores.
When Mary and I returned to Tuk from our adventure, she got into trouble with her parents; someone had spotted us climbing the ice mountain and told them. I got a lecture and Mary was grounded for a week.
Because I was visiting, I was grounded alongside her. Pingos are living things, her parents told us sternly. They breathe, they grow, they shrink, they ebb and flow like water; they pulsate vertically. And we’d been in great danger. The Ibyuk Pingo was unstable—not just from a warming climate but from yahoos sliding down its steep sandy slopes and kids climbing where they shouldn’t. Did we know that the depth to its ice crust under the crater pond was shallow and fragile? When we were at the summit, the crater could have collapsed with sudden drainage of the pond and we would have disappeared in a roiling black sink hole!
When I last spoke with Mary five months ago, she told me that the area was starting to look like a moonscape, with craters everywhere. I thought of our little adventure on Ibyuk and decided that my analogy of a pimple or boil was appropriate given that pingos ruptured and flung their icy guts outward with explosive force. Mary admitted in a voice trembling with emotion that Ibyuk, the giant pingo we’d hiked up, had finally collapsed from massive coastal erosion and sea level rise. But not before it exploded.
.
.
Thalweg releases with Inanna Publications in Spring 2027.
.
Road through tundra to Tuk with pingo in background, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Glossary:
Pingo: A dome-shaped mound consisting of a layer of soil over a large core of ice in a permafrost area. Pingos form when a mass of water is trapped beneath permafrost (ground that is frozen for at least two years) under cryostatic or hydraulic pressure. One quarter of the world’s pingos are in the Tuktoyaktuk peninsula, more than fourteen hundred. Most are closed-system hydrostatic pingos, pingos formed in an area of continuous permafrost from pore water expulsion caused by permafrost aggradation at the bottom of a drained lake.
Permafrost Degradation: A naturally or artificially caused decrease in the thickness and areal extent of permafrost (Jorgenson, 2013). Widespread degradation of near-surface permafrost (40-80%) is projected by 2100 (Abbott & Jones, 2015). Release of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost is likely the largest terrestrial feedback to climate change and one of the most likely to occur (Abbott & Jones, 2015). Degradation of permafrost soils can lead to the collapse, drainage and disappearance of water bodies (Vincent et. al., 2011). Jorgenson categorized twenty-three types of permafrost degradation based on dominant ice type, hydrologic regime, heat source and mass transfer.
.
Cottongrass field with black spruce behind, off the Tuk highway, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
References:
Abbot, Benjamin W. and Jeremy B. Jones. 2015. “Permafrost collapse alters soil carbon stocks, respiration, CH4, and N2O in upland tundra.” Global Change Biology 21: 4570-4587.
Jorgenson, M.T. and T.F. Osterkamp. 2005. “Response of boreal ecosystems to varying modes of permafrost degradation.” Can. J. For. Res. 35: 2100-2111.
Jorgenson, M.T. 2013. “Thermokarst Terrains.” In: John F. Shroder (Editor-in-chief), Giardino, R., and Harbor, J. (Volume Editors). Treatise on Geomorphology, Vol 8, Glacial and Periglacial Geomorphology, San Diego. Academic Press. pp. 313-324.
Harris, S.A.., French, H.M., Heginbottom, J.A.., Johnston, G.H., Ladanyi, B., Sego, D.C., van Everdingen, R.O., (eds.). 1988. “Glossary of permafrost and related ground-ice terms.” Technical Memorandum 142, Permafrost Subcommittee, National Research Council of Canada.
Mackay, J.R. 1998. “Pingo growth and collapse, Tuktoyaktuk peninsula area, western Arctic coast, Canada: a long-term field study.” Geographie Physique Quaternaire 52(3): 1-53.
Munteanu, Nina. 2027 (upcoming release; in press). “Thalweg.” Inanna Publications, Toronto, ON.
Vincent, Warwick F., et.al. 2011. “Ecological Implications of Changes in the Arctic Cryosphere.” Ambio 30: 87-99.
Ibyuk Pingo seen from nearby grass-covered sandspit, NWT (photo by Nina Munteanu
.
Scenes from in and near Tuk: top left, cottongrass; top right, ground squirrel; bottom, tundra scattered with spruce trees along Highway 10, NWT (photos by Nina Munteanu)
.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For the lates on her books, visit www.ninamunteanu.ca. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.You can read her just released eco-fiction thriller Gaia’s Revolution by Dragon Moon Press.
I recently discovered the Polish TV series Lead Children on Netflix—and pretty much binge-watched it. This gripping 6-episode series follows young Doctor Jolanta Wadowska-Król (played by Joanna Kulig) as she gradually uncovers and pieces together a mysterious health crisis that affects children living in the district of Szopienice (in the city of Katowice) dominated by a zinc / lead smelter.
Jolanta stands at a Szopienice graveyard filled with children’s graves(“Lead Children”)
.
While the title gives away the subject matter of the series, episodes still unravel with insidious deliberation. In the first scene (after the flash forward) a young boy faints for no apparent reason, bringing our good doctor to his aid; in another scene Jolanta is wiping her filthy windows of black dust (from the nearby smelter) before visiting a pregnant mother with two anemic children who promptly gives birth to a stillborn child. We then move to a meeting of city officials who are deciding which factory Comrade General Secretary Brezhnev will visit and one official suggests the Szopienice Non-Ferrous Metal Works; the plant, he claims, has had “improvements and so forth,” that allowed it to exceed the plan for the past two months (the plan being Boleslaw Bierut’s Six-Year Plan started in 1950, for aggressively industrializing Poland through unrealistic production). All this sets the stage for a dark tale of treachery and brave but dangerous persistence to reveal the truth that will reach deep into your soul and squeeze until you are breathless.
.
Doctor Jolanta Wadowska-Króland her assistant walk through the smelter district in “Lead Children”
.
When local children begin showing signs of serious illness and developmental problems—high anemia (e.g. haemoglobin less than half normal), headaches, stomach pain, sluggishness, joint pain and muscle weakness, learning problems, hearing loss, irritability, vomiting, internal bleeding and seizures, enamel hypoplasia, blue gums—Jolanta pushes against what looks like a cover-up to investigate the unusual pattern of sicknesses.
.
Jolanta recognizes the blue-black gum line in the children as a telltale sign of chronic lead toxicity. Known as “Burton’s line”, it is caused by a chemical reaction by a high level of lead in the child’s blood and sulfur-producing bacteria in the mouth. The interaction creates insoluble lead sulfide deposits in the gum tissue, typically near the gum margin. Jolanta links the poisoning to the lead emitted from the smelter in the Targowisko neighbourhood: in the dust, in the water and the ground where people keep their gardens and children play.
Watercolour drawing of the mouth and gums of a woman who worked in a lead-mill. There is saturnine impregnation with a well-marked Burton’s line and a blue stain on the buccal membrane opposite(source: Wikipedia)
.
.
The Szopienice Non-Ferrous Metal Works (“Lead Children”)
.
Jolanta’s efforts to address the problem are met with a concerted resistance from company managers, local officials and authorities, pressured by politics and the need for production over health and welfare of the community. For instance, workers and their families, live in shabby familoks around the smelter; kids play in the dirt, beneath the billowing smoke stacks, exposed to heavy metal-contaminated ash and dust. It gets even more dangerous for Jolanta when the Polish Security Service starts to interfere. As with the Stasi situation in East Germany, citizens are regularly pressganged into denunciating targeted individuals and Jolanta is denunciated by a member of her own staff.
.
Woman and baby walks in the dust of the smelter as children play in the contaminated dirt (“Lead Children”)
.
By Episode four, the show becomes heart-breaking as the first of the children dies shortly after returning to Targowisko after a reprieve and recovery from the smelter contamination. Meantime, local Polish Communist Party leader and politburo member Zdzislaw Grudzień pressures the smelter managers to “be the best” by comparing them to a high-producing metal works in Dresden (at the time still in East Germany under the GDR); they respond by removing all the dust-catching filters to increase the draft in the chimneys. Here we also learn that the previous head engineer in charge of stack air quality had been for years using only half the filters of the sieve plates in the pneumatic dust extractor to meet productivity targets.
.
The smelter with village below (from “Lead Children”)
.
The film notes that in the 1970s lead levels around the plant exceeded safety limits a thousand fold. Recent research indicates that even though the smelter was shut down in 2008, lead levels around it still exceed the limits set by the WHO.
.
Lead Poisoning in Children and Adults: where it comes from, what it does, and where it goes
Lead Poisoning in Children (image from Pure Earth)
.
Lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems; this includes the neurological, hematological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and renal systems. According to the WHO, there is no known safe level of lead exposure. Relatively low levels of lead exposure previously considered ‘safe’ are now known to damage children’s health and impair their cognitive development. With even low-level exposure, lead is associated with brain damage, reduced IQ, decreased intelligence, learning difficulties, lower lifetime earnings, increased incidence of heart and kidney disease later in life, and increased tendency for violence.
Young children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, given that they can absorb up to 5 times as much lead as adults from an ingested dose. Children under the age of 5 years are at the greatest risk of suffering lifelong neurological, cognitive and physical damage and even death from lead poisoning. Older children as well as adults suffer severe consequences from prolonged exposure to lead in food, water and the air they breathe; this includes increased risk of cardiovascular death and kidney damage in later life. Children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning due to their smaller size and higher rate of lead absorption.
According to the WHO, once lead enters the body, it distributes to organs, including the brain, kidneys, liver and bones. Lead stores in the teeth and bones, where it accumulates over time. Lead stored in bone may release into the blood during pregnancy and expose the fetus.
Lead poisoning is not a thing of the past or restricted to communist nations. According to Pure Earth, lead exposure is responsible for an estimated 3.5 million cardiovascular deaths each year; more than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. A World Bank analysis in 2019 demonstrated that children under five years old worldwide lost 765 million IQ points from lead exposure; about 95% of IQ point loss due to lead exposure were in LMICs. Lead poisoning may also account for 20% of the education gap between high- and low-income countries.
Major sources of lead contamination include mining & smelting, manufacturing and recycling activities, and lead use in a range of products. These include lead-acid batteries for motor vehicles. Products that may contain lead include pigments, paints, solder, stained glass, lead crystal glassware, ammunition, ceramic glazes, jewelry, toys, some traditional cosmetics, and some traditional medicines. Lead may contaminate drinking water through plumbing systems that contain lead pipes, solders and fittings.
.
1970s Communist Poland
Inspired by real events from 1970s Upper Silesia during Communist‑era Poland, the TV series Lead Children showcases the atrocities committed in the name of industrial growth and production during that time.
This was a time when the Polish Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) or the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs infiltrated all elements of Polish life—not unlike the Stasi in eastern Germany—to ensure that everyone followed party dogma and the mandate of the Polish United Workers’ Party for industrial productivity. The Security Service of the Communist Polish People’s Republic did their bidding from 1956 to 1990, often enlisting the citizens’ militia. Key aspects of the SB mandate involved political repression and surveillance, infiltration of civil society, persecution of the Catholic Church, suppressing strikes and protests, controlling information, and protecting the state-controlled economy.
Boleslaw Bierut’s Six-Year Plan started in 1950, aggressively industrializing Poland and causing widespread shortages, particularly for meat and dairy. In 1956, when Gomułka came into power, things became somewhat less dangerous, but the shortages continued and in some cases got worse. The period between 1976 and 1989 experienced a maximum in shortages of nearly all products. Under communist rule, Poland was driven by rapid industrial growth, often using low-skilled workers with no consideration for their health and welfare. Criticism or resistance was suicidal. Protests and ensuing riots were violently crushed and suspected leaders hunted down and executed.
.
(Re)Genesis and the Kurpiowska Forest
Puszcza Białowieska (The White Forest) of the Kurpiowska Forest (photo by OTOP)
.
Several key scenes of my upcoming eco-fiction thriller (Re)Genesis take place inside the Kurpiowska Forest in central Poland’s Mazovian Lowlands during the communist rule of Poland (specifically from the 1950s to the 1970s). Young Zofia and Piotr Wójcik and their little twins have come to the Puszcza Kurpiowska to work for Zima Performance Elastomers, a chemical plant that makes a mysterious miracle chemical called syprene that is highly volatile, flammable and toxic. Zima compromises the health and safety of its workers under the yoke of productivity. Workers fall ill and are usually replaced within a decade, either leaving due to ill health or dying of complications. In the following scene in 1959, Zofia has invited her older sister to take care of her twins so she can continue working at Zima Performance Elastomers deep inside the Kurpiowska Forest:
Zofia can’t help a smile. Her older sister is more of an intellectual; she isn’t the mothering type and has made it clear that she doesn’t like children. Yet the twins seem to have softened her heart a little, thinks Zofia, who is so grateful that her older sister is here, so she can return to work.
They eat supper quietly together; Piotr is on the evening shift and won’t be home until later at night when Zofia will reheat some bigos and bread for him.
“How’s Piotr? Still losing his hair?” Ewa asks casually, helping herself to more bigos from the pot.
“Not so much now,” says Zofia. She wipes the side of her bowl with some rye bread to catch the rest of her bigos. “He still gets headaches. I give him piołun for them.”
Ewa frowns and shakes her head. “Does it work?”
Zofia shrugs.
Ewa makes a scoffing sound; she knows that it doesn’t. She leans forward suddenly. “Seriously, you need to do something, Zofia.”
“But what can I do?”
“Zima’s clearly breaking safety rules. The first is not having sufficient signage. Then hiring idiots straight from high school who don’t know what they’re doing and not educating them. You mentioned Janek smoking in the Polyanna Building? Didn’t you say that stuff is flammable?”
“I think so, based on other similar compounds I know about. No one knows what syprene really is.”
“Well, he’ll blow up the plant if he isn’t careful. Good god, sister, you need to report this to the government before it’s more than just some headaches or a bit of hair loss. Before there’s a serious accident. The constitution of ‘52—”
“The constitution! It’s just paper. The Polish United Worker’s Party has its own rules and ways of doing things.” She waves the bread in her hand at her older sister. “Who would I report this to, eh? Have you forgotten what happened when workers demanded better working conditions at the Poznań’s Cegielski Factories in ’56? Nothing can interfere with progress. The government doesn’t care. And let’s not forget the secret police. That Łukasz Zieliński, who’s so chummy with Wozniak, gives me the creeps. I’m sure he’s secret police. He hardly does anything except wander about poking his long nose in everything and making derogatory remarks.”
“Now who’s the cynic.” Ewa leans back with a crooked smile. The smile turns into a scowl as she acknowledges Zofia’s point. “But you’re probably right about him.” She shakes her head, spoon playing with the stew. “And, you do have to be careful, sister. Something will happen. I can feel it in my bones.”
Unfortunately, so can Zofia. Her older sister is right, she concedes. The whole place is a tinder box and lately emotions have been high with arguments and even fights erupting in the polymer building. It doesn’t help that Piotr doesn’t seem to take the dangers seriously by not wearing protection, just to fit in—
There’s a noise outside.
The women turn, hearing shuffling at the door and men talking in low urgent voices. The door bursts open and two workmen—Vasili and Krzysztof—drag Piotr inside. He is barely conscious and his head lolls as he groans and murmurs through a frothing mouth.
The women rush forward.
“What happened?” Ewa demands.
“There’s been an accident,” Vasili says, glancing at Krzysztof, who normally works the shift with Piotr. “He got splashed when the drum broke, and may have even swallowed some of the stuff. Then he went into convulsions.”
“And you brought him here?” Ewa says, aghast.
“There’s no emergency shower or eye wash there—”
“Don’t come any further into the house!” Ewa orders gruffly. “Strip him naked and throw the clothes outside. Then take him to the shower. And for god’s sake take off your shoes!”
The men jump into action.
Zofia looks on, tongue-tied.
“Well, get in there!” Ewa shouts at Zofia. “Scrub him clean. With soap! Quickly!”
.
The Kurpiowska Forest near Czarnia, not far from the fictional Zima plant (photo by Polish Tourism)
.
Kozienice Landscape Park, Massovia, Poland (image by MasovianStyle.com)
.
Nina Munteanu is an award-winning novelist and short story writer of eco-fiction, science fiction and fantasy. She also has three writing guides out: The Fiction Writer; The Journal Writer; and The Ecology of Writing and teaches fiction writing and technical writing at university and online. Check the Publications page on this site for a summary of what she has out there. Nina teaches writing at the University of Toronto and has been coaching fiction and non-fiction authors for over 20 years. You can find Nina’s short podcasts on writing on YouTube. Check out this site for more author advice from how to write a synopsis to finding your muse and the art and science of writing. Her most recent novel “Gaia’s Revolution” was released in March 2026 by Dragon Moon Press (Calgary).
The lavender fields at Laveanne, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Two years ago on this day, I tracked down Laveanne the lavender farm I’d heard about near Campbellcroft, Ontario. I’d seen the sign somewhere and just had to remind myself where that was. It was a sunny hot day in July and I was ready for adventure. My memory served me well and in no time I was driving east on Country Road 9 (Ganaraska Rd.) from Highway 28. The turn off to Gilmour Rd. came soon, well signed, and I was eventually driving a road that more resembled a lane until I arrived at the purple fields of the farm.
The 1.6 hectare family-run farm was started by partners Sabena and Gary in 2013 and now includes a lovely outdoor café and gift shop offering a wide diversity of lavender-related products. You can also buy a lavender plant from their nursery. When I asked her about the name they chose—Laveanne—for their enterprise, she explained: “lkjlkjlkjl”
I came to experience the lavender fields; so, relegating the café and gift shop for later, I set out into the undulating aromatic fields. As I inhaled a complex mixture of alluring mystery, I felt like I was entering some paysage Provençal painted by Annie Rivière, embraced by an arcane beauty of colour and scent and sound that conspired into an abiding sense of calm and joy.
The lavender fields at Laveanne: top left, rows of English lavender; top right, lavender labyrinth; bottom left, bumblebee in flight among lavender blooms; bottom right, Red Admiral butterfly settles on a lavender influorescence. (photos by Nina Munteanu)
.
The Smell of Lavender
The aroma was subtle yet lingered as I walked the four acres of lavender, along stubby rows of deep purple that snaked up and into a rolling horizon. It was early enough for many of the flowers to still be in bud, displaying an intensely deep purple. This colour grows brighter as more flowers burst into bloom later in the month, attracting more and more honeybees. I was in a kind of aromatic heaven, accompanied by the constant hum of honeybees buzzing from flower to flower and the occasional flutter of a Red Admiral butterfly, flashing its bright blue-orange wings as it stopped briefly to gorge on the lavender’s nectar. The scent was an airy symphony of sweet floral with herbal, camphor-like woodsy undertones. I detected the mildest hint of rosemary and coriander.
.
Chemistry of lavender smells (image by Andy Brunning / Compound Interest)
.
I’m told that lavender’s aroma comes mainly from linalool and linalyl acetate, both part of the terpene family. Linalool, which helps repel mosquitos, is widely used in fragrances as well as many personal care products and aromatherapies. This terpene also found in mint, cinnamon, coriander, and citrus fruits; it is the chief chemical responsible for the recognizable spicy floral smell of marijuana (the skunky smell of cannabis is from another terpene, myrcene). Linalool is of course known for its calming and soothing effects. It reduces stress and anxiety, helps relax the body and enhance sleep quality, and helps provide relief from pain and inflammation. Two other terpenes, 1,8-cineole and camphor add some hint of scent as well as having insecticidal and repellent properities (such as repelling moths). These terpenes are also found in rosemary, hence the hint of rosemary scent in lavender. I’m told that over 300 compounds exist in lavender’s essential oil, though not all contribute to aroma. Two enantiomers of linalool include the enantiomer licareol, responsible for the scent of lavender, and the enantiomer coriandrol, also found in coriander seed oils and sweet orange flowers.
.
Lavender Labyrinth
Reflection Labyrinth at Laveanne lavender farm, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
In the middle of the field I even found an over 30 metre diameter nine circuit modified Neo-Medieval labyrinth. Laveanne tells us that labyrinths are designed following sacred geometry and, unlike mazes that are built to challenge and confuse, are designed for meditation and relaxation. I walked the Reflection Labyrinth, among aromatic lavender and buzzing bees, feeling very content and relaxed.
I asked Sabena about what got them started farming lavender and she related the story of her son’s herb business “Grow Tasty”, which started a lavender collection. It went from a private collection to a larger enterprise after they saw a brochure from a lavender farm in Quebec and, after visiting the farm, were inspired to start their own lavender farm.
.
Bench faces the labyrinth at Laveanne lavender farm, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Growing Lavender
Lavender is indigenous to the mountains of the Mediterranean region of western Europe. The plant spread rapidly to other parts of the world with travelers and by the sixteenth century, lavender was gracing English gardens. The first lavender plants made it to America with the European settlers. Lavender has been used medicinally for several millennia. It was used in ancient Egypt for mummification and Romans scented their public bathhouses with lavender. The name lavender comes from the Latin verb lavare—to wash.
High Country Gardens tells us that lavender “is known for its soothing, relaxing qualities and has been used to treat hyperactivity, insomnia, headaches, toothaches, sore joints, and rumbling digestive systems.” They add about early cleansing uses of lavender that “Early household use started with lavender strewn on the floors of castles and sick rooms as a disinfectant and deodorant. It was sold in bunches by street vendors and placed in linen closets as an insecticide to protect linens from moths.”
Sabena tells me that growing lavender successfully can be a challenge in Ontario. Given that lavender is not native to Ontario, it’s important to make it comfortable here. All species of lavender are sun lovers. These semi-woody and semi-evergreen perennials thrive in well-drained soil. They are drought tolerant and pest and disease resistant, but unless they are happy, they won’t do well. Summer pruning, after they have flowered, keeps them vigorous. They also need wind protection; being semi-evergreen makes them susceptible to windburn or drying out.
.
The Lavender Experience
At the outdoor café, which faces the fields, I treated myself to some lavender shortbread cookies with a refreshing lavender iced tea and sat to enjoy the glorious view.
Their shop offers a wonderful selection of lavender-infused products (from soaps to moisturizers, bath products to mists and essential oils), culinary goods such as spices and teas, as well as local jewelry and lavender treats. In the shop, I had to restrain myself, but managed to come away with a few prizes: homemade lavender shortbread cookies; lavender soap, and lavender essential oil.
.
A few lavender products from Laveanne (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Lavender Essential Oil
Leveanne’s essential oil is steam distilled from English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), the preferred species for the oil’s healing properties and consists of a complex mixture of phytochemicals. Sebena mentions being inspired by René-Maurice Gattefossé, the father of modern aromatherapy, who widely experimented with English lavender oil in 1910 after he suffered severe burns in a laboratory experiment fire. Gattefossé found that the oil helped with so many body functions, the brain, nerves, paralysis, lethargy and rheumatism. He found it also effective in helping against stress, insomnia, headaches, acne, infections, and calming to skin irritations (burns, eczema). The oil also promotes healing and prevents scarring by stimulating the cells of a wound to regenerate more quickly. I keep my bottle handy and apply on wounds with good effect. Lavender essential oil is antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic analgesic, anti-anxiety, antidepressant, calming, anti-inflammatory and an immune stimulant.
.
Lavender field, Laveanne, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
Some years ago now, when the Dalai Lama was attending the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit, he was quoted as saying, “The world will be saved by the western woman.”
This set the media buzzing on what His Holiness meant and—perhaps more importantly—how his statement resonates with us, and how his “call” affects the western woman.
Marianne Hughes, executive director of the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), pondered the idea of the aging woman as hag (originally a representation of feminine power) and how it relates to the Dalai Lama’s statement on her blog. “I’m not entirely sure what [the Dalai Lama] meant,” said Hughes, “But I am wondering if when he travels across the globe and sees so many of our sisters impoverished and repressed he sees western women of all ages in a position to speak out for justice and to take on the responsibilities of “the hag”… to take loving care of the planet and its people.”
The original meaning of the word “hag” in Gaelic originally referred to a saint with great powers who was responsible for the land, the waters and the people. The term has since been distorted through patriarchal propaganda into something far less flattering and powerful. The “Hag” is currently being redefined as a strong, beautiful and ageless woman and has its similarities with “the Crone”, the third stage of a woman’s life and evolution from maiden to mother to crone. Postmenopausal women currently comprise the largest demographic group in America. With our increased lifespan, the ancient tripartite divisions of Maiden, Mother, and Crone are more meaningful in women’s lives as the Crone stage occupies one third of our lifespan. Moreover, our current Crone generation (those born in the forties and fifties) is the first in the history of humankind that can claim (and has already claimed) economic autonomy and power.
According to Dr. Linda E. Savage (author of “Reclaiming Goddess Sexuality”) “Each stage of a woman’s life is organized around what Goddess Cultures called the blood mysteries: menarche, (the first monthly flow of blood); childbirth, which is accompanied by blood from birthing; and menopause, when a woman’s “wise blood” remains inside her to give her wisdom. These are still powerful landmarks, which profoundly influence women’s lives. They function as psychological gateways to the change in consciousness required by each new stage.”
Savage describes the Crone as a powerful shamanic figure in society: “The developmental task of the Crone Stage is sharing wisdom. In Neolithic times, Crone women were the tribal matriarchs. Their heightened awareness of human nature yielded great insight and they were the source of wise counsel for important decisions. Spiritually, this is the Mastery phase. The Wise Woman teaches knowledge gained from her skills and life experience. It is a time of reaching into her spiritual depths, utilizing her powers of intuition, and finding meaning in her visions from the dream world. Some Crone women are masters of healing at the highest level. The Crone Stage of life, more than any other, is a time of giving back to society the cumulative wisdom of the years. Many women have an urge to speak out, to organize others, to take action. They have the energy to get more involved in the world-at-large. It is often Crone energy that leads to changes being made in society. As the Crone woman moves further into her life path she feels the urge to teach others and to cultivate her passions. It can be the most productive time in womens’ lives.”
Crone energy isn’t necessarily limited to Crones. It is an energy that may be carried by anyone at any age. Ariane de Bonvoisin, writing for the Huffington Post, made the following observation:
“Most people I meet have a new fear—the fear of not being relevant, the fear of not making a difference, the fear of working on things that don’t really matter in the important times of transition we live in. We’re hungry to be part of making things better. We want to create, we want to do what we love again and find our voice. We sense intuitively that we have a critical role to play in shaping the future of our world. And yet, so many of us give in to excuses of not being good enough, young enough, smart enough, wealthy enough, creative enough. We still play small, still give in to the ‘victim’ archetype. We still buy into what society’s beliefs are and put them right above our own. But we don’t really have time for these fears. If I could create a vaccine, instead of the flu one, I’d create one against fear. It’s what holds us back, every one of us, in every area of our life. And, while we’re holding back, time just moves on faster than ever. We are at a critical time in the evolution of our planet, a time where each one of us is waking up. We feel it.
Our intuition is growing more acute. Our inner microphone, as I like to call it, is getting harder and harder to turn off, so that we can’t just go along with our normal day. There’s a rise in consciousness where we feel more connected to others, a part of something bigger going on, where we each have a role to play. The most important thing isn’t to get the promotion, or stay in the marriage, or lose those 10 pounds. The most important thing is for us to remember who we are—why we are here—to do the inner work and find what are our ‘spiritual’ reasons for being on the planet. Yes we do have something great to accomplish. Now. At any age. Wherever we are.”
I found yet another revealing comment on her blog post that reminded me of another statement by His Holiness: that the next Dalai Lama might be a woman. The commentator told the story of the Buddhist Goddess Tara, who is highly revered in Tibet and was a most promising student of Buddhism. The monks told her she should come back as a man so that she could reincarnate and finish her spiritual journey and become a Buddha. She responded that male/female has no meaning since spiritual beings have perfectly balance aspects of both and in reality can incarnate as either gender. She made a resolution to always come back as a woman. I see this proclamation as a metaphor for choosing “feminine wisdom” or “Goddess Wisdom”, represented by the depth of forgiveness, kindness, tenderness, openness, vulnerability, tolerance, honor, integrity, sacred courage, humility, trust and faith.
So, why “the Western Woman”? We are not particularly known on the globe for these traits, nor does the western philosophy we espouse typically embrace these ideal traits. The western woman has more often been stereotyped (and vilified) with the following characteristics: vanity, pride, shallowness, self-centeredness, self-serving ambition, competitiveness, and pettiness.
While we can, in fact, accept these as our stereotypic weaknesses (it is part of our shallow consumer culture and capitalist model, after all), it is for this very reason that the western woman represents the salvation of the world. Not only do we have the means, as Marianne Hughes pointed out, but we are in the best position to convince.
We are the necessary paradox that spawns evolution. The darkness that sparks light. The chaos that creates stability. The inertia that initiates change.
Viburnam berries, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
Mermaids, arborists, and pollinators are among the characters to be found in Through the Portal: Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia. Edited by Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Nina Munteanu, this eco-fiction collection gathers over thirty stories that fall under the general umbrella of hopeful dystopias…
Through the Portal offers intriguing and imaginative glimpses into the future. As [one of its short stories] “A Fence Made of Names” suggests, we often don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. By showing us what we stand to lose, these stories offer a reason to increase our actions to preserve the planet…
While many of the tales hint at dark times ahead, it was refreshing to find so many that offered a ray of hope despite that. Whether it’s finding the will to live another day, returning to a better relationship with the land and the Earth, or taking steps to improve the world in even a small way, these stories affirm humanity’s potential for resilience in challenging times.
Will ingenuity, love, and respect for the earth help us work through whatever changes might lie ahead? Through the Portal offers hope that these qualities, if not enough in and of themselves, will help us find our way.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
Water Is… sits on the shelf at Banyen Books (photo by Nina Munteanu)
My books “Water Is… The Meaning of Water” and “A Diary in the Age of Water” are selling at Banyen Books in Kitsilano, Vancouver. While “A Diary in the Age of Water” is on Banyen’s virtual shelf for order, “Water Is…” sits on a shelf in the Water: Life-force & Resource / Ecology section.
“Water Is…” sits on the ‘water as life-force & resource’ shelf at Banyen Books, Vancouver (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Banyen Books is located in Kitsilano on the south side of W 4th Avenue on the corner of Dunbar under a grove of healthy oak trees. Across the store is Aphrodite’s Organic Pies, itself a destination for awesome pies. Banyen Books is a beautiful store. It is spacious and surrounded with the warmth of wood and plants. Its wonderful atmosphere invites you to browse the shelves and sit on the comfortable chairs to read. Banyen Books has become a destination for me whenever I’m in Vancouver.
Banyen Books on the corner of W 4th and Dunbar, Vancouver, BC (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Since opening in 1970 Banyen Books has become Canada’s most comprehensive metaphysical bookstore, offering a broad spectrum of resources from humanity’s spiritual, healing, and earth wisdom traditions. Here is how they put it:
Banyen is an oasis, a crossroads, a meeting place… for East and West, the “old ways” and current discoveries and syntheses. Our beat is the “Perennial Philosophy” as well as our evolving learning edges and best practices in a wide variety of fields, from acupuncture to Zen, from childbirth and business to the Hermetic Mysteries, from the compost pile to the celestial spheres. We’re “in the philosophy business,” on “a street in the philosophy district” (as an old cartoon wagged). We welcome and celebrate the love of wisdom, be it in art, science, lifecraft, healing, visioning, religion, psychology, eco-design, gardening… Our service is to offer life-giving nourishment for the body (resilient, vital), the mind (trained, open), and the soul (resonant, connected, in-formed). Think of us as your open source bookstore for the “University of Life”.
Whenever I’m in Vancouver to visit family and friends, I make at least one stop at Banyen Books and often come out with an armful of books. On my most recent stop, I purchased a book on plant intelligence and several beautiful journals (I use a journal for each book project I work on).
My latest purchase at Banyen Books (photo by Nina Munteanu)
19th Avenue in Vancouver, BC (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
My short story Robin’s Last Song was selected by the NYC Climate Writers Collective as part of an exhibition in the Climate Imaginarium on Governors Island in New York. The exhibition, starting May 18, will run throughout the summer of 2024.
Robin’s Last Song
Robin’s Last Song first appeared in the #128 Issue of Apex Magazine in 2021. It tells the story of Robin, a blind elder whose digital app failed to warn the world of the sudden global loss of birds with disastrous ecological consequences. After years of living in self-exile and getting around poorly on sight-enhancing technology, a discovery gives her new hope in rekindling her talents in the field of Soundscape Ecology.
In a recent interview with writer Simon Rose, I described my thoughts in writing Robin’s Last Song:
I wanted to make “Robin’s Last Song” a realizable work of fiction in which science and technology play both instigator of disaster and purveyor of salvation. Our biogenetic technology comes to us as a double-edged sword in the form of gene-editing, proteomics, DNA origami, and CRISPR—just to name a few. These biotechnological innovations promise a cornucopia of enhancements: from increased longevity and health in humans to giant disease-resistant crops. But, for every ‘magic’ in technology, there is often unintended consequence. Unforeseen—or even ignored—casualties and risks. I suppose my ultimate question with this story is: will synthetic biology redesign Nature to suit hubris or serve evolution? Science doesn’t make those decisions. We do.
Anyone living in or visiting the NYC area is welcome to the Climate Imaginarium launch on May 18 on Governor’s Island. Check this Eventbrite link for details. The exhibition will continue throughout the summer of 2024 and will include: climate storytelling and poetry by Climate Café, the Sixth Festival, and the Climate Writers Collective; opening exhibition of “What is Environmental Art?” by Forest for Trees; artwork from the Climate Imaginarium community and Climate Writers exhibition; “Eye of Flora” virtual reality exhibition by Synphisica Collective; and more.
Here’s what they say:
Come to Governors Island for the grand opening of our Climate Imaginarium house! The Climate Imaginarium will serve as a community center for climate and culture, with galleries and spaces for exhibitions, performances, film screenings, and events that respond to the climate crisis with solutions and visions for hope and justice. Join us at Building 406A on Colonels Row for a lively celebration of climate art, storytelling, and community.
Exhibitions will be open to the public at noon, and the party will officially start at 2pm. All donations will support programming in our community space.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
NINA MUNTEANU is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
Great blue heron in Thompson Creek outlet marsh, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Old cedars and roots by Jackson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
NINA MUNTEANU is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
Cars trapped when a sugar maple snaps and falls on them in Saturday’s Derecho, Peterborough, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
It’s Wednesday and parts of the city still have no power since Saturday’s storm swept through like a ferocious lion. We got our power yesterday. We’d relied on our kind neighbours, who had a barbecue, to cook up some suppers. The power has come back in stages depending on where lines were brought down by trees or the violent wind microbursts.
A string of power poles and lines downed by the violent winds of the derecho along Highway 29 near Lakefield, ON (photos by Nina Munteanu)
Environment Canada calls Saturday’s storm a derecho: a long line of very active and violent thunderstorms or microbursts that include winds of at least 93 km/h with focused gusts of 121 km/h or greater. According to Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips, the storm spanned about 1,000 kilometers from Michigan to Maine as it went across Ontario and Quebec. Derechos typically contain numerous downburst clusters (families of downburst clusters) that, in turn, have smaller downbursts, and smaller microbursts. These tight, often cyclic tornado-like bursts within larger linear downbursts are what likely created the random devastation seen in Peterborough, where one tree was entirely uprooted and the tree beside it left untouched.
Birch uprooted on Auburn Street, Peterborough (photo by Nina Munteanu)
A true ‘herald archetype’, environmental disasters incite change, often through disorder. In doing so, they can bring out the best in us. The true mettle of a person is often revealed during such times, through the emergence of compassion and kindness.
I live just off the Rotary Trail in Peterborough, facing a mixed riparian forest of mostly black walnut and locust trees, with some silver maple, willow, Manitoba maple, oak and ash. The trail is well used every day by cyclists and walkers. The tornado-force winds and deluge rains singled out a few trees on the forest edge and flung them across the trail. A quick inspection shortly after the storm revealed that several trees formed obstacles to those using the trail: a silver maple just in front of my good friend Merridy’s place; an old half-dead elm; and a large Manitoba maple whose upper canopy had gotten tangled in the telephone wires.
Various damaged and uprooted trees in Peterborough, ON (photos by Nina Munteanu)
When Merridy and I decided to attempt clearing the Rotary Trail of strewn maple limbs and branches, we weren’t there more than five minutes when a cyclist stopped and without a word helped us; he grabbed large tree limbs and hoisted them aside like Superman then got on his bike and took off without a word—like Spiderman. After more dragging of tree limbs and my deft hand at the tree clippers and the broom, we cleared the trail for walkers and cyclists.
Before (left) and after (right) we cleared the Rotary Trail of downed silver maple from the derecho (photos by Nina Munteanu)
And then there was Charlie … a fashion-savvy quasi hipster-hippy who came cycling in with his chainsaw and hand saw on his back; he’d been all over the trail clearing tree debris just because he could. Charlie set to work on the huge Manitoba maple that had fallen across the trail and was leaning heavily on the telephone wire. Charlie proceeded to climb the tree and saw branches here and there to lighten the limb on the wire before cutting it. Two of us ladies became his cleanup crew, hauling big tree sections off the path as he downed them. By the time he got to the main tree limb on the wire, a group of cheerleaders had formed to watch. We all clapped when the big branch came off the line. One elder lady on two walking canes hobbled out from her home and handed Charlie a Bobcaygeon Petes Lager as thanks.
Charlie sawing off branches from Manitoba maple tangled on telephone wire (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Charlie saws the remaining tree trunk to clear the trail (photo by Nina Munteanu)
At first it was just me and Charlie. Watching him set up, I’d asked him if he was from the city and in the same breath knew he wasn’t—we both knew they were very busy getting the city’s power back on and freeing streets and getting trees off the roofs of houses; it would be a long time before they came to the Rotary Trail and other parks to clear. He responded, “well, that depends… are you a lawyer?” I laughed. We both recognized that Charlie was a rogue Good Samaritan, using less than regular protocol (no safety harness or equipment [except for goggles] and climbing shoes). When I said no, he relaxed and we introduced ourselves and exchanged stories about the storm, then got to work. I was soon joined by Susan, and together we became Charlie’s support team, hauling limbs and branches out of the tangle then rolling large tree bole sections to the side. Eventually several more walkers and nearby residents came to support the work and watch. Within an hour, the entire tree was off the path and off the wire. I felt a wonderful sense of community as people gathered exchanged names and stories about the storm. And it all started with one person’s kindness. Thanks, Charlie!
Before (left) and after (right) Charlie and his gang cleared the way (photo by Nina Munteanu)
I find that we really find our humanity and sense of kindness when a disaster strikes… one of the ‘good’ things about them.
Derecho damage to trees in the forest in Peterborough area, ON (photos by Nina Munteanu)
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
