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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
Lesley Choyce
Lesley Choyce is the author of more than 100 books of literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and young adult novels. He runs Pottersfield Press and has worked as editor with a wide range of Canadian authors. Choyce has been teaching English and creative writing at Dalhousie and other universities for over forty years. He has won the Dartmouth Book Award, Atlantic Poetry Prize and Ann Connor Brimer Award and has been short-listed for the Governor-General’s Award. In 2022 he was given the Atlantic Legacy Award for his “lasting contribution to the development of the literary arts in Atlantic Canada.” He surfs year-round in the North Atlantic.
J.J. Steinfeld
Fiction writer, poet, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island, where he is patiently waiting for Godot’s arrival and a phone call from Kafka. While waiting, he has published twenty-two books: two novels, thirteen short story collections, and seven poetry collections, most recently, Somewhat Absurd, Somehow Existential (2021).
Joan Clark is the author of many award-winning books for children and adults. She lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Carol Bruneau is the award-winning author of nine books. Her reviews, essays, and articles have appeared across Canada, and she has previously taught courses on writing for the arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She lives in Halifax, NS.
Joan Baxter is an award—winning Nova Scotian author who lives in Tatamagouche Nova Scotia. She has worked for the BBC World Service, the CBC, Associated Press and many other news media. Her book, The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest, drew international attention to an environmental tragedy in her home province. She is a past winner of The Evelyn Richardson Award.
Author of thirty-five books, David Adams Richards has won the Governor General's Award in both fiction and non-fiction as well as the Giller Prize. He is a member of the Order of New Brunswick, the Order of Canada, and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2017. He divides his time between Ottawa and Fredericton.
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.
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.
Helen Fogwill Porter has published articles, stories, plays, and poems for six decades. Born and raised in St. John’s, as a writer, teacher, political activist, and feminist, she has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate and the Order of Canada. She now lives in Paradise, Newfoundland.
Helen Fogwill Porter has published articles, stories, plays, and poems for six decades. Born and raised in St. John’s, as a writer, teacher, political activist, and feminist, she has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate and the Order of Canada. She now lives in Paradise, Newfoundland.
Helen Fogwill Porter has published articles, stories, plays, and poems for six decades. Born and raised in St. John’s, as a writer, teacher, political activist, and feminist, she has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate and the Order of Canada. She now lives in Paradise, Newfoundland.
Helen Fogwill Porter has published articles, stories, plays, and poems for six decades. Born and raised in St. John’s, as a writer, teacher, political activist, and feminist, she has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate and the Order of Canada. She now lives in Paradise, Newfoundland.
Helen Fogwill Porter has published articles, stories, plays, and poems for six decades. Born and raised in St. John’s, as a writer, teacher, political activist, and feminist, she has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate and the Order of Canada. She now lives in Paradise, Newfoundland.
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.
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.
David Helwig (1938-2018) was the author of nearly fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. A longtime resident of Kingston, he spent his final years in Belfast, Prince Edward Island.
“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.
“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.
Sheldon Currie was born in Reserve Mines, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and often draws from the mining experience in his writing. His novel, The Glace Bay Miners Museum, was adapted for film under the title Margarets Museum. His other books include The Story So Far, The Company Store, and Down the Coaltown Road. He is retired from teaching English literature at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and is writing full time.
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
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