Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia

Eastword, May/June 2003

Sue MacLeod

That Singing You Hear at the Edges. Signature Editions, 2003. $14.95. ISBN 0-921833-90-3 .

Frog Hollow Books owner Mary Jo Anderson wrote about Sue MacLeod's collection: "The poems speak for themselves and in a language that is breathtaking in its simplicity and its complexity.... Sue MacLeod's poetry sings laments, love songs, and 'that singing you hear at the edges'."

Rooted in a particular life but looking outward, the poems in That Singing You Hear at the Edges express a full range of emotion. Sue works intimately, intricately, with the power of nuance, of detail. Two of the poems in this book have won national prizes: Arc's Poem of the Year award, and Second Prize in the LCP's National Poetry Contest. When the final poem, "Especially for a woman, reading," was broadcast, listeners responded from across the country, asking, "Where can I get a copy?" This book is the reply.

Sue MacLeod lives in Halifax and works in a public library. Her first poetry collection, The Language of Rain (1995), was shortlisted for the Milton Acorn Award. In May 2001, Sue was invested for a four year term as the Halifax Regional Municipality's first Poet Laureate.

Brian Bartlett

Wanting the Day: Selected Poems. Goose Lane Editions, May 2003 . $19.95. ISBN 0-86492-357-0.

Wanting the Day: Selected Poems is a distillation of Bartlett's poems from the past thirty years, including works from Cattail Week, Planet Harbor, Underwater Carpentry, Granite Erratics, and The Afterlife of Trees.

Over the years, Bartlett's poems have won several honours, including two Malahat Review long poem prizes, and first place in the Petra Kenney awards. Mark Abley has written: "Brian Bartlett's generous, astute, supple poems show that attentiveness can be a form of love. They stimulate the mind. They also stir the heart."

Don Coles has commented: "Mostly, what strikes me about The Afterlife of Trees is the very distinctive voice that, once opened, it shows forth. I'd recognize it among many. The words, the lines, just keep on justifying one's eyes being there.... They speak in the thoughtful and intelligent voice of a human life in midjourney. If there's a higher mode to aim at, I don't know what it is."

Brian Bartlett grew up in New Brunswick, and now teaches creative writing and English at Saint Mary's University. He has recently edited Don McKay: Essays on His Works (forthcoming in 2004) and is completing Living with Poetry, a collection of essays, journals, interviews and other prose pieces. His new collection, Wanting the Day: Selected Poems, will be published by Peterloo Poets of Cornwall, England, in the fall of 2003.

Donna Smyth

Among the Saints: Collected Stories. Roseway Publishing, June 2003. $16.00. ISBN 1-896496-37-7.

Among the Saints is a collection of stories that delve beneath the events of everyday life experiences. They touch on everything from the culture and mores of funeral homes to the amazing birth of baby goats on the farm that Smyth cultivates in Hants County. They explore sexual abuse and homophobia. Often developed in traditional linear form, several , defy fiction--non-fiction distinctions.

In "Red Hot," the story of Jean Stafford's terrifying life and death, the short story is stretched to a dramatic presentation, a radio play, perhaps. In "The Temptation of Leafy" about an old woman most would call simply daft, a philosophy emerges that in its simple truth would challenge the conventional and complacent if they chose to listen. The many characters, emerge not through ideology but from their existence from hour to hour, in real woods or houses and among tea cups.

Donna Smyth grew up in Kimberly, BC, and has lived and worked on the west coast, in Britain, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Her writing is always crossing genres, slipping and sliding around definitions of what is "supposed to be." Donna now lives on an old farm in Hants County.

Lesley Choyce

The Coasts of Canada: A History. Goose Lane Editions, 2002. $37.95 (hc). ISBN 0-86492-360-0 .

As benevolent as it is brutal, the sea has controlled Canada's history and shaped our collective identity. The Coasts of Canada tells the stories of our east, west, and north coastlines, from the earliest human habitation until today. A coast-dweller himself, Lesley Choyce is fascinated by the legendary men of the sea, but his sympathy lies with the men and women whose everyday lives are governed by the country's oceans.

Farley Mowat commented on the book: " Lesley Choyce comes as close as billy-be-damned to being a proper son of the sea. It's in his blood and it comes out in almost everything he does and writes.[The Coasts of Canada] is one hell of a good yarn, and true as gold."

One of Canada's most versatile authors, Lesley Choyce writes fiction and poetry as well as history. The publisher of Pottersfield Press, he also teaches at Dalhousie University. A familiar TV personality, he is seen throughout Canada on Vision TV's Off the Page, which he hosts and co-produces. Lesley lives in East Lawrencetown.

Felekech Metaferia Woldehana

Sparkle: The Lucky Girl of Emperor Haile Selassie. Trafford Publishing, 2002. $30.20. ISBN 155369666-2.

Felekech Metaferia Woldehana left Ethiopia with her six children in a forced flight from civil war. Felekech and her children, whose ages ranged from a 28 month old baby to 16 year old, fled their homeland with only the clothes they were wearing. They stayed in a refugee camp in Kenya for two years. The family came to Canada in 1993 and now lives in Dartmouth.

Today, Felekech has a very busy life: raising her children, working at a long-term care facility and studying social sciences and arts at Dalhousie University.

Felekech Woldehana wrote this autobiography to alert the world to the struggles of women and children in Ethiopia. Sparkle is more than just an autobiography, it is a testimony to the life of a remarkable woman whose faith and unfailing spirit have brought her through days of terror to a place where her dreams have come true.

Richard Cumyn

The View from Tamischeira. Beach Holme Publishing, 2003 . $15.95. ISBN 0-88878-441-4.

At the dawn of the twentieth century a disparate group of travellers are thrown together in the Caucasus Mountains, the fabled land of Argonauts, Amazons, and Cossacs. British MP and writer Henry Norman teams up with Canadian radio pioneer Reginald Fessenden and Katherine Waddell, the lover of Fessenden's dead friend, poet Archibald Lampman.

Each of the travellers has a quest: Fessenden seeks physical confirmation of the Garden of Eden, Atlantis, and the Great Flood. Norman is after the material for a new book and Waddell seeks solace for her grief. Along for the ride is Pushkin-loving Sergei, a rowdy, irreverent Georgian guide and interpreter. There are many views from Mount Tamischeira. For this band of latter-day Argonauts, peering into one's heart may be the most challenging prospect.

Richard Cumyn has published four volumes of short fiction, including I Am Not Most Places and, most recently, The Obstacle Course. Richard's stories have appeared in many literary journals and collections, including the Journey Prize Anthology. His collection Viking Brides was shortlisted for the ReLit Award. He lives in Halifax.

Michael Seary

Children Making Art. Printed by Gaspereau Press, 2003. $10. ISBN 0-9732250-0-9.

"It was four o'clock on the second day of the annual Art Gallery of Nova Scotia's Children's Festival. Having listened to the folk singer, watched the artists-in-the-gallery paint, and helped their daughter make plasticine landscapes, the young family with their toddler walked slowly toward the table where we were drawing panoramic dioramas on folded paper. The father said, 'Maybe it's time to start for home.' The mother agreed, 'It's been a long day.' By then their daughter had climbed up on a chair, grabbed a crayon and insisted 'I want to draw.' This is a book about children making art.

Michael Seary is an art teacher and writer living in Halifax who has loved to make art since he attended the Saturday morning classes at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto long ago. These stories distil the experiences of a new generation of children who have learned art in a museum setting.

Liz Moore, illustrated by Liz Milkau

Children Making Art. Orca Book Publishers, 2003 . $8.95. ISBN 1-55143-254-4.

Zizi loves spending time at the cottage with her big sister, until a girl from across the lake lures Tish away, leaving Zizi to entertain herself and ridiculing her when she is afraid of the deep water. Zizi tries to get back at the two of them, but her gestures go unnoticed until a summer storm brings Zizi and Tish together again.

Liz Moore's writing is gentle and fresh, true to a child's voice. Like Zizi, Liz is a younger sister and the story is drawn from her own childhood of cottages, lakes, bunk beds and thunderstorms. A mom, a student and a writer, Liz still loves to watch thunderstorms with her husband, their three children and a dog. She now resides in London, Ontario, though this story won the Atlantic Writing Competition when Liz was living in Nova Scotia.

Barb Todd, illustrated by Rogé

Rainmaker. Annick Press, 2003 . $6.95. ISBN 1-55037-774-4.

Clarence wonders Can the wind make him fly? Do clouds taste good? One day he is so busy wondering, he nearly walks past the tap. The sign says "RAIN". It used to say "DRAIN," but the "D" has worn off. He wonders if he turns it, will it rain?

In Barb Todd's whimsical tale, the everyday is transformed by the magic of Clarence's imagination. Rain comes from a special tap, rainbows are made with a can of paint and a brush, and thunder and lightning are locked away with a special key.

Barb Todd has worked as a children's storyteller and teacher in India, Toronto, and the Canadian Arctic. Barb lives with her family in Wolfville. The Rainmaker is her first book for children.