Month: October 2017

Chief Lightning Bolt by Daniel N. Paul

Mi’kmaq Elder Daniel Paul is an outspoken champion for First Nations People. His first book, We Were Not the Savages, is now in its third edition.

Chief Lightning Bolt is Mr Paul’s first foray into fictional history and is an attempt to portray how the Mi’kmaq people lived, in particular their way of life and culture pre-contact with the Europeans. It is the story of young Lightning Bolt and his growth from an infant born to Little Bear and Early Blossom to an aged, respected Grand Chief among the entire Mi’kmaq nation.… Continue reading

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

following is a review by Naomi MacKinnon of Consumed by Ink. This excerpt is published by her kind permission.

I’m on a roll with these criminal type characters; all of them mostly into drugs. Johnny from We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds, Daniel from In the Cage, and now Jared. Jared is different, though, in a significant way – he’s still a teenager, living at home with his mother.… Continue reading

The Street of Butterflies by Mehri Yalfani

Yalfani was born in Hamadan, Iran. She immigrated to Canada in 1987 with her family and has been writing and publishing ever since.

The Street of Butterflies (2017, Inanna Publications) goes well with another book of short fiction I recently reviewed (also from Inanna), Outside People. They are stories told from the point of view of those that have left their birth country for Canada, or have chosen to stay while others have left looking for more freedom and other opportunities.… Continue reading

Here for Generations: The Story of a Maine Bank and its City by Dean L. Lunt

Author Dean Lunt is the founder of Islandport Press, a book publisher and recently launched Islandport Magazine. He is also the author of Hauling by Hand.

As it is the closest U.S. state to New Brunswick, Maine is a popular tourist and shopping destination for those of us that live in the “picture province”. Houlton and Calais, the two principle border crossings are popular with day shoppers, but it is Bangor with its malls and big-box stores that attract shoppers from all over the northern and eastern parts of the U.S.… Continue reading

Outside People and Other Stories by Mariam Pirbhai

Mariam Pirbhai was born in Pakistan and lived in England and the Philippines before emigrating to Canada. She lives in Waterloo, Ontario, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies, at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her short stories have also appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. Outside People and Other Stories (2017, Inanna Publications) is her debut collection of short fiction.… Continue reading

In The Cage by Kevin Hardcastle

Daniel is a cage fighter whose career is ended by an injury. He moves back to his hometown and falls into the world of crime. He and his wife, Sarah, struggle to keep their heads above water and to provide everything they can for their daughter. (Although, I couldn’t help but notice how much beer they drank as they contemplated their precarious financial situation.)

“Anything you ask him for he’ll try to give you,” Sarah said.… Continue reading