Mill Cove Coffee in Miramichi
If you are in the Miramichi area, I encourage you to stop into Mill Cove Coffee and see what they have to offer in the way of coffees, treats and, of course, books!
Miramichi
A Tribute to Raymond Fraser 1941-2018
It was with great sadness that I learned of Raymond Fraser’s passing the other day. Sharon, his ex-wife had posted on his Facebook feed that Ray was ill and in hospital in Fredericton. He wasn’t suffering, she said and he soon died peacefully. He was 77 years old. While I had met Ray several times when he came back to Miramichi to launch one of his books, and we were “friends” on Facebook, we never exchanged more than a few words either in person or online.… Continue reading
Fishing the High Country: A Memoir of the River by Wayne Curtis
Miramichi author Wayne Curtis has always been a prolific author (this is his eighteenth release) whether he is writing prose, poetry or non-ficton, but the past few years have been watershed ones for his faithful readers. And as Mr. Curtis gets older (much like the rest of us) each new release is more precious than the last one. Fishing the High Country: A Memoir of the River (2018, Goose Lane Editions) is no exception.… Continue reading
Announcing the 2018 Shortlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards!
September is almost here and it is time to announce the shortlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards. This year, to simplify things, I have narrowed down the categories to three:
- Fiction (Novel or Short Fiction)
- Non-Fiction
- First Book (Fiction and Non-Fiction)
Also, this year, for the first time, I have a small, but unique, award to give each winner: a “soap book” which is a bar of handmade soap encased in a specially designed book cover!… Continue reading
Through Sunlight and Shadows by Raymond Fraser
Sadly, Through Sunlight and Shadows would prove to be Raymond Fraser’s swan song, as he passed away just a few short months after its publication. It is his fourteenth book of fiction and is an all-new volume of “memoirs” of his fictional/semi-autobiographical character, Walt Macbride. While regular readers of Mr. Fraser’s will be familiar with Walt in all his manifestations, his youngest days growing up in Bannonbridge (an alias for Chatham, NB) are lesser-known.… Continue reading
The Art and Passion of Guido Nincheri by Mélanie Grondin
The beauty of many old churches (particularly cathedrals, basilicas, etc.) is in their architecture as well as in their religious art, whether it is the many large frescoes or the exquisite stained glass windows that adorn them. The late (1885-1973) Italian-Canadian artist and stained glass master Guido Nincheri has enjoyed a recent resurgence of interest, thanks to his grandson Roger Bocchini Nincheri who has been tirelessly photographing and cataloging his grandfather’s hundreds of existing works.… Continue reading
Long Ago and Far Away by Wayne Curtis
Perhaps you have to be from rural New Brunswick (even the Miramichi) to fully understand Mr. Curtis’ past, his father’s and his grandfather’s lives lived on a farm where you logged some trees for money, grew some crops to feed yourselves and your old mare Jenny and lived in a house with no running water, no indoor plumbing, and little to no insulation. His mother’s saying that “the good old days” weren’t worth two cents has a lifetime of hardscrabble existence to back them up.… Continue reading
Homecoming: The Road Less Travelled by Wayne Curtis
Prolific Miramichi author Wayne Curtis, whose most recent collection of fictional short stories was In the Country (2016, Pottersfield Press), has just released a new collection entitled Homecoming: A Road Less Travelled (2017, Pottersfield Press). The book’s thirteen stories, many interrelated, contain the idea of returning to a place either one has escaped from or returning to in order to make amends with those from the past:
“it is like I have to return to that place to see how much of my past was real and how much was an illusion, and if either is still there.” (from “At Mount St.… Continue reading