Ollivier Dyens

ISBN 9781771262767

$18.00 CDN/USA 70 pages

The Twisted Gardens/Les jardins tordus is the exploration of an inverted creation, not that of the light that was, but that of the darkness in which everything exists. It is a journey through a territory of birth and viscera, animals and desire, spirits and metal. Written simultaneously in both French and English, Dyens searches for singular emotions and unique metaphors in the folds of two intertwined languages, examining how words both unleash and imprison our humanity. The Twisted Gardens/Les jardins tordus is also an experiment in virtual reality (available at https://www.ollivier-dyens.com/the-twisted-gardens) where sorrow and metaphors become a world, a territory, a literal journey.

Ollivier Dyens is Founder and co-Director of McGill’s Building 21, an open lab dedicated to rethinking higher education in the 21st century. From 2013-2018, he was Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) at McGill University where he is currently Full Professor in the Department of littératures de langue française, de traduction et de création. From 2008-2013 he held the position of Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning at Concordia University. Dyens is the author of thirteen books including La terreur et le sublime, published by XYZ, La Condition inhumaine, published by les Éditions Flammarion in Paris, and Metal and Flesh: The Evolution of Man, Technology Takes Over, published by MIT Press. Among his other publications are, Les murs des planètes, suivi de la cathédrale aveugle (VLB Éditeur), short listed for the Revue Estuaire/Terrasses St-Denis prize for Poetry, Continent X, Vertige du Nouvel Occident (VLB Éditeur), long listed for the prix Roberval, and The Profane Earth (Mansfield Press), long listed for the ReLit Award.