Tanya has a new book of poetry coming out: The Hospitality of Trees

The Hospitality of Trees

by Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt

In this intimate and contemplative collection, Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt traces the parallels between the inner landscape of her family and the changing seasons of North Hatley. Memory, carried like seeds in the pocket, opens into unexpected horizons, where sorrow transforms into beauty and the ordinary becomes sacred. Trees appear as witnesses and faithful companions, offering solace in grief and standing quietly alongside moments of joy.

The Hospitality of Trees will be released this month and is available for pre-order here.

Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt holds an MA in English Literature from McGill University and an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. These days, she lives in Quebec’s Eastern Townships with her husband and four children. She was born in Germany to French-Canadian parents and grew up on various army bases across Canada, from Quebec’s North Shore to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

When she was twelve, her family moved to Tiberius, Israel, where her father served as a United Nations peacekeeper on the Golan Heights. When war broke out with Lebanon, Tanya and her family moved to Beirut, where they lived for seven months, at the height of the Lebanese civil war.

Tanya’s journal from 1982-1983 became the seeds of her memoir, Peacekeeper’s Daughter.

Peacekeeper’s Daughter is both a coming-of-age story and an exploration of family dynamics, the shattering effects of violence and war, and the power of memory itself to reconcile us to our past selves, to the extraordinary places we have been and sights we have seen.

Tanya has also published a previous volume of poetry with Shoreline Press: Chaos Theories of Goodness (here) Her collection of short memoir pieces, Carrying War, will be published by Dundurn Press in May 2026.

Tanya’s also published numerous poems and stories and has been nominated for a number of awards (see here). Currently, she’s working on some books for children and a novel for adults about American expats in Beirut called Birdsong Hollow.

You can read an excerpt from Peacekeeper’s Daughter here, It’s available through the publisher, Thistledown Press here or order it through your local bookstore – see here.

***

Note: Tanya will be the guest speaker for our “Writing Personal Stories” course this fall. See here.

See more books by your fellow authors here (and scroll down).

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.