We're pleased to announce our January speaker, Hui Zhou, who will be speaking about pest management! She is such an interesting person, with so much knowledge to share. 

Hui Zhou, a nonfiction writer and a retired entomologist (especially focused on Integrated Pest Management), lives in Nova Scotia, Canada (zhouhui.wordpress.com). She obtained a Master Science Degree from Biology, Saint Mary’s University (Halifax, NS).

Hui loves animals, including insects that she has studied and especially now speaking for about their beauty, their irreplaceable importance to the ecosystem and their dramatic population decline because of human activities.

Life experience, diverse interests and scientist’s attention to detail shaped her confidence, ambition in writing/publishing real stories. Hui has lyrical, descriptive skills and sense of humor which reflect in her nonfiction stories. Many of her literary nonfiction stories have been published in print and heard on radio broadcast since the 1990's.

The one titled Grandpa Santa was published in The Chronicle Herald and three other Atlantic daily newspapers on a same day before the Christmas in 2021. It was about how her daughter at six excitedly learned about Christmas in her birth country where Christmas has never been a holiday.

A piece about how she was coincidently walked into the history of the Halifax Explosion, titled The Path from an Old Newspaper, was long-listed for Surrey Muse Art and Literature Awards 2022.

Running Wild with Bossy Boy (2018) is Hui’s first nonfiction photograph-storybook for children about a flock of free-run backyard chickens, focusing on their different personalities, or to them, chicken-alities, through their interesting stories.

The success, in writing, photographing, book design, self-publishing, marketing and much more, encourages Hui’s further works, like Puppy Oland (2023), her second children’s photograph-storybook about a lively dog, Oland.

Now she works on her Literary Nonfiction Collection for all ages.

In addition, Hui enjoys school visits (Writers in the Schools), focusing on literary nonfiction (reading the stories in her books as the examples) and informative nonfiction (through her presentation: the Facts about Insects). She is skillful to develop a good rapport with the students during her visits.

Gardening, a heritage from her grandpa, remains her favorite pastime.

Remember that we offer envelopes for SMB Food Bank donations. We deliver the donations after each monthly meeting.