Andre Narbonne’s course “Windsor’s Literary Culture” continues its guest speaker series on Thursday, Oct. 19, with librarian and author Grant Munroe talking about his Woodbridge Farm Press. The talk starts at 1 p.m. in room 53, Chrysler Hall South.

Munroe is the public services manager for the Essex County Library, a senior fellow at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the publisher of Woodbridge Farm Books.

Prior to joining the library, he worked as the director of marketing and publicity for Biblioasis, the Windsor-based literary press. His essays, profiles, and book reviews have appeared in U.S. and Canadian outlets, including the Walrus, Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Review of Books, National Post, Literary Hub, Literary Review of Canada, and more.

“Woodbridge Farm started as a dream several years ago — a desire, urged on by friends, to share the beauty of the family’s lakeside property with writers based locally, elsewhere in Canada, and abroad, through the creation of a writers’ residency and reading series,” says Munroe. “We hosted our first two authors at the farm during the summer of 2017.”

Motivated by its initial success, Woodbridge Farm soon partnered with Windsor-based literary production manager Chris Andrechek to form Woodbridge Farm Books, a chapbook press.

Though the reading series and residency ended with the pandemic, the press lives on. Since its founding, it has published some of the country’s most celebrated authors, including Governor General Award-winning writer Diane Schoemperlen, novelist and past PEN Canada president Randy Boyagoda, and Giller finalist Alix Hawley.

Dr. Narbonne is a sessional lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing. He is proud to have his third-year course invite guests to hear its speakers.

“The reading series brings writers, publishers, booksellers, Windsor’s poet laureate and cultural storyteller into the classroom, giving students — as well as the university community at large — an opportunity to see local literature as something living and vital,” says Dr. Narbonne.

The next guest speaker is author Vanessa Stauffer, on Oct. 26. All guest speaker talks are open to all members of the University of Windsor community.