Destined to be a Canadian Christmas classic...
Set against the backdrop of a snowy 1960s Montreal, "The Christmas Bird Diary" follows Mairin Lang, a university student returning home for the holidays. What begins as a typical family Christmas soon transforms into an intriguing scientific mystery when Mairin discovers her late grandfather Murray's ornithological diary.
The Christmas Bird Diary
One crisp spring evening, on a remote island in the Yellow Sea, a Korean gangster kidnapped me and forced me to drink tree alcohol with him. We ended up singing John Denver songs together until sunrise. True story. That’s what it took for me to recognize my calling. As I shambled home that morning, it hit me —
“I need to start writing some of this down.”
A migratory Montréaler who has returned home after over a decade abroad, Matt Poll's background lies in academia. However, his travels led him to new pursuits — birds, writing, proofreading, and even Karaoke. Recognizing that everyone has a story, Matt knew after that night of revelry that he had more than his fair share.
On top of The Christmas Bird Diary, he has written a memoir about the shenanigans involved with being a foreign birdwatcher in Korea, as well as the Stygian-produced novel Dark Flock.
Links to his published stories and international birding adventures can be found on his blog, Snowy Owl Lost.