The Lily Pond (online resources)

The following are updated links connected with my memoir The Lily Pond: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, Myth and Metamorphosis (Biblioasis, 2008).

The Lily Pond - Talks

(These links are also available from the upper right of this blog page.)

1. Talk and slide show: "The Lily Pond: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, Myth and Metamorphosis"

I gave this talk at the book's launch on October 9, 2008 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, where, as I describe in the book, I was once hospitalized for eighteen months. Various aspects of living with mental illness are discussed during the 47-minute presentation, illustrated by readings from The Lily Pond. The paired slides have a story, or stories, of their own. The sequence of images on the left documents the attempt, which my wife Heather and I made over one summer, to grow a water lily on our apartment balcony in order to obtain a cover image. The right-hand images come from a 90-minute walk I took one spring day through the grounds of the old Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital, a place to which I was nearly sent for long-term care.

2. A 23-minute talk (audio only) given at St. Clement's Church, Toronto on November 2, 2008: "A Slice of Water"

3. The text of a talk given at The University of Toronto on March 11, 2009: "On and Off the Learning Curve: Notes by a Bipolar Student"

4. Post on mental health topics can be found throughout this blog, especially the numbered series entitled "Talking the Walk".

Reviews

1. "The Lily Pond: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, Myth and Metamorphosis" review by Mark Callanan, Quill & Quire (October 2008).

2. "When madness rules your life" by Robyn Sarah, The Globe and Mail (October 4, 2008). This article discusses memoirs on mental illness by Kay Redfield Jamison, Mark Vonnegut, and Mike Barnes.

3. "The Lily Pond: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, Myth and Metamorphosis" review by Rachel Bravmann, bp (Fall 2008).

4. "Achieving self-definition" review by Shane Neilson, MD, Canadian Medical Association Journal (January 6 2009).

5. "Man challenges accepted wisdom. Man wins" review by R. Belkind, ShareCare AmiQuebec newsletter (Winter 2009, page 5).


Interviews

1. The Danforth Review interview by Nathaniel Moore.

2. Biblioasis interview by Dan Wells.

Book Excerpt

1. The Lily Pond