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Obstacle Course (Oberon Press, 2002)
$35.95 (hc); $17.95 (sc) ISBN 0-7780-1215-8
"I wanted to plummet to earth and burn in plain sight, then crawl, broken and grateful, to some ruined accommodation of love." Such is the longing of one of the characters in this, Richard Cumyn's fourth collection of stories. From starting block to finish line, this is Cumyn's most ambitious book yet.
"His scenes are so clear, and the prose so austere, that they seem like etchings in black and white" - Ottawa Citizen.
Richard Cumyn is the author of four books of short fiction. An associate
fiction editor for The Antigonish Review, he has had fiction,
essays and articles appear in a variety of publications, and has been
included in The Journey Prize Anthology.
Fractures (Penguin Canada, 2002)
$16 (sc) ISBN 0-14331201-4
Fractures collects twelve unforgettable stories about ordinary kids dealing with challenging, often complex family relationships and problems. While these stories tackle difficult issues and themes - sibling rivalry, alcoholism, illness, child abuse and neglect - they do so with vibrancy and richly observed detail. And each story offers powerful moments of discovery and redemption, as their heroes and heroines seek out and connect with one another, or simply and suddenly realize some essential strength in themselves.
Budge Wilson has won many awards for her writing, including the Canadian
Library Association YA Book Award, the Ann Connor Brimer Award, the City
of Dartmouth Book Award, first prize in the CBC Literary Competition and
many others. Her collection of short stories The Leaving was named
a Notable Book by the American Library Association and was later included
on its list of "The 75 best Children's Books of the Last 25
Years".
Down the Coaltown Road (Key Porter Fiction, 2002)
$24.95(sc) ISBN 1-55263-482-5
Poignant and comic by turns, Down the Coaltown Road is a
captivating novel about the human heart and the redemptive power of love.
Set in a small coal mining town in Cape Breton at the beginning of World
War II, the book dramatizes an almost forgotten event in Canadian history.
After Mussolini took Italy into the war on the side of Hitler in June
1940, Italian men in Canada were rounded up and interned in camps some for
as long as three years. In Coaltown, that drama plays out among a cast of
memorable and finely wrought characters.
Sheldon Currie was a Professor of English at St. Francis Xavier University
and the fiction editor of the Antigonish Review. He now writes full time.
The film Margaret's Museum is based on one of his short stories and
includes episodes from several other pieces of his work. Currie has
published two collections of short stories and two previous novels, The
Company Store and The Glace Bay Miners' Museum.
Going to the Eyestone (Wolsak and Wynn, 2002) $14(sc), ISBN
0-919897-83-5
"Whether Dwyer explores the tenuous connections between generations of those caught in the fabric of history, her poems always manage to capture those fleeting moments that change us. Throughout this astounding book, she gives us intimate and honest takes on love, family, loss, and tragedy. From a very few carefully chosen details, her poems illuminate whole lives. These are poems you will want to return to often." - Robert Hilles
Deirdre Dwyer lives in Musquodoboit Harbour and teaches at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She is the author of one previous book of poetry, The Breath that Lightens the Body, and a former winner of the WFNS' Atlantic Writing Competition for poetry.
Untying the Tongue (Black Moss Press, 2002) $17.95(sc), ISBN
0-88753-368-X
Untying the Tongue begins as a "diary of dreams" - dreams of
displaced settlers whose "present remains" are etched in place: botany,
stone-walled wells; memorials. This tribute to blood and consciousness
evolves as landscape -portraiture - views of the universe assembling
itself in the miracle of everyday objects and characters as familiar as
family. The poet becomes a hunter-gatherer, in a realm where poems
pre-exist language. An exploration of romantic love never lost, but
sighted in landscape, displaces fear of the world of naked
stardust.
Cook was born in Yarmouth and has worked as a news reporter, lecturer,
executive director at the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, freelance
writer, and dramatist. More recently he has resided in Toronto,
Fredericton, and Saint John, where he is writing a biography of poet Alden
Nowlan (1933-83).
We Love to Ride the Ferry: 250 Years of Halifax-Dartmouth Ferry Crossings (Nimbus Publishing, 2002) $19.95(sc), ISBN 1-55109-421-5
For 250 years now, ferries have plied the waters of Halifax Harbour, transporting people, vehicles, and goods between the two historic communities flourishing on its banks. For the first 65 years, the service was conducted in open boats driven by oars, sails, or hand-cranked paddlewheels. Later, the novel idea of using horsepower - eight horses turning a great wheel on the deck - was adopted, until finally steam engines made their debut in 1830. We Love to Ride the Ferry chronicles a connection between peninsular Halifax and mainland Dartmouth as well as the gradual evolution of the municipal transit system in the Halifax region.
Joan Payzant is a long-time resident of Dartmouth, and has witnessed some of the ferry service's evolution during her own many crossings. In addition to Like a Weaver's Shuttle, she has authored numerous books, including Who's a Scaredy Cat!, a children's book about the Halifax Explosion.
Stephen Kimber
Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War (Doubleday Canada, 2002) $34.95(hc), ISBN 0-385-25993-X
In May 1945, while other Canadians celebrated the Allies' victory in Europe with parades and prayers of thanksgiving, the city of Halifax erupted in a riot - a two-day Bacchanalian orgy of boozing, looting, window-smashing, dancing in the streets, public fornicating and mindless mayhem - that not only tore the city apart but also finally ripped the lid off five years of festering frustration and anger. This is the untold story of why Halifax' infamous VE day riots really happened: how over-crowding, privation, petty paternalism and the inevitable tensions of a city at war transformed a sleepy east coast Nova Scotia port city into a powder keg waiting for a spark. And how an admiral's pride provided the match that set it all off.
Stephen Kimber is the Director of the School of Journalism at King's
College in Halifax and former producer for CBC and CTV. He is the author
of four non-fiction books, including the bestselling Flight 111: The
Tragedy of the Swissair Crash. He has won an ACTRA award for
documentary writing and a National Author's Award. He lives with his wife
and three children in Halifax.
Faces of Fate: The Evacuation of Children from Great Britain
During World War II
(Acadian, 2002) $24.95
ISBN 0-9731105-0-3 (sc) .
A
bittersweet, insightful story about millions of children who were sent
away by their parents to live with strangers before and during WWII. Read
about Ben Wicks' and Peter C. Newman's experiences and other children,
referred to as British Evacuee/Guest Children, who lived in the Maritimes,
throughout Canada, and the other Dominions.
Find out how Pier 21, along with other provincial agencies and
organizations played a pivotal role to match the children with foster
families for the duration of the War. Faces of Fate has numerous
personal
memoirs; letters; forms; B&W photos; and memorabilia of the Queen Mom and
King George VI. Donations from the sale of each book are going to CAN-U,
the Cumberland Adult Network for Upgrading, and Pier 21 Society.
Debi van de Wiel is the author of We Followed the Stars to Canada
(Nimbus);
Pier 21 - An Illustrated History of Canada's Gateway (Nimbus),
co-authored with Alexa Thompson; and a children's first chapter book, A
Lovely Bubbly Day.
Debi lives with her husband in Cumberland County.
Petits bonheurs (Éditions Pierre Tisseyre, 2002) $7.95, ISBN 2-89051-838-8
Q'ue faire quand une bôite aux letters souffre d'une indigestion de triste courier? Comment soigner le mal du pays d'une locomotive décidément trop émotive? Est-il possible de consoler un érable solitaire, tout surpris d'avoir poussé trop vite? Pas facile non plus d'être un rayon de soleil myope ou un champignon bien maladroit qui rêve de danser le tango? Tous ces charmants personnages, fort originaux, trouveront cependant le chemin du bonheur pour le plus grand plaisir des lecteurs.
Alain Raimbault est né a Paris en 1966. Il a grandi dans le sud de la France, puis il a poursuivi des études le langues à l'université de Poitiers. Il s'est installé en Nouvelle-Icosse en 1998 où il est enseignant à l'école Rose des vents, dans la vallée d'Annapolis. Il écrit des histories pour la jeunesse depuis la naissance de sa fille en 1996 et, tous les soirs, il lui écrit un poème.
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