She’s a celebrated poet and an avid reader, and Brittany Renaud can’t wait to share her love of all things literary with local kids. She recently joined the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre as the new Children’s Services Clerk.
Renaud comes to Fort Frances from the Chatham-Kent area by way of London, ON, where she completed her studies. Although she’s used to city life, Fort Frances fits the lifestyle she had envisioned for herself as a library studies student.
“I always knew I wanted to do public libraries,” Renaud said. “Especially I wanted to do it in a small town where I could get to know people by name.”
Reneaud is just a few weeks into the job, replacing Sam Manty, who took a job at the Fort Frances Museum this spring.
Renaud says she’s always been a reader.
“I was always a big bookworm,” She said. “Originally I thought I was going to be a poet, but then poets don’t exactly have their bills paid very often. So after undergrad after faffing about for a few years, I went back to get my librarian degree.”
When it comes to personal reading, Renaud says she’s been reading memoirs recently.
“Some of my favourites are Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Tracks by Robin Davidson,” she said. “So memoirs written by women taking really big hikes.”
Wild is the story of Cheryl Strayed’s trek across the Pacific Crest Trail and Tracks is about Robyn Davidson’s 2,700-km hike through the Australian desert with camels. Both books have also been made into films.
Renaud says she hopes one day to hike the Trans Canada Trail.
At the library, Renaud says she hopes to start a “Bad Book Club,” which would see patrons reading books that are not necessarily considered literary classics or maybe are less revered books in an author’s bibliography.
“Hopefully a mob doesn’t come after me, but reading Twilight together,” Renaud said “Either they got bad reviews or maybe they’re by a good author who just had a bad book, that kind of thing.
Renaud says moving to Fort Frances is quite different from her previous home in London.
“I was living above a bar downtown,” she said. “Everyone’s really friendly here, it’s a nice change of pace from what I’m used to.”
