What if the lady -- Jane Austen's contemporary --who conceived the world's most intriguing modern monster (Doc Frankenstein's creature) -- was also a proto-suffragette, precursor-feminist, and, simultaneously, much to her chagrin, wedded to a narcissist poet, whose liberalism urged on his libertinism? How would such a woman think? What would she say about her majuscule Romantic dilemma and miniscule romantic predicament? Such are the questions that Chad Norman pursues in his act (and art) of sympathetic re-animation: Squall: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley.

Chad Norman enjoys the friendly pace of the East Coast. His poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and newspapers across Canada, as well as literary journals in the United States, England, Scotland, Australia, Japan, Denmark, Israel, and India. In 1992, he won the Gwendolyn MacEwen Memorial Award For Poetry. Norman has given poetry workshops to all levels of educational institutions, and talks on Literacy and celebrating Canadian Poetry, during his 1997 cross—Canada reading tour, Live The Reading Life, sponsored by Via Rail, Keg Steakhouse, Greyhound Bus Lines, as well as many more sponsors from each province. Norman has organized The All is Well Mixture, an event held on occasion over the years in Truro and Vancouver, to showcase national and local authors and musicians. He also founded Grant Block Press, a new publishing venture created to bring out books without government funding. His most recent book, Masstown, was released in the fall of 2013 from Black Moss Press in Windsor, ON. He is working on a new collection called Simona, in order to celebrate the Truro, NS, SPCA and the special furry friend they allowed his family to take home. He is also a member of the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, and a full member of The League of Canadian Poets. He organizes and hosts RiverWords: Poetry & Music festival, held in Truro, NS, each year in July.

Chad Norman's profile page

Norman excels at depicting the emotional turmoil of a brilliant woman forced into the shadows, and Judith Bauer’s gothic illustrations amplify the power of Norman’s words.

Atlantic Books Today

Reading Squall, like everyone, I'm in relative isolation, anxious,our meteor's shadow widening. Crude sutures hold us intact, aspiration and decay, swen into post-mortem cross-stitched lumps. Awaiting animation, a sculpture like Chad Norman, to free us.

Miramichi Reader