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FOR INFORMATION ON THE CURRENT ATLANTIC BOOK FESTIVAL AND AWARDS, PLEASE GO TO: www.writers.ns.ca/
On this list you’ll find novels about legacy redefined, verse that's at once ample in theme and precise in language, history by turns delectable and divisive, stunning combinations of word and image, memorable takes on friendship and a wine connoisseur who takes you around the world. Nominated authors – 25 books in all – vie for the following awards: | Atlantic Poetry Prize | Dartmouth
Book Award, Non-Fiction |
Nominated for the 10th Annual Atlantic Poetry Prize: |
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Steve McOrmond,
Primer on the Hereafter With precision and purpose, Steve McOrmond penetrates the surfaces of daily life, rural and urban, here and afar, in search of other, or greater, meanings. The Primer on the Hereafter cuts through with lines like: “Held hostage in the bank vault of winter, the captive will identify with the captor / However peacefully it seems to fall, there is suppressed violence in the snow.” Home, loneliness, belonging and worth (of the self and of objects around him) all come into sharp resolve here. Steve McOrmond lives in Toronto. Born in Nova Scotia, he grew up on PEI. His work has appeared in Fiddlehead, Geist and Grain and his first book of poetry, Lean Days, was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. In 2006, he received a “Highly Commended” award in the Petra Kenney International Poetry Contest. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: www.stevemcormond.com, Wolsak & Wynn, Wikipedia
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Peter Sanger,
Aiken Drum This collection finds Peter Sanger writing from his poet’s heart while employing his archaeologist’s eye. When the “poetic champions compose” (as Van Morrison sings) they hold equal long-buried classical imagery and ideas with those of the local and immediate. Sanger does this well. He includes a long poem on 19th century man of mystery William Newman, a con artist who roamed New England and the Maritimes. Elsewhere, he ponders the photography of New Brunswicker Thaddeus Holownia. Sanger’s fierce intelligence and rigor holds the opposites in perfect balance. Peter Sanger has published seven collections of poetry, including Earth Moth (1991) and Arborealis (2005), a collaborative project with photographer Thaddeus Holownia. His recent prose work includes White Salt Mountain: Words in Time. He’s been the poetry editor of The Antigonish Review since 1985. He lives in South Maitland, Nova Scotia. Hi-res pictures: cover, author (by Kate Kennedy), author2 (by Andrew Steeves) More information: Gaspereau Press, Wikipedia, Rambles (review), Quill & Quire (review)
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Mary Dalton,
Red Ledger Collection number four from Mary Dalton packs tight the tough and visceral with the erotic and the sociopolitical. Writing in The Globe and Mail, author Jane Urquhart, who chose the book among her best of 2006, notes, “It's sensuous, surprisingly lively at times, and sometimes very wonderfully dark; the emotions revealed in these poems taste like atmosphere. Salt, for example, is a recurring metaphor for desire and for the dizzying parade of images that make up the much-loved places ("St. John's as well as "round the bay") where the poet lives.” Mary Dalton lives in St. John’s and teaches in the English Department at Memorial University. Her outstanding contribution to the arts has been recognized with the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts and Letters Award. Mary’s previous book, Merrybegot, won the 2005 E.J. Pratt Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the Winterset and Pat Lowther Memorial Awards. Hi-res pictures: cover, author (by Rod Batten) More information: Véhicule Press, League of Canadian Poets, cbc.ca/wordsatlarge (feature), Toronto Star (review) |
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Nominated
for the 4th annual Best Atlantic Published
Book Award: |
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Bobak: The Full Palette, edited by Bernard Riordan Bronislaw Josephus “Bruno” Bobak discovered art in weekend classes organized by Group of Seven member Arthur Lismer at the Art Gallery of Toronto (later the Art Gallery of Ontario). He went on to become Canada’s youngest Official War Artist. Following that he held leading positions at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and at the UNB Art Centre in Fredericton. His figurative paintings are known for their bold expressionism and large scale. In six essays by curators and artists, with beautiful reproductions of his work, Bobak’s art and life leap from the page. Appointed in 1975, Bernard Riordan was founding director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He became director of Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton in 2003. He’s also author of Nova Scotia Folk Art: Canada’s Cultural Heritage and Joe Norris: Painted Visions of Nova Scotia. Hi-res pictures: cover, editor (by S. Coutts Sutherland) More information: Goose Lane Editions
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East
Coast Rug-Hooking Designs: New Patterns from an Old Tradition,
by Deanne Fitzpatrick East Coast Rug-Hooking Designs is filled with over thirty patterns of coastal-inspired hooked mats, each pattern accompanied by the stories that inspired them. The designs range from those suitable for beginners to those that will challenge the experienced hooker. Each design includes basic instructions, a pattern to copy, a list of necessary supplies, rug-hooking tips, a story about the design and a photograph of the finished hooked rug. Deanne Fitzpatrick grew up in Freshwater, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, the youngest of seven children, and now lives in Amherst. Her mother and both her grandmothers hooked rugs, as a pastime and as a chore of necessity. Deanne works as a full time rug-hooking artist and her work is exhibited at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and has been featured on CBC’s Land and Sea. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Nimbus, www.hookingrugs.com, The Artists Loft |
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Ganong:
A Sweet History of Chocolate, by David Folster Family-owned entrepreneurial businesses have driven the Atlantic Canadian economy for well over a century. They’ve also defined the culture of this region. Ganong: A Sweet History of Chocolate illustrates the Ganong company’s beginnings in 1873, when James and Gilbert Ganong opened a tiny grocery store in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Since then, five generations of the family have maintained Ganong’s specialty in making sweets, but also in advertising, package design and more. Gorgeous photos and insightful text let readers feast on this story. David Folster is a journalist, social historian, and heritage and conservation activist. He is the author of The Great Trees of New Brunswick and The Chocolate Ganongs of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, which was shortlisted for the 1990 Canadian Business Book of the Year Award. Hi-res pictures: cover, author (by Glenn Ross) More information: Goose Lane Editions, Ganong, Gremolata (review) |
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Nominated
for the 19th annual Atlantic Independent
Booksellers’ Choice Award: |
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Wayne
Johnston, The Custodian of Paradise Who wouldn’t want to follow Wayne Johnston on his return to the literary territory first explored in The Colony of Unrequited Dreams? Of course this time the quick-witted and cutting Sheilagh Fielding leads the way. The journey leads to deeper and further isolation and solitude, a state in which Fielding immerses herself. So much the better to tell her story of being abandoned as a child and burned by love as a young woman – all the while followed, and cared for, by her mysterious Provider. Born in Newfoundland in 1958, Wayne Johnston grew up in Goulds, a few miles south of St. John’s. He’s lived in Toronto since 1989. His novel The Divine Ryans won the first Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize in 1991, as did The Colony of Unrequited Dreams in 1999. Since 2004, he’s been Distinguished Chair in Creative Writing at Hollins University in Virginia. Wayne Johnston's Custodian of Paradise is also nominated for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Knopf, waynejohnston.ca, Blogcritics Magazine (review)
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Ami McKay,
The Birth House There’s great import to the birth of Dora Rare. She’s the first female born to the family in five generations. Dora’s life continues to be charged as she befriends and studies under the spirited Acadian midwife, Miss Babineau. Soon the still-young but brash medical establishment – in the guise of Dr. Gilbert Thomas – confronts them and their work in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia. A death casts suspicion on the midwives and the community divides behind and against. With historic and well-researched detail, as well as an appreciation for the political, this narrative brings the past in full dimension to the present. Ami McKay, and this book, started out in journalism. Her work has aired on Sunday Edition and OutFront. When she and her family moved to Scots Bay, she discovered their home was in fact a former birth house. Ami McKay's The Birth House is also nominated for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Knopf, thebirthhouse.com, amimckay.com, quill and quire (profile) |
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David Adams Richards, The Friends
of Meager Fortune Ah brothers. Often so close and yet so far apart. It takes a novelist of David Adams Richards’ calibre to unravel the mystery of this sibling relationship and to do so within the confines of a compelling story. Will and Owen Jameson grow up in the Miramichi, the sons of a logging kingpin. The elder Will inherits the father’s love of labour and his toughness, but also his fate. The younger Owen looks inward and escapes into books. After the fall of the father and the first son, it’s up to Owen to define the family legacy and to redefine himself. Born in Newcastle, New Brunswick in 1950, David Adams Richards has returned time and again to the Miramichi. His book Mercy Among the Children shared the Giller Award in 2000, the same year he was shortlisted for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize. The Friends of Meager Fortune just received the 2007 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book for Canada/Caribbean Region. The overall winner is announced May 27. Hi-res pictures: cover, author (by Kevin Kelly) More information: Doubleday, Wikipedia, www.davidadamsrichards.com, www.powells.com (review), Quill & Quire (review) |
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Nominated for the 17th annual Ann
Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature:
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Budge
Wilson, Friendships Friendships are limitless in their nature and character. Budge Wilson understands and honours this in Friendships, a subtle and moving collection of stories about surprising moments of understanding from unlikely sources. In “The Snake,” a girl faces her fears with help from a strange ally; in “Father by Mail,” a teenager writes down all the things he could never say to the parent who has left him behind; and in “Bruno,” a boy discovers a way to deal with a bully. Halifax resident Budge Wilson, one of Canada’s best-loved authors for young readers, tells perceptive and contemporary stories that show struggling boys and girls making a connection with someone who can bring them to a kind of balance. |
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| Janet
McNaughton, The Raintree Rebellion Welcome back Blake Raintree! Now eighteen, the heroine of the critically acclaimed The Secret Under My Skin returns to the city of her birth. She’s now an aide to a justice council charged with addressing the wrongs of the technocaust. Back in her hometown she searches her past, aided by the microchip her parents planted in her arm at birth. What she learns causes her to question everything she knows about herself and to search for the love and acceptance she has been denied her entire life, and, finally, to make a wrenching choice. Born in Toronto, Janet McNaughton has lived in St. John’s for more than 20 years. She’s the bestselling author of several award-winning and highly praised young adult novels including Catch Me Once, Catch Me Twice and An Earthly Knight, which won the Bruneau Family Children's Literature Award and the Mr. Christie's Book Award. Janet has a PhD in folklore. More information: HarperCollins, janetmcnaughton.ca |
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Darlene Ryan,
Saving Grace Teenaged Evie faces a big, tough decision. She suspects her baby, which she was forced to give up for adoption, is being neglected. She snatches the child back and convinces her boyfriend Justin, who’s waiting in his truck, to drive her to Montreal where she plans to start a new life as a mother. When the baby won't eat and she and Justin argue, she ends up alone in a small town. As the baby becomes sicker, Evie must decide whether to admit her mistake and turn herself in, or to keep running. Fredericton resident Darlene Ryan wrote Rules for Life, an ALA Best Book nominee. She’s also the author of A Mother’s Adoption Journey, which draws on her own experience adopting a baby girl from China. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Orca, darleneryan.com |
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Nominated for the 19th annual Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction: |
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Maureen
Hull, The View from a Kite Exceptional character and circumstance combine in this debut novel. Teenaged Gwen is the thoughtful and observant storyteller illuminating life inside one of the last tuberculosis sanatoriums in Nova Scotia during the 1970s. The hospital’s surroundings, fellow patients and the disease’s manifestations (her research notes are interspersed throughout) all come clear. So does the wry humour about her own escapades, a fling on a stairwell and a drunken escape to a party in town. And so too the glimpses into a violent and dark past. Born and raised in Cape Breton, Maureen Hull now lives on Pictou Island in the Northumberland Strait. She studied at NSCAD, Dalhousie University and the Pictou Fisheries School and has worked at the costume department of Neptune Theatre and as a lobster fisher. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her short story collection, Righteous Living, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award and several of her stories have been read on CBC radio. |
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| Stephen Kimber,
Reparations This is a gutsy first novel that meets head on an unresolved issue in Nova Scotia: Africville. The book opens with the trial of a young black man who, while working for the municipal government, steals government money in the name of reparations for the shattered community. The presiding judge and the defence attorney in the case both share a connection to Africville’s fate – razed by the city in the ’60s – and to each other. As they wade through decades of political manipulations and social strife, both lawyer and judge confront their intertwined pasts. Stephen Kimber is an acclaimed, award-winning writer, editor, broadcaster and professor in the School of Journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax. He is the author of five non-fiction titles including Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War; "Not Guilty": The Trial of Gerald Regan; and Flight 111: The Tragedy of the Swissair Crash. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: HarperCollins, www.stephenkimber.com, filly.ca (review), TheCyberkrib.com (interview) |
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Linda Little,
Scotch River A cowboy comes home to the Maritimes after his rodeo partner dies. With no one and nothing to hold on to, Cass Hutt gives up the riding and ranch life out West to follow a mysterious land deed back to Scotch River, Nova Scotia. Once he’s back, sketchy boyhood memories slowly resolve and Cass is faced with an unforgettable cast of characters bound together by the mysteries of blood and the burdens of memory. Growing up in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Linda Little came to settle in River John, Nova Scotia after studying at Queen’s and Memorial Universities and living in St. John’s. Her first novel, Strong Hollow, was nominated for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Books in Canada Canada/Amazon First Novel Award. Linda Little's Scotch River is also nominated for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Penguin, WFNS, London Free Press (review)
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Nominated for the 19th annual Dartmouth Book Award for Non-Fiction: |
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| Keith McLaren,
A Race for Real Sailors The anticipation, pressure and thrill of each and every International Fisherman’s Cup race – it ran from 1920 to 1938 – enlivens these pages. It was a 40-mile ocean course that battered and bruised every ship. Along with much else, national pride was on the line every time. As many reviewers have noted, McLaren writes with the firsthand knowledge of a sailor and the skill of a storyteller (for many, that’s one and the same). Born in Victoria, he now lives in North Saanich, British Columbia. McLaren crossed Canada to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. He’s worked on the sea for more than 35 years, most recently as Master of The Spirit of Vancouver Island. His previous books include Bluenose, Bluenose II and Light on the Water. Hi-res pictures: cover, author, author2 More information: Douglas & McIntyre |
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| Linden
MacIntyre, Causeway: A Passage from Innocence Fifty-five years ago this year, the Canso Causeway connecting Cape Breton Island and the Nova Scotia mainland was completed. For a tiny village this was massive change. The transformation was also deeply personal as veteran CBC TV journalist Linden MacIntyre shows in this evocative memoir. Suddenly he could imagine catching up with his father, Dan Rory, who was always away. Just as quickly, he could imagine crossing himself, leaving behind people like his Gaelic-speaking grandmother, Peigeag, who may or may not have been able to cure or curse you. Added to the clarity of MacIntyre’s memory and appreciation for character is a sharp sense of humour. An award-winning journalist on The Fifth Estate, Linden MacIntyre’s first novel, The Long Stretch, was shortlisted for the 2000 Dartmouth Book Award and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award. MacIntyre was born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and grew up in Port Hastings, Cape Breton. He now lives in Toronto. Linden MacIntyre's Causeway is also nominated for the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: HarperCollins, CBC (bio) |
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M. Brook Taylor, A Camera on the
Banks: Frederick William Wallace and the Fishermen of Nova Scotia This book provides a lens on the importance of the camera as storyteller in the early 20th century and on a transformative period – when unassisted sail was in its decline – in the fishery off Nova Scotia. Brook Taylor’s text captures the detail, voices and concerns of the day. It places you on the pitching and rolling decks of ships, thanks to well-stocked black-and-white documentary-style pictures of journalist and commercial artist Frederick William Wallace. (This includes an amazing action shot from the bow of the Dorothy M. Smart crashing through the seas in the Bay of Fundy in March 1912). M. Brook Taylor is a history professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. He curated a first-ever public exhibit of Wallace’s work at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. M. Brook Taylor's A Camera on the Banks is also nominated for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Goose Lane Editions |
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Nominated for the 17th annual Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize: |
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Ami McKay, The Birth House There’s great import to the birth of Dora Rare. She’s the first female born to the family in five generations. Dora’s life continues to be charged as she befriends and studies under the spirited Acadian midwife, Miss Babineau. Soon the still-young but brash medical establishment – in the guise of Dr. Gilbert Thomas – confronts them and their work in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia. A death casts suspicion on the midwives and the community divides behind and against. With historic and well-researched detail, as well as an appreciation for the political, this narrative brings the past in full dimension to the present. Ami McKay, and this book, started out in journalism. Her work has aired on Sunday Edition and OutFront. When she and her family moved to Scots Bay, she discovered their home was in fact a former birth house. Ami McKay's The Birth House is also nominated for the Booksellers' Choice Award. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Knopf, thebirthhouse.com, amimckay.com, quill and quire (profile) |
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| Wayne Johnston, The Custodian
of Paradise Who wouldn’t want to follow Wayne Johnston on his return to the literary territory first explored in The Colony of Unrequited Dreams? Of course this time the quick-witted and cutting Sheilagh Fielding leads the way. The journey leads to deeper and further isolation and solitude, a state in which Fielding immerses herself. So much the better to tell her story of being abandoned as a child and burned by love as a young woman – all the while followed, and cared for, by her mysterious Provider. Born in Newfoundland in 1958, Wayne Johnston grew up in Goulds, a few miles south of St. John’s. He’s lived in Toronto since 1989. His novel The Divine Ryans won the first Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize in 1991, as did The Colony of Unrequited Dreams in 1999. Since 2004, he’s been Distinguished Chair in Creative Writing at Hollins University in Virginia. Wayne Johnston's Custodian of Paradise is also nominated for the Booksellers' Choice Award Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Knopf, waynejohnston.ca, Blogcritics Magazine (review) |
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| Linda Little, Scotch River A cowboy comes home to the Maritimes after his rodeo partner dies. With no one and nothing to hold on to, Cass Hutt gives up the riding and ranch life out West to follow a mysterious land deed back to Scotch River, Nova Scotia. Once he’s back, sketchy boyhood memories slowly resolve and Cass is faced with an unforgettable cast of characters bound together by the mysteries of blood and the burdens of memory. Growing up in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Linda Little came to settle in River John, Nova Scotia after studying at Queen’s and Memorial Universities and living in St. John’s. Her first novel, Strong Hollow, was nominated for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Books in Canada Canada/Amazon First Novel Award. Linda Little's Scotch River is also nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Penguin, WFNS, London Free Press (review) |
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Nominated for the 30th annual Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction: |
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Marq de
Villiers, Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather Two personal episodes bookend this book. The book opens when the author is a child and almost driven off a cliff into the sea by a ferocious wind. It closes with Hurricane Ivan pounding at the door of Marq de Villier’s home in Nova Scotia. In between, Windswept explores how the ancients viewed wind; whether global warming is causing more severe weather; early sailing lore; and the strange psychological effects of the famous Santa Ana winds. Born in South Africa, Marq de Villiers’ nine non-fiction books include Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, which won the Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. With his wife, Sheila Hirtle, he is also the author of A Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island, which won the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction. Formerly a nationally renowned journalist, Marq now devotes himself to writing books from his home in the teeth of the weather in Port Medway, Nova Scotia. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: McClelland & Stewart, WFNS, New York Times (review), The Globe and Mail (review)
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Linden MacIntyre, Causeway:
A Passage from Innocence Fifty-five years ago this year, the Canso Causeway connecting Cape Breton Island and the Nova Scotia mainland was completed. For a tiny village this was massive change. The transformation was also deeply personal as veteran CBC TV journalist Linden MacIntyre shows in this evocative memoir. Suddenly he could imagine catching up with his father, Dan Rory, who was always away. Just as quickly, he could imagine crossing himself, leaving behind people like his Gaelic-speaking grandmother, Peigeag, who may or may not have been able to cure or curse you. Added to the clarity of MacIntyre’s memory and appreciation for character is a sharp sense of humour. An award-winning journalist on The Fifth Estate, Linden MacIntyre’s first novel, The Long Stretch, was shortlisted for the 2000 Dartmouth Book Award and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award. MacIntyre was born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and grew up in Port Hastings, Cape Breton. He now lives in Toronto. Linden MacIntyre's Causeway is also nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: HarperCollins, CBC (bio) |
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Natalie MacLean,
Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape
to Glass Like her culinary and gastronomic counterparts who bring fans to kitchens and markets the world over, Natalie MacLean leads readers right into the action, the art, the heart of winemaking. The author writes with a sense of humour, a nose for investigative inquiry and a knowledge as deep as a pinot noir (coupled with the ability to deliver it in clear, accessible prose). Follow her as she labours in a California grape harvest, dons the sommelier’s clothes in a French restaurant and serves the refined customers in a New York shop; or take instruction on how to read complex guides or hold a tasting. A recipient of multiple awards, Ottawa resident Natalie MacLean’s wine journalism is read all over the world. She appears in many magazines, including Saltscapes and Chatelaine, and continues to publish the highly popular free e-newsletter Nat Decants. Hi-res pictures: cover, author (by Michelle Valberg) More information: Doubleday, nataliemaclean.com, Gremolata (interview) |
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Nominated for the 4th annual Margaret and John Savage First Book Award: |
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| John G.
Langley, Steam Lion: A Biography of Samuel Cunard This is the first full-length biography of Halifax born-and-bred Samuel Cunard. The shipping magnate was a mover and shaker in the 19th century world of international trade. His influence endures as the Cunard Line of ocean liners continues to dominate the seas. (In 2004, the massive Queen Mary II was launched.) John G. Langley covers the growth of the company and the other commercial and social concerns of this historic figure. Halifax resident John Langley is a retired lawyer and a world authority on Cunard and his company. He founded the Cunard Steamship Society, a group dedicated to the preservation and exchange of historical information and related memorabilia and has consulted on films and documetaries. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Nimbus |
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| Elaine
McCluskey, The Watermelon Social The usual suburban tropes fade away in Elaine McCluskey’s debut collection of ten stories. Nothing TV-sinister happens in these pages; instead there are depths for the reader to plumb in every story. McCluskey renders the stillness and quiet of suburban communities in note-perfect style, the same result she achieves when she writes of children – from their points of view. Without relying on place names, there’s something essentially Atlantic in these stories. Elaine McCluskey’s stories have appeared in The Antigonish Review, Gaspereau Review and Pottersfield Portfolio. The title story in this collection was shortlisted for the 2004 Journey Prize. A former Bureau Chief for the Canadian Press news agency, McCluskey lives with her family in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Gaspereau Press, WFNS |
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| M. Brook Taylor, A Camera
on the Banks: Frederick William Wallace and the Fishermen of Nova Scotia This book provides a lens on the importance of the camera as storyteller in the early 20th century and on a transformative period – when unassisted sail was in its decline – in the fishery off Nova Scotia. Brook Taylor’s text captures the detail, voices and concerns of the day. It places you on the pitching and rolling decks of ships, thanks to well-stocked black-and-white documentary-style pictures of journalist and commercial artist Frederick William Wallace. (This includes an amazing action shot from the bow of the Dorothy M. Smart crashing through the seas in the Bay of Fundy in March 1912). M. Brook Taylor is a history professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. He curated a first-ever public exhibit of Wallace’s work at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. M. Brook Taylor's A Camera on the Banks is also nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Goose Lane Editions
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Nominated for the 5th annual Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration: |
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| Ron Lightburn,
The Happily Ever Afternoon What a great reminder: birthdays are for wishes and the imagination. On his birthday, a little boy pictures a room full of treasure. Our hero thus goes on a quest to get a cut of the cake before the party starts. Along the way, he’ll have to outwit ferocious dragons, endure distant exile, and outrace the most formidable guardians of them all: his parents. His journey unfolds in an icing-coloured wonder. Ron Lightburn is the award-winning illustrator of several books for children, including How Smudge Came and Waiting for the Whales. He lives in Kentville. |
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| Brenda Jones,
Skunks for Breakfast Everything about Pamela’s family and life is normal until the skunks arrive, and arrive. Then suddenly everything about her life, and her family, stinks. But Pamela takes heart, then action with her father, trying their darndest to get rid of the smelly pests, one after the other after the other. Brenda Jones depicts the change in Pamela’s character, her reluctant warming to the unexpectedly cute creatures and her father’s helplessness in the face of such an odorous onslaught. Born and raised in PEI, she now works as an illustrator, commercial designer and film animator in Montreal. She has illustrated a dozen books, including Lobster in My Pocket and Mr. Sweetums Wears Pink. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Nimbus |
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Odell Archibald, P is for Puffin The unique visual and spoken language of Newfoundland and Labrador is celebrated in this collaboration by illustrator Odell Archibald and author Janet Skirving. Archibald makes a painting for each letter in the alphabet. Archibald’s work is colourful, detailed and textured. These unforgettable scenes combine with thoughtful text from Skirving, perfect for anyone and everyone who’s visited – or wants to visit – the beloved Rock. Odell Archibald grew up in Stephenville Crossing and now lives in Kippens with her family. With a cottage in Salmon River, on the west side of Newfoundland, she’s eyed this province closely. Hi-res pictures: cover, author More information: Sleeping Bear Press, CM Magazine (review) |
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