Posts Tagged ‘East Coast Author’
Newfoundland novelist and poet Michael Crummey will be UPEI writer in residence from January 22 to February 4. A reception and book signing will follow his reading, which is co-hosted by the UPEI English Department and the Gallery.
Michael grew up in Buchans, a mining town in the Newfoundland interior, and in Wabush, a Labrador mining town. After completing a B.A. in English at Memorial University, he moved to Kingston to pursue graduate work. He has taught ESL in China and worked at the International Day of Solidarity with the people of Guatemala, and lives in St. John’s.
In addition to his best-selling novels, he has published five books of poetry, one short story collection, and Newfoundland: Journey Into a Lost Nation (with photographer Greg Locke). His first novel, River Thieves, details the conflict between European settlers and the last of the Beothuk in the early 19th century. His next novel, The Wreckage, tells the story of a Newfoundland soldier and his beloved during and after World War II. Crummey’s new novel, Galore, is a family saga and love story spanning two centuries, mingling history and myth.
- From BUZZon.com
Time: Thursday, January 26th @ 7:30p
Location: Confederation Centre Art Gallery
Admission: Free
Chris Benjamin, author of Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada, will be in Charlottetown for the PEI launch of his novel Drive-By Saviours, a 2011 Canada Reads choice that was long-listed for the 2011 ReLit Awards.
Joining Benjamin will be Hugh MacDonald, PEI’s Poet Laureate, David Helwig, whose latest book is called Killing McGee, Jeff Bursey, author of the satirical Verbatim: A Novel (The Review of Contemporary Fiction calls it “a tour de force”), and PEI poet Yvette Doucette.
Drive-By Saviours is set in Indonesia and Canada, and brings together two characters and two cultures. Bumi is fleeing persecution from Indonesia, ruled over, at the time of the novel, by the dictator Suharto. Mark is a social worker and grant-writer in Toronto who is slowly burning out, and wondering what to do to make his life worthwhile. Over the course of their growing friendship Mark helps Bumi understand the OCD that has helped drive him from his family, his friends, and his country, while Bumi’s condition re-awakens the desire in Mark to reach out to his estranged sister.
Time: Wednesday, January 11th @ 7p
Location: UPEI Faculty Lounge
Admission: Free
Elaine Harrison was born in Petite-Rivere in Nova Scotia, but moved to Prince Edward Island to teach in 1938. There, she and her companion spent their summers at ‘Windswept’, the 200 year-old frame-house on the red cliffs near Seacow Head, where they lived a simple life, and for over fifty years were involved in the intellectual life of the Island and beyond, playing host to numerous summer visitors and corresponding with some of Canada’s top writers.
In1968, retirement gave Elaine the freedom to turn to her interests: her poetry, the campaigning for favoured causes, but above all her painting. Inspired by the Group of Seven, she found her subject matter in the cliffs and waves at Windswept, the sunflowers in her garden, the trees of the local hardwoods, and latterly her own cats and kitchen. In the early days she frequently gave her paintings away to anyone who appreciated them, but from the 1970s she began to get the recognition and financial returns they merited. She died in 2003, but her work is still much-loved by Islanders.
About the Author:
Jane Ledwell has been awarded local and regional prizes and grants for her prose and poetry, notably first prize for both prose and poetry in the Atlantic Writing Awards in 2001. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio, most recently as part of the CBC Poetry Face-Off 2005, and has been published in journals such as blueSHIFT and anthologies such as Landmarks and A Bountiful Harvest. Her book of poetry, Last Tomato was published by Acorn Press in 2005.
“Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning; red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” Atlantic Canadian tradition holds that such warnings be taken seriously. And with good reason; lives often hang in the balance. Sailors aren’t alone in seeing in the world a connectedness that is often lost in the modern world. In Atlantic Canada, thankfully such beliefs still play a role in everyday life. This is a collection of many of those age-old beliefs from the region’s best and most eclectic compiler of folklore.
We also get well known Atlantic Canadians to weigh in with some of their superstitions. Gemini award winning actor and writer and star of the hit comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Cathy Jones recalls many of the “old sayings” from her childhood. Author Allan Lynch remembers home remedies administered by his parents, aunts and grandparents. Former NHLer Glen Murray talks about the superstitions of the game. And singer/songwriters Dave Gunning, Joel Plaskett, Terry Kelly and Rita MacNeil all admit to being just a little bit superstitious. From Nancy Regan, meteorologist Peter Coade, movie reviewer Richard Crouse, and Bluenose II Captain Philip Watson, they are all here.
Following in the footsteps of The Birth House, her powerful debut novel, The Virgin Cure secures Ami McKay’s place as one of our most beguiling storytellers. (Not that it has to . . . that is pretty much taken care of!)“I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart.” So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871.
As a young child, Moth’s father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from his wife and daughter forever, and Moth has never stopped imagining that one day they may be reunited – despite knowing in her heart what he chose over them. Her hard mother is barely making a living with her fortune-telling, sometimes for well-heeled clients, yet Moth is all too aware of how she really pays the rent. Life would be so much better, Moth knows, if fortune had gone the other way – if only she’d had the luxury of a good family and some station in life. The young Moth spends her days wandering the streets of her own and better neighbourhoods, imagining what days are like for the wealthy women whose grand yet forbidding gardens she slips through when no one’s looking. Yet every night Moth must return to the disease- and grief-ridden tenements she calls home.The summer Moth turns twelve, her mother puts a halt to her explorations by selling her boots to a local vendor, convinced that Moth was planning to run away. Wanting to make the most of her every asset, she also sells Moth to a wealthy woman as a servant, with no intention of ever seeing her again.These betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes, but also a locale frequented by New York’s social elite. Their patronage supports the shadowy undersphere, where businesses can flourish if they truly understand the importance of wealth and social standing – and of keeping secrets.
In that world Moth meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as an “infant school.” There Moth finds the orderly solace she has always wanted, and begins to imagine herself embarking upon a new path.Yet salvation does not come without its price: Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are “willing and clean,” and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth. That’s not the worst of the situation, though. In a time and place where mysterious illnesses ravage those who haven’t been cautious, no matter their social station, diseased men yearn for a “virgin cure” – thinking that deflowering a “fresh maid” can heal the incurable and tainted. Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a female physician who works to help young women like her, Moth learns to question and observe the world around her. Moth’s new friends are falling prey to fates both expected and forced upon them, yet she knows the law will not protect her, and that polite society ignores her. Still she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There’s a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.
Time: Tuesday, December 6th @ 7p
Location: Spring Garden Rd. Memorial Library
Admission: Free
Join us for an intimate and interactive look at some of Atlantic Canada’s Best authors. This month we have Wayne Johnston and Ami McKay with us to take a look at their newest releases.
Wayne Johnston is one of the greatest storytellers of his generation. The Newfoundland native, is the author of numerous bestselling and multi-award winning novels, including The Divine Ryans, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, The Custodian of Paradise and his latest narrative, A World Elsewhere.
Ami McKay hit the mark with her first full-length novel The Birth House; the touching tale of a Nova Scotia Midwife resonated with readers and critics alike, earning the Scots Bay resident numerous awards, nominations and a lengthy stay atop the bestseller lists. Her long awaited follow-up is The Virgin Cure.
The Literary Luncheon is hosted by Halifax-based author, journalist and broadcaster Stephen Patrick Clare.
Time: Monday, November 28th @ 12p
Location: The Halifax Club
Admission: 24.95 for Members, 37.49 for non member guests
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Set against the backdrop of Cold War Toronto, The Lightning Field follows the lives of Peter and Lucy Jacobs from their post-war courtship through marriage and child-rearing in the suburbs. Though spanning four decades, the book pivots on the events of a single day: October 4, 1957. On this day, the Russians launch Sputnik into orbit, the Avro Arrow — the most advanced jet plane of its time, whose wings Peter Jacobs has engineered — rolls out onto the tarmac to great ceremony, and, in a nearby field, Lucy Jacobs is struck by lightning on her way to the event. In the aftermath of that day, Peter struggles with his wife’s hospitalization and recovery, the care of their children, and, eventually, the loss of his job when the Arrow project is suddenly terminated. Their children — Kier, Andy and Rose — grow up in the sheltered cul-de-sacs of their Toronto suburb, troubled by the disappointments of their parents’ world, yet drawn to the infinite possibilities inspired by Laika the space dog and the mysteries of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. If so much of what their parents hoped for in life seemed ultimately out of reach, how will this next generation of dreamers find their way?The Lightning Field is about loss and unexpected offerings, personal dismantling and reassembly.
Archibald MacMechan revelled in the tales of worldwide adven- ture, pirates, storms, fires, rescues, and tragedies. MacMechan’s collections, all popular successes in their day, have been out of print for several years. Now In the Great Days of Sail brings fourteen stories together for a new generation of readers. Edited and with an introduction by Halifax author Elizabeth Peirce, the book displays the very best of this master chronicler’s work.
MacMechan’s stories reflect the pride Nova Scotians took in locally built ships, and the legendary tenacity of the captains and crew who sailed them. Among others, we encounter George Churchill of Lunenburg, who had to rebuild his rudder eight times during a voyage from Quebec to Scotland, Captain Samuel Bancroft Davis of Yarmouth, who dreamed the precise latitude and longitude of a distressed ship before steering off his coarse to rescue it, and a routine trip from LaHave to Halifax that made an unplanned detour all the way to London.
Though it was discovered almost five hundred years ago, few people have visited Sable Island. Despite modern navigational tools, excessive fog and stormy weather still make travelling to Sable a challenge. Add government restrictions limiting visitors to the remote island and prohibitive travel costs, and Sable is virtually inaccessible to most.
But the island is part of Maritime lore—dubbed the “graveyard of the Atlantic” because of the number of ships wrecked on its shores, Sable Island also hosts wild horses, tens of thousands of seals, and enchanting “singing” sands and “wandering” dunes. With eighteen species of shark patrolling Sable Island’s waters and the regular fights between bands of horses, not to mention treacherous patches of quicksand, the island is as dangerous as it is alluring.
In this colourful book, author Wendy Kitts introduces the wonders and stark realities of this wild place. Full of photographs and sidebars, Sable Island: The Wandering Sandbar is an accessible and exciting look at this protected, untamed ecosystem.
- From the Publisher
Hydrologos is one long poem composed in five suites and a coda, and spoken through masks. It is a poem about a specific
passion, the one that always follows love: sorrow. What happens to a human being under the geologic pressure of this passion? — One calls out, and the world’s response is silence. The work of sorrowing, one learns, is the work — the endless work — of listening, by which the listener is changed. At the poem’s centre is the original lyric elegy, the myth of Orpheus,but reimagined from the perspective of Eurydike, who makes her own descent into the underworld, to rescue Death. The poem spirals out from this centre, ranging widely across literary eras and genres, engaging with ancient Greek mythtellers and philosophers; with Polish painters and Russian filmmakers; with German Romantic and contemporary Canadian poets. An astonishing debut.
-From the Publisher