Governor General’s Arts Awards Special Presentation: Artist and Poet in Conversation: Thaddeus Holownia and Harry Thurston

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About

Artist Thaddeus Holownia and poet Harry Thurston will review their photography and poetry collaborations, reflecting on past projects and dreaming about future explorations.

This program is presented as a part of the Governor General’s Awards exhibition, opening at the MacKenzie on December 4, 2025.

Photo en noir et blanc d'un homme âgé aux cheveux bouclés, portant une barbe et des lunettes, vêtu d'une veste polaire zippée par-dessus une chemise à carreaux, debout devant une fenêtre et un mur de briques, souriant légèrement.

BIO FOR HARRY THURSTON

Harry Thurston has published thirty books of poetry, natural history, and memoir. His latest full-length collection, Ultramarine, was a finalist for the 2024 J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award. Previously, Keeping Watch at the End of the World was shortlisted for the 2016 ReLit Award. Recently, he published of a feather, in collaboration with internationally recognized photographer Thaddeus Holownia. It completes a trilogy, including Icarus, Falling of Birds and Ova Aves. A full-time writer since 1977, his articles and essays have been featured in many of North America’s major magazines, including Audubon, Equinox, and National Geographic, and have won several national journalism awards. Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy (1990) was a winner of the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award, and, according to Maine’s Island magazine, is “destined to become a natural history classic.” His “eco-autobiography,” A Place between the Tides, A Naturalist’s Reflections on the Salt Marsh (2004) was a finalist for the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize and the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction, and winner of the 2005 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award in the United States. His latest prose books are The Atlantic Coast, A Natural History, recipient of the Lane Anderson Award for science writing and Lost River, The Waters of Remembrance, a memoir. He has received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Acadia University and St. Thomas University. Thurston lives in Tidnish Bridge, Nova Scotia, and is a Mentor in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program at the University of King’s College.

Un homme âgé aux cheveux longs et aux lunettes est assis à l'intérieur, souriant doucement, avec un chien reposant à ses côtés. Des livres et des œuvres d'art sont visibles à l'arrière-plan. L'image est en noir et blanc.

BIO FOR THADDEUS HOLOWINA

Thaddeus Holowina (b. 1949) is a visual artist, teacher, letterpress printer and publisher. Holowina holds a BA in Communication and Fine Arts from the University of Windsor. Holowina taught in the Department of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University in Sackville New Brunswick, from 1976 to 2016. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including; including The Nature of Nature, The Photographs of Thaddeus Holownia 1976–2016, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; The Terra Nova Suite, a twenty-five year survey of his work in Newfoundland & Labrador at the Provincial Gallery (The Rooms) in St. John’s Newfoundland; 24 Tree Studies for Henry David Thoreau at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York. including The Nature of Nature, The Photographs of Thaddeus Holownia 1976–2016, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; The Terra Nova Suite, a twenty-five year survey of his work in Newfoundland & Labrador at the Provincial Gallery (The Rooms) in St. John’s Newfoundland; 24 Tree Studies for Henry David Thoreau at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York.