Creative Fiction The Miramichi Reader

The Barrens: A Novel of Love and Death in the Canadian Arctic by Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson

May 2, 2022 by James M. Fisher

This riveting debut is at once a white-water adventure, coming-of-age novel, and tale of tragic love—and an extraordinary father-daughter collaboration.

Excerpt: Call Me Stan

February 7, 2022 by James M. Fisher

Published by Guernica Editions, Call Me Stan is the story of a man endlessly struggling to adjust as the world keeps changing around him.

Natural Selection by Diane McGyver

January 24, 2022 by Allan Hudson

The year is 2051. Almost three decades have passed since the Devastation destroyed civilization. Only the strong and wise survived; the weak and intellects perished. New societies emerged, forging a future with skills from the distant past.

Under an Outlaw Moon by Deitrich Kalteis

June 2, 2022December 22, 2021 by Tammy Catherine Greene

Under an Outlaw Moon is based on the true story of Depression-era bank robbers Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson. She’s a teenage outsider longing to fit in. He’s a few years older and he’s trouble. They meet at a local skating rink and the sparks fly.

Because Venus Crossed An Alpine Violet On The Day That I Was Born by Mona Høvring, trans. Kari Dickson and Rachel Rankin

November 6, 2021November 1, 2021 by Alison Manley

In a hotel, high up in a mountain village, two sisters aim to reconnect after distant years that contrast their close, almost twin-like upbringing. Martha has just been discharged from a sanatorium after a mental breakdown. Ella agrees to keep her company in the hope that the clean winter air will provide clarity—and a way back to their childhood connection.

Open Your Heart by Alexie Morin, Translated by Aimee Wall

January 3, 2022October 25, 2021 by James M. Fisher

In this frank and unforgettable book, celebrated Québécois writer Alexie Morin becomes the subject of her own story as she places a childhood friendship under a microscope.

Watershed by Doreen Vanderstoop

August 15, 2021 by Ian Colford

In her debut novel, Watershed, Doreen Vanderstoop envisions a future in which water, a life-giving resource that we take for granted, is not easily obtainable.

Murder on the Orford Mountain Railway by Nick Fonda

May 2, 2021May 1, 2021 by James M. Fisher

On a warm August evening in 1905, a 12-year old boy is shot in the back and killed near the Orford Mountain Railway construction site in rural Quebec.

Gutter Child by Jael Richardson

November 29, 2020November 28, 2020 by James M. Fisher

Jael Richardson’s debut novel, Gutter Child (2021, HarperCollins Canada)* is a forceful one that shines a spotlight on racism, colonization and the struggle to get out from under an imposed debt that only death will bring freedom from. It is … Continue reading

Pretty Time Machine: ekphrastic prose poems by Lorette C. Luzajic

March 21, 2020March 21, 2020 by Bill Arnott

In Pretty Time Machine, Lorette Luzajic does what she does best, finding those veins in art’s ore, revelations resulting in a complementary shared experience. Enlightening moments. The ekphrasis of life.

The Group of Seven Reimagined, Edited by Karen Schauber

November 27, 2021October 22, 2019 by James M. Fisher

It is a fabulous idea, the melding of the internationally famous Group of Seven Canadian landscape artists with some of the finest award-winning writers on the Canadian and international fiction scene today.

Send More Tourists…the Last Ones Were Delicious by Tracey Waddleton

September 30, 2019September 30, 2019 by James M. Fisher

While some reviewers think that the humorous title befits this book, I think there is a darker side to many of the stories to which I was immediately attracted to.

The Little Fox of Mayerville by Éric Mathieu, Translated by Peter McCambridge

June 18, 2020August 20, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Éric Mathieu's The Little Fox of Mayerville (translated by Peter McCambridge) represents a bit of a departure from recent QC Fiction offerings such as Prague and In the End They Told Them all to Get Lost, which while being ingenious works of fiction, may not have been to everyone's taste like the Giller-nominated Songs for the Cold of Heart.

Grass-Fed by Aaron Schneider

March 18, 2019 by James M. Fisher

An academic, an artist, two businessmen, a talk show host, and a retired hockey player gather at a hunting lodge and resort in Northern Ontario. Over the course of their retreat they kill, they eat and they justify their lives.

Use Your Imagination! by Kris Bertin

August 15, 2019March 10, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Halifax-based writer Kris Bertin has won many awards for his previous short story collection, Bad Things Happen (2016, Biblioasis) and I'm sure that Use Your Imagination! (2019, Vagrant Press*) will garner its share. Composed of seven stories spread over 200 pages, these are the type of short stories you can really get into.