death The Miramichi Reader

On Her Own Terms: Poems about Memory Loss and Living Life to the Fullest by Carolyn Gammon

January 24, 2022 by Stephanie Sirois

Internationally acclaimed author Carolyn Gammon conjures a kind and unflinching portrait of her mother’s memory loss―ultimately revealing the love, joy and life which remain even as memory fades.

Antonyms for Daughter by Jenny Boychuk

January 3, 2022 by Pearl Pirie

Antonyms for Daughter, Jenny Boychuk's poetry debut, addresses a harrowing subject: the loss of the poet's mother to addiction. Deploying a range of forms and techniques astonishing in a first collection, Boychuk creates unsparing scenes of their complicated life together.

The Last Good Funeral of the Year: A Memoir by Ed O’Loughlin

December 25, 2021December 22, 2021 by Valerie Mills-Milde

From Ed O’Loughlin, author of Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Minds of Winter, a pensive and poignant recollection of love, loss, marriage, and the life events that have shaped his identity.

Instructor by Beth Follett

January 3, 2022May 14, 2021 by James M. Fisher

When Ydessa Bloom’s husband dies in a Cessna crash in a mid-Ontario lake, she rents a cottage at that lake, without really comprehending why, and stays for three months. There she meets three people who will influence her life dramatically—her landlady, a yoga teacher, and a precocious eight-year-old boy named Henry Rattle.

Revelation and Reconciliation in Rob Taylor’s “Strangers”

May 8, 2021 by Chris Banks

In Strangers, Rob Taylor makes new the epiphany poem: the short lyric ending with a moment of recognition or arrival.

When the Hill Came Down by Susan White

November 29, 2020November 21, 2020 by James M. Fisher

Keefe Williams lives a childhood of neglect and disconnect, feeling completely invisible. Known only for the story of the night his parents died and the freak event that killed them, he suffers silently holding on to the one thing in his life that sets him apart.

Down in the Ground by Bruce Meyer

May 12, 2021November 12, 2020 by Valerie Mills-Milde

In the collection of short flash fiction, Down in the Ground, author Bruce Meyer brings both wit and philosophical curiosity to his musings on death. These stories are brief and sometimes startling. In other hands, the subject might be given a maudlin treatment but here, the tone is surprisingly restrained, and at times, ironic.

Blue Summer by Jim Nichols

March 27, 2021October 3, 2020 by James M. Fisher

Maine’s Jim Nichols is one of those authors who write of their locale (in Mr. Nichols’ case, the fictional Baxter, Maine) in a way similar to that of Miramichi’s Wayne Curtis: it transcends the small-town environs with a larger-than-life … Continue reading

The Only Card In A Deck of Knives by Lauren Turner

September 3, 2020 by Chris Banks

her debut collection The Only Card In A Deck of Knives out with Wolsak &Wynn publishers, the poet Lauren Turner takes us “to the edge of something” as she writes in the first line of her poem “If You Haven’t … Continue reading

A Memoir in Poetry: You Won’t Always Be This Sad by Sheree Fitch

August 24, 2020 by Emma Rhodes

I opened up Sheree Fitch’s memoir in poetry You Won’t Always be this Sad and was sobbing by page thirty. The famous Maritime author breaks our hearts once again as we follow along on her journey through grief after her … Continue reading

The End of Me: Stories by John Gould

May 23, 2021August 4, 2020 by Ian Colford

The End of Me is an astonishing set of sudden stories about the experience of mortality.

You Won’t Always Be This Sad: A Book of Moments by Sheree Fitch

July 31, 2020 by Lana Shupe

Everyone experiences grief in their own way. Sheree Fitch is a writer and it made perfect sense for her to write about a mother’s deepest grief – the loss of a child. Within the pages of this book, Sheree shares … Continue reading

The Place of Us by Karen Draper

April 24, 2020April 21, 2020 by Bill Arnott

Karen Draper and her husband are ecstatic to welcome Preston, their first child, into their lives. Joyful anticipation turns to fear when they are told they must prepare to lose him.

We’ve all lost someone. It hurts. Horribly. Most often … Continue reading

Signs of Life: Images Formed from Words and Clay by Gerri Frager

May 4, 2020March 2, 2020 by Bill Arnott

Poet-potter Gerri Frager has created a unique, engaging collection of work – literal alchemy, shaping words and hunks of this land into refined beauty – something hopeful, and remarkably reassuring.

Silver Linings: Stories of Gratitude, Resiliency, and Growth Through Adversity by Janice Landry

February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 by James M. Fisher

Silver Linings author Janice Landry asks the very tough question, "What are you the most grateful for?" to fifteen inspiring Canadians from five provinces and two esteemed guests from the United States. One of seventeen is Dr. Bob Emmons, considered to be the world's pre-eminent expert in the study of gratitude.