Year of the Metal Rabbit by Tammy Armstrong
Much of Tammy Armstrong’s new collection draws its images and scenes from southwestern Nova Scotia, especially Shelburne County, which no previous poetry has reflected and delved into so richly.
Nova Scotia
The Jill Martin Bouteillier Interview
Jill Martin Bouteillier is the author of Return to Sable and was a consultant-historian for the National Film Board and White Gate Films. She worked on educational committees in BC and NS both developing and marking provincial exams. For many years she was an educator on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, serving as the last principal of Lunenburg Academy. She lives in Lunenburg with husband, Carl, and resident cock pheasant in a home overlooking the mighty Atlantic. From Thistles to Cowpies, now available from Crossfield Publishing, is her latest book.
Halifax and Me by Harry Bruce
A memoir of life in Halifax from an award-winning author, and one of Canada’s top non-fiction writers. In 1971, Harry Bruce, recognized as one of Canada’s top non-fiction writers, lost his mind—according to his peers—when he left bustling, lucrative Toronto and moved his family to the tough little seaport of Halifax.
While Crossing the Field by Deborah Banks
While Crossing the Field is Deborah Banks’s debut book of poetry. Her poems take us out onto the land where experiences in the natural world are filtered through the internal landscape of longing, presence, gratitude, and attentiveness.
Daring, Devious, and Deadly: True Tale of Crime and Justice from Nova Scotia’s Past by Dean Jobb
The stories in Daring, Devious, and Deadly are drawn from communities across the province, from Sydney and Amherst to Halifax, from the rugged coast of the Eastern Shore to the historic town of Annapolis Royal.
Around the Province in 88 Days by Emily Taylor Smith
Early on a May morning, a young Nova Scotia woman straps on a small backpack and leaves the Halifax Common to start her journey along the coastal roads of Nova Scotia. Planning to cover almost a marathon a day, she will walk the perimeter of the entire province in just under three months to raise awareness for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Brigadoon Children’s Camp Society. She billets with locals each night and meets countless Nova Scotians who come out to walk with her, support her project, and tell their stories.
Throw Down Your Shadows by Deborah Hemmings
What does it mean, to do the wrong thing for the right reasons? 16-year-old Winnie, the self-reliant narrator of Deborah Hemming’s taut novel Throw Down Your Shadows, is about to learn that painful lesson. It’s summer, 2005. Winnie lives with her artist mother, Ruth, in Gaspereau, a small rural community next door to Wolfville, in Nova …
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Reading a novel by Lesley Cynthia Crewe is like covering yourself in an old quilt. You know you can settle in and get cozy, wrap yourself in the words and let the characters and their memories keep you company as you read. Emmeline is indeed a spoon stealer. She is also a tour de force. …
Saltwater Chronicles: Notes on Everything Under the Nova Scotia Sun by Lesley Choyce
Lesley Choyce has been a mainstay on the Atlantic Canadian literary scene for decades. The author of 100 books, he has written and published in every genre imaginable. He has won and been shortlisted for numerous regional and national literary awards, operates a publishing house, held teaching positions at Dalhousie University and other institutions, and …
A Forest for Calum by Frank MacDonald
A Forest for Calum takes place in the 1950s and 60s rural Cape Breton.
Wounded Hearts: Memories of the Halifax Protestant Orphans’ Home by Lois Legge
Between 1857 and 1970, thousands of children came to live at the Halifax Protestant Orphan’s Home. Some were children whose parents simply didn’t have the means to care for them any longer; others were orphans who had nowhere else to go.
Broken Symmetry by Rosalie Osmond
Broken Symmetry centres on the Wentzell family. The events unfold from 1943 to 1959 and mostly occur in their shared family home in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
The Story of Lillian Burke, by Edward M. Langille
Lillian Burke is not a household name. If Edward M. Langille, author of The Lillian Burke Story, had his way, that would change. Artist, reconstruction therapist, musician, teacher—American-born Burke was all of these. Though Burke lived the bulk of her life in the United States, she also had a Canadian connection. This came through Elsie …
Two Novels of Le Grand Dérangement
The Great Deportation or Le Grand Dérangement, of the Acadian peoples, began in 1755 in the area now called the Bay of Fundy. Homes and farms were burned, and many of the 14,000 inhabitants of Acadia were herded aboard British ships and sent off to the Thirteen Colonies in what is now the New England states. The following two novels, both suitable for mature young readers on up, focus on this time of upheaval and the separation of families.
The Laura Churchill Duke Interview
Laura Churchill Duke is the author of Two Crows Sorrow (2019, Moose House Publications) the true story of a grisly murder that took place in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley in 1904. It is currently on the 2020 longlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards for Best Non-Fiction. I wanted to know more about Ms. Churchill Duke and the research that went into telling Theresa McAuley Robinson’s story.
