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list price: $19.95
edition:Paperback
category: Fiction
published: Oct 2001
ISBN:9780864923097
publisher:
Goose Lane Editions
list price: $19.95
edition:Paperback
category: Fiction
published: Oct 2001
ISBN:9780864923097
publisher:
Goose Lane Editions
Description
The world has taken notice. From Alistair MacLeod's recent IMPAC literary award, through movies based on the work of David Adams Richards and Sheldon Currie, to the epic television series based on the work of Bernice Morgan, the international community has soundly acknowledged the critical and commercial success of Atlantic writers.
Atlantica is the first major anthology of Atlantic fiction since Best Maritime Short Stories was published in 1988 and showcases stories by some of Canada's most exciting authors — established, newly popular, and emerging. Given the regional penchant for storytelling, it's not surprising that the Maritimes and Newfoundland produce a continuous stream of spellbinding writers.
Among the stories in Atlantica are Anne Simpson's Journey Prize-winning "Dreaming Snow," Carol Bruneau's "The Tarot Reader," "Batter My Heart" by Lynn Coady, Bernice Morgan's "Poems in a Cold Climate" "The Train Family" by Joan Clark, "Missing Notes" by David Helwig, "The Party" by Herb Curtis and "Clearances" by Alistair MacLeod. Readers from "away" will recognize Sheldon Currie's hilariously gothic tale "The Glace Bay Miner's Museum" as the basis of Helena Bonham Carter's acclaimed movie Margaret's Museum. Some stories have been excerpted from novels, including David Adams Richards's The Bay of Love and Sorrows, Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, John Steffler's The Afterlife of George Cartwright, and Donna Morrissey's Kit's Law.
Remarkably diverse in age, style, and cultural identity, the writers in this anthology raise a common voice that defines Atlantic Canada. Each with an individual approach to language and writing, they offer a collective view of the east, conscious of tradition but not confined by it. By turns funny, poignant and pensive, the stories in Atlantica firmly place eastern Canadian culture on the world map of literature.
About the Authors
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Lesley Choyce, who has been teaching English and creative writing for over thirty years, is the author of more than ninety books of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction and young adult novels. He has won the Dartmouth Book Award, the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Ann Connor Brimer Award. He has also been short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor, the White Pine Award, the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award, the Aurora Award from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and, most recently, the Governor General’s Literary Award. He lives in Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia.
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J. J. Steinfeld lives in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. His work has received many awards, including the 1990 Creative Writing Award from the Toronto Jewish Congress Book Committee. His most recent collections are Would You Hide Me? (GP, 2003) and Anton Chekhov Was Never in Charlottetown.
Joan Clark is the author of many award-winning books for children and adults and has received numerous accolades for her children's novels and picture books. She lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
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Born in Halifax, Carol Bruneau combines a career in fiction writing with teaching writing, and is a part time faculty member of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, where she lives with her husband and their three children. Her most recent publication is the novel Berth (2005).
Born in Halifax, Carol Bruneau combines a career in fiction writing with teaching writing, and is a part time faculty member of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, where she lives with her husband and their three children. Her most recent publication is the novel Berth (2005).
David Adams Richards. The novels of David Adams Richards put New Brunswick's Miramichi region on the world's literary map. "Small Gifts" is an adaptation by Goose Lane Editions of his screenplay Small Gifts, first broadcast on CBC TV in 1995. Small Gifts won a Gemini Award in 1996 and the 1996 New York International Film Festival Award for Best Screen Play. The adaptation appears here by permission of the author and Goose Lane Editions.
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Bernice Morgan was born and raised in St. John's, NL, where she continues to live and work. A member of the Order of Canada, she is author of the acclaimed novel Random Passage, which was filmed as a four-part television series, and its award-winning sequel Waiting for Time. Her other work includes the collection of short stories, The Topography of Love, and the novel Cloud of Bone. Seasons Before the War, her remembrance of her childhood days in St. John's, is her first book for young readers.
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Wayne Curtis was born in Keenan, New Brunswick, on the banks of the Miramichi River. He was educated at the local schoolhouse and at St. Thomas University. He started writing prose in the late 1960s. His essays have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Outdoor Canada, Fly Fishermen, and the Atlantic Salmon Journal.
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Helen Fogwill Porter was born and grew up in St. John’s. Her first book Below the Bridge, was published by Breakwater in 1980. Her short stories, poetry, plays, and reviews have been published and performed across Canada. She now lives in St. John’s, NL.
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John Steffler’s critically acclaimed poetry collections include The Grey Islands, That Night We Were Ravenous, and Lookout, which won the Atlantic Poetry Prize. His novel The Afterlife of George Cartwright was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. Steffler served as Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada from 2006 to 2008. He divides his time between Montreal and rural Ontario.
BUDGE WILSON is widely renowned for her writing. Her books, short stories and articles for children and adults have been recognized with many awards. A native of Halifax, she has lived permanently in Nova Scotia since 1989.
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BUDGE WILSON is widely renowned for her writing. Her books, short stories and articles for children and adults have been recognized with many awards. A native of Halifax, she has lived permanently in Nova Scotia since 1989.
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BUDGE WILSON is widely renowned for her writing. Her books, short stories and articles for children and adults have been recognized with many awards. A native of Halifax, she has lived permanently in Nova Scotia since 1989.
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Lynn Coady is an award-wining author and journalist. Her first novel, Strange Heaven, was nominated for the Governor General's Award, and in 2011, her novel The Antagonist was shortlisted for the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize, an award she won in 2013 for her short story collection Hellgoing. Coady lives in Toronto, where she writes for television.
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Anne Simpson’s first book of poetry, Light Falls Through You, was followed by her first novel, Canterbury Beach. Her second poetry collection, Loop, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and winner of the 2004 Griffin Prize. Her third collection, Quick, won the Lowther Award. Her second novel, Falling, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2008. Simpson lives in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Herb Curtis was raised near Blackville, on the Miramichi, and now lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick. His collection of short fiction, Luther Corhern's Salmon Camp Chronicles (1999), was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award. The Last Tasmanian (1991, 2001), one of four novels, garnered the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and was a regional finalist for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
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David Helwig was born in Toronto. He taught at Queens University and was literary manager of CBC-TV Drama. He has been a full-time writer and editor since 1980, and has worked extensively with Oberon Press, Ottawa. Helwig has published numerous books of poetry and fiction, most recently The Child of Someone (1997), A Random Gospel (1996), This Human Day (2000) and Living Here (2001). His Catchpenny Poems won the CBC poetry award in 1983. Helwig lived on Prince Edward Island until his death in October 2018.
Maureen Hull was born and raised on Cape Breton Island. She studied at nscad, Dalhousie University and the Pictou Fisheries School. She has worked at the costume department of Neptune Theatre and as a lobster fisher. She lives on Pictou Island in the Northumberland Strait. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, most recently Christmas Family Treasures. Her short story collection, Righteous Living, was short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Award, and several of her stories have been read on CBC Radio.
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Maureen Hull was born and raised on Cape Breton Island. She studied at nscad, Dalhousie University and the Pictou Fisheries School. She has worked at the costume department of Neptune Theatre and as a lobster fisher. She lives on Pictou Island in the Northumberland Strait. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, most recently Christmas Family Treasures. Her short story collection, Righteous Living, was short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Award, and several of her stories have been read on CBC Radio.
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Born in Reserve Mines, Cape Breton, Sheldon Currie is professor emeritus at St. Francis Xavier University and author of short stories, novels, and plays. Probably his most widely known work is The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, which was also adapted for radio and stage plays, and made into the critically acclaimed film Margaret’s Museum, starring Helena Bonham Carter. In his varied career, Sheldon has also served in the RAF and as fiction editor of The Antigonish Review. His play Lauchie, Liza and Rory won the 2004 Merritt Award for best play by a Nova Scotia writer. Down the Coaltown Road, first published in 2002, was nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction.
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Editorial Reviews
"The truffles of the fiction chocolate box . . . offer[s] established stars and newer lights . . . In this collection, story is not only essential, but both profound and prismatic . . . if you like well-wrought stories, you will find plenty here to savour." — Globe and Mail
"The editor draws upon some of the best known names in fiction . . . A great gift for the brooding, serious fiction lover in the family, and those too who simply enjoy a good story." — Newfoundland Herald
"The editor draws upon some of the best known names in fiction . . . A great gift for the brooding, serious fiction lover in the family, and those too who simply enjoy a good story." — Newfoundland Herald
"The truffles of the fiction chocolate box . . . offer[s] established stars and newer lights . . . In this collection, story is not only essential, but both profound and prismatic . . . if you like well-wrought stories, you will find plenty here to savour." — Globe and Mail
