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c/o Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
Harry Thurston was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and grew up on the family farm. He holds a degree in Biology from Acadia University. He was formerly editor/publisher of Germination, and since 1977 has worked as a full-time freelance journalist, poet and playwright. He lives with his wife on the banks of the Tidnish River in Cumberland County.
His poetry and articles have appeared in the following anthologies: The Atlantic Anthology: vol.2 Poetry (Charlottetown, Ragweed Press, 1985), We Belong to the Sea, a Nova Scotia Anthology (Halifax, Nimbus Publishing, 2002), Easterly: 60 Atlantic Writers (Toronto, Academic Press Canada, 1984), Local Colour, Writers Discovering Canada (Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre, 1994), Nearly an Island: a Nova Scotia Anthology (St.John's, Breakwater Books, 1978), Ninety Seasons: Modern Poems from the Maritimes (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1974), Prism International: 25 Years in Retrospect (Vancouver, UBC Creative Writing Department, 1984), Til All the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children (Toronto, Kids Can Press, 1989), Coastlines, The Poetry of Atlantic Canada (Fredericton, Goose Lane Editions, 2002), and the 1986 Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry (California, Monitor Publishing, 1987).
His poetry has also appeared in the following journals: The Antigonish Review, The Canadian Forum, The Dalhousie Review, The Fiddlehead, First Encounter, Grain, Pottersfield Portfolio, Poetry Toronto and Prism International. His articles have appeared in the following magazines: Atlantic Insight, Audubon, Books in Canada, Canadian Art, Equinox, Harrowsmith, National Geographic, Quill & Quire, Reader's Digest, Rotunda and Yankee Homes.
Harry has been winner of the 1986 and 1987 Canadian Science Writer's Association Science & Society Award, the 1983 National Magazine Award for Science & Technology, and the 1982 Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters Author's Award for Public Affairs.
- Silver Ghost: An Homage to the Atlantic Salmon Rivers of Eastern Canada. Photographs by Thaddeus Holownia; text by Harry Thurston. Anchorage Press (www.anchoragepress.ca), 2008. ISBN: N/A.
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- Broken Vessel: Thirty-five Days in the Desert. Gaspereau Press, 2007. ISBN 9781554470341 .
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- A Ship Portrait, a novella-in-verse. Gaspereau Press, 2005. ISBN 155447-006-4.
- Finalist, Atlantic Poetry Prize
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- The Sea's Voice: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Nature Writing. (Editor) Nimbus Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-55109-547-5.
- Island of the Blessed. oubleday, 2003. ISBN 0-385-25969-7.
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- A Place Between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh. Greystone Books, 2004. ISBN 1-55365-035-2.
- Winner of the 2005 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award (U.S.).
- "Harry Thurston comes to the salt marsh with a biologist's mind, a naturalist's eye, a philosopher's vision, and a poet's voice. A decade later, he emerges with an elegant account of the turning year in this astonishing place, a book full of insight and wonder." - Silver Donald Cameron
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- If Men Lived On Earth. Gaspereau Press, 2000. ISBN 1-894031-22-9.
- Shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction).
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- The Nature of Shorebirds, Nomads of the Wetlands. Greystone, 1996
- Winner 1997 Richardson Prize.
- "The Nature of Shorebirds is a superbly designed and illustrated 'coffee-table' book about sandpipers, phalaropes and plovers: their migrations and their international habitats. It is relatively inexpensive, beautifully photographed, precisely mapped, and if there is a word beyond beautiful, that is how it is written." - from "The Nature of Shorebirds." Review by Lance Woolaver. Pottersfield Portfolio, Spring 1997.
- Dawning of the Dinosaurs. Nimbus Publishing and The Nova Scotia Museum, 1994. ISBN 1-55109-100-3.
- Against Darkness and Storm: Lighthouses of the Northeast with photography by Wayne Barrett. Halifax, Nimbus Publishing, 1993.
- Tidal Life: a Natural History of the Bay of Fundy. Camden East, Camden House Publishing, 1990.
- Winner of the 1991 Evelyn Richardson Memorial Literary Award, the 1991 City of Dartmouth Book Award, and the 1991 Atlantic Provinces Booksellers Choice Award.
- Atlantic Outposts. Halifax, Pottersfield Press, 1990. ISBN 0-919001-63-7.
- Finalist in the 1991 City of Dartmouth Book Award.
- National Geographic: NFLD the Enduring Rock. National Geographic Society, 1986.
- Clouds Flying Before the Eye. Fredericton, Fiddlehead Poetry Books/Goose Lane Editions, 1985.
- Barefaced Stone. Fredericton, Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1980.
