Born in Tunisia, Lélia Young immigrated to Canada in 1968. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of French Studies, York University, in Toronto. She is the author of several poetry books in French, including: Entre l'outil et la matière (1993); Si loin des cypress (1999); Aquarelles, La paix comme un poème (2006); and Réverbères (2007). In 2009, she organized a conference on the topic of Francophone poetry in North America, in 2009, and a book of the proceedings Langages Poétiques et poésie francophone en Amérique du Nord (Poetic Languages and Francophone Poetry in Nord America) is forthcoming. She is also the founder and director of an international research network focused on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary Francophone studies in literature (C-RICEFM). I write these words/ j'écris ces mots is her first bilingual volume of selected poetry.