Marianne Apostolides and Catherine Mellinger discuss their collaboration on Deep Salt Water (BookThug, 2017). Local artist Mellinger created several collages, currently on view at Open Sesame, to illustrate this poetic memoir of abortion and loss by Apostolides, a Toronto-based author.

Marianne Apostolides is the author of six books, three of which have been translated. Her most recent book, Deep Salt Water, is a surrealistic memoir about loss, abortion and the oceans. Her previous work of nonfiction, Voluptuous Pleasure: The Truth about the Writing Life, was listed among the 'Top 100 Books of 2012' by Toronto's Globe & Mail. Apostolides is a recipient of the Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and the winner of the 2017 K.M. Hunter Award for Literature.

Catherine Mellinger is a mixed media collage artist whose works find inspiration in the ideas originated by the feminist artists of the Dada period as well as the early Surrealists, lending to the exploration of dichotomy; real and unreal, beauty and trauma. Mellinger’s works have been published in literary magazines, and she has been commissioned by musicians, writers and private collectors. She lives in Waterloo, Ontario with her husband and son.

Deep Salt Water has received critical acclaim:

The Globe and Mail writes: "Deep Salt Water is intimate and sensual, tidal and saline – how can a book be tidal and saline? These words make sense within the environment of the book. Apostolides's language is not of pristine nature but of the anthropocene, our current geologic age of bleached coral and oceans choking on plastics. In light of man-made climate catastrophe, learning this language takes on added urgency."

The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment and Culture in Canada writes: "Whether coming to terms with the abortion she had years ago or recognizing the loss we’ve already witnessed in our oceans and the loss that is still to come, Apostolides acknowledges that grief is an essential part of the human experience when what you have loved is gone. Yet the love that is contained within her words—of the seas, of her unborn child, of the man she connects with so many years later—is the kind of love that is oceans deep."

Purchase your copy of Deep Salt Water from Open Sesame in advance of the event here: http://opensesameshop.com/products/deep-salt-water-by-marianne-apostolides