Autorentext

Susan Cormier is a spoken word artist, filmmaker, beekeeper, and caretaker of assorted small critters. Her lyrical essay “Advice to a New Beekeeper” won the CBC Nonfiction Prize and her writing has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies. She has received recognition in multiple literary competitions and is known for her dynamic, engaging readings. Cormier produces Vancouver Story Slam, Canada's longest-running live indie storytelling competition. She lives in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

Klappentext

For readers of Raising Hare and How to Catch a Mole comes a poetic exploration of life at the precarious edge of nature and human settlement.

"Cormier's world is one of deep entanglement and ethical implication.”—Jessica J. Lee, author of Dispersals and Two Trees Make a Forest

“Come for the bees, stay for these beautifully written observations.”—Booklist, STARRED review

On a small acreage teeming with wild and domestic animals, buzzing with a half-million honeybees, and dotted with fruit trees—including one affectionately named Bill—lives beekeeper-poet Susan Cormier. Circling the farm, an aggressive tangle of forest and blackberry vines thrives, but beyond, the shadow of urban development creeps ever closer. Over five seasons Cormier takes readers through the rhythms of semi-agricultural life, reflecting on the dichotomy between beauty and grief, loss and renewal, and humor and the often heart-wrenching realities of animal existence in an agrarian landscape.

Susan’s acreage is filled with an ever-changing cast of animals, from the hand-raised quail Birb, who likes to play peekaboo, to companionable cats and dogs, Frodo the rescued rabbit, deer, elusive mink, and owls. Dead Bees Still Sting also offers a rich education in beekeeping, guiding readers through the complexities of hive life, the art of capturing swarms, and the serious challenges facing bees today.

Lyrical and poignant, Dead Bees Still Sting is a moving meditation on the cycles of nature, vulnerability, persistence, and survival. Above all, it is a celebration of what it means to belong to a place, to witness its changes, and to find beauty and meaning in the ongoing conversation between humans and nature.

Inhalt

Prologue: Storm

PART 1: SPRING
Advice to a New Beekeeper
Aria
Fences
Rude

PART 2: SUMMER
Starfishes
Three Grams
Schrödinger’s Sting
Diner

PART 3: AUTUMN
Bill
Sustenance
A Throne for Your Heaven
High Tea With Royalty

PART 4: WINTER
Burying the Bones
Things I Have Unearthed While Digging Holes
Beyond Science
Fawn

Pandora’s Boxes
Catch

PART 5: SPRING
Rearview Mirror
Housewarming
Once Upon a Holly Tree
Fledge

Epilogue: Exodus
A Rural Lexicon