Lorenzo Society Book Club to feature Brendan McLeod and a performance by the Saint John String Quartet
Author: UNB Newsroom
Posted on Sep 9, 2022
Category: UNB Saint John
The Lorenzo Society Book Club at the University of New Brunswick will feature a poetry reading by award-winning writer and musician Brendan McLeod and a performance by the Saint John String Quartet on Thursday, Sept. 15.
In his debut poetry collection, Friends Without Bodies, McLeod tracks the COVID-19 pandemic. What began as a personal project quickly blossomed into an ambitious record of society’s new rules, moral predicaments and emotional upheavals. 
First published by Write Bloody North online, it immediately sparked conversations around the social inequalities the pandemic exploited. Select poems appear in the collection in a refined form that adds another level of meaning to the visceral reactions of the originals. Funny, harrowing and compassionate, Friends Without Bodies mines the irony at the heart of the pandemic – that the greatest tool we must protect ourselves, and others, is our own loneliness.
Brendan McLeod is the author of a novel, a poetry collection and five theatre shows and is the founder of the Juno-nominated folk group The Fugitives.
The Saint John String Quartet will join McLeod on stage. For more than 30 years the quartet has stood among Canada’s leading chamber music ensembles. Renowned for its flexibility, the Saint John String Quartet is equally comfortable collaborating with blues artists and rock superstars and performing classical masterworks on its own.
The event takes place on Sept. 15 at noon in the Whitebone Pizzeria in the Thomas J. Condon Student Centre on the UNB Saint John campus. Admission is free and open to the public. Masks are required.
The Lorenzo Reading Series acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, The League of Canadian Poets, UNB Saint John campus and its private reading sponsors.
For more information, email lorenzo@unb.ca.