Vermont Library-Inspired Novelist Skips Kennedy Center Debut for Ottawa Instead
With The Black Wolf, Louise Penny not only weaves a thriller rooted in cross-border tensions but also uses her platform to defend a symbol of unity between the U.S. and Canada.
Bestselling author Louise Penny, a longtime resident of Knowlton, Quebec, has chosen not to cross the U.S. border for the launch of her 20th Chief Inspector Gamache novel, The Black Wolf. In a move that underscores her disapproval of recent political developments in the United States, Penny has instead centered her publicity tour around Canada—with a symbolic and meaningful conclusion at a building that straddles both nations: the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which sits directly on the border between Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec.
According to The Montreal Gazette, Penny originally planned to launch The Black Wolf at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. But she pulled out after the board of the Kennedy Center—most of them appointed by former President Donald Trump—voted to make Trump its chair following his removal of half the existing trustees. That decision was the final straw for Penny, who joined a growing list of artists and performers refusing to appear at the institution.
In an interview with The Montreal Gazette, Penny said she knew her decision to cancel the U.S. leg of her tour would have financial consequences, particularly for her publisher, Minotaur Books. But, she added, “My publisher was so incredibly supportive and understands.”
Instead of Washington, the official launch will take place at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on October 28. Tickets—more than 2,000—sold out within hours. Penny will also visit other Canadian cities as part of her tour, though U.S. fans will have to settle for a pair of virtual events that will be live-streamed. It will be the first time in two decades that one of Penny’s book tours doesn’t include stops in the United States.
The political tension between the two countries is central to The Black Wolf itself. One of the novel’s central threads imagines a movement to make Canada the 51st U.S. state—a notion that took on real-world relevance after Trump’s recent remarks expressing a desire to annex Canada and seize its mineral wealth.
Penny told The Gazette she was initially worried readers would assume she had simply “ripped off the headlines.” But she noted that The Black Wolf was conceived three years ago and completed a year before the political rhetoric heated up. “When I wrote The Black Wolf, I worried I’d gone too far,” she said. “I no longer have that fear.”
Some of the book’s most critical scenes take place in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a beloved and historic building opened in 1904 with its reading room in Canada and its bookshelves in the U.S. A black stripe on the floor marks the international boundary.
Penny has been vocal in her support of the Haskell, praising its symbolic and practical role as a bridge between two nations. “It was fun to do that quick pivot from the Kennedy Center and the U.S. tour to the National Arts Centre and then to end the tour at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House,” Penny told The Gazette.
The tour’s final events will take place at the Haskell on November 1 and 2. While in-person tickets are sold out, virtual access is available through Brome Lake Books in Canada and Phoenix Books in Vermont.
Penny’s decision to end her tour at the Haskell comes at a time when the building itself has become a flashpoint in the U.S.-Canada political debate. Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the library and repeatedly stepped across the black border line, declaring “U.S.A. No. 1” on one side and “The 51st state” on the other—without ever referring to Canada by name, according to Haskell executive director Deborah Bishop, who spoke with The Boston Globe.
Penny told The Gazette that what disturbs her most is how often tyrants target places like libraries, arts centers, and universities—spaces that support dissent and open inquiry. “Who do they target?” she asked. “They target the libraries, the arts centres, the universities: places open to anyone who might have a dissenting thought.”
With The Black Wolf, Penny not only weaves a thriller rooted in cross-border tensions but also uses her platform to defend a symbol of unity—one that, for now, still welcomes readers on both sides of the line.
Read original reporting by Susan Schwartz at the Montreal Gazette.