The writer and poet Jane Munro discusses her memoir Open Every Window (Douglas & McIntyre, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Open Every Window by Jane Munro (Douglas & McIntyre, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Open Every Window

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Jane Munro joins me now. She recently published a memoir, Open Every Window. It’s an incredibly rich book, chronicling various aspects of her life that make up for an incredibly rich, eventful story. The book begins with an account of her husband Bob’s decline after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. She has to navigate his care, while trying to keep sane. Yoga helps. It’s something she’s come to learn and study as yoga practitioner, travelling to India to even several times in the course of the book. She’s twenty years Bob’s junior, so she might have been expected to be the caregiver, but she felt there was more to life than that. And her life up to meeting Bob was a lot more. There was growing up in Vancouver, eventually ending up in North Vancouver with her parents and siblings. Those early years she writes about in the book are fascinating for her parents are interesting people. There’s a fire, but that’s later on. Before that there’s a marriage just as she leaves home and is about to start school. There are three children, then her own education getting graduate degrees in education, and a relationship with the artist Ranjan Sen that was not without difficulty due to difference in race. There’s obviously more, but the book defies summation here, and it’ll be just as well to hear me and Jane talk about the book as we did last week. Jane Munro is an award-winning poet, writer and educator. Her poetry collection Blue Sonoma received the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize. She taught creative writing at universities across British Columbia, and led workshops and given readings around the world. Visit www.janemunro.com for more. This new book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Jane Munro; Ms. Munro, good morning.

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