Enlarge Cover
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
Author profile page >
Author profile page >
Author profile page >
Author profile page >
Lesley Choyce
No one has a clearer view of Atlantic Canada's literary endeavours over the past twenty years than Lesley Choyce. He is the founder of the literary journal Pottersfield Portfolio, and the publisher of Pottersfield Press. He has edited several fiction anthologies and has been the in-house editor of many books from Pottersfield Press including Making Waves, a collection of stories by emerging authors from Atlantic Canada. He is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from poetry and essays to autobiography, history and fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Among his recent books are the novels The Republic of Nothing, World Enough, and Cold Clear Morning, and the story collection Dance the Rocks Ashore. Choyce is the writer, host, and co-producer of the popular literary show television program, Off the Page with Lesley Choyce, which is broadcast across the country on Vision TV. He also teaches in the English department of Dalhousie University in Halifax and is leader of the rock band The Surf Poets.
Author profile page >
JJ Steinfeld
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.
Author profile page >
Carol Bruneau is the acclaimed author of three short story collections, including A Bird on Every Tree, published by Vagrant Press in 2017, and five other novels. Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won the 2001 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award. Her 2007 novel, Glass Voices, was a Globe and Mail Best Book and has become a book club favourite. Her most recent novel, A Circle on the Surface, won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award. Her reviews, stories, and essays have appeared nationwide in newspapers, journals, and anthologies, and two of her novels have been published internationally. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her husband and their dog and badass cat.
Author profile page >
Carol Bruneau is the acclaimed author of three short story collections, including A Bird on Every Tree, published by Vagrant Press in 2017, and five other novels. Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won the 2001 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award. Her 2007 novel, Glass Voices, was a Globe and Mail Best Book and has become a book club favourite. Her most recent novel, A Circle on the Surface, won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award. Her reviews, stories, and essays have appeared nationwide in newspapers, journals, and anthologies, and two of her novels have been published internationally. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her husband and their dog and badass cat.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
Bernice Morgan was born in preconfederate Newfoundland. She has worked for many years in public relations, first with Memorial University of Newfoundland, and later with Newfoundland Teachers’ Association. Many of her short stories have been published in small magazines, anthologies and school textbooks. The mother of two daughters and a son, she lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Random Passage, the 4-part television mini-series, based on her book, aired on CBC Television, beginning January 27, 2002.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
Lynn Coady is the author of the bestselling novel The Antagonist, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, as well as the novels Mean Boy, Saints of Big Harbour, and Strange Heaven and the short story collection Play the Monster Blind. — — Website: — http://www.lynncoady.com/? — Twitter:? http://www.twitter.com/lynn_coady
Author profile page >
Anne Simpson has published five collections of poetry, one of which, Loop, won the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize. Her prose publications include The Marram Grass: Poetry & Otherness (2009) and three novels, most recently Speechless. Her mentorship of other writers has taken her to libraries and universities across Canada. She lives on an estuary in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, sharing space with ravens, herons, and bald eagles.
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.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
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.
Author profile page >
Sheldon Currie (b. 1934), a native of Reserve, Cape Breton, and a resident of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, taught for many years at St. Francis Xavier University. "The Glace Bay Miner's Museum" first appeared in the collection, The Glace Bay Miner's Museum (Deluge, 1979). It was the basis of the feature film, Margaret's Museum, which Currie subsequently rewrote as a novella, and it is included in the collection, The Story So Far (Breton Books, 1997).
Author profile page >
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
