The New Brunswick Literary Times

Two voices celebrate their Atlantic connection.

Whilst Donna Allard writes on the coastal fringe in New Brunswick, Canada, Nat Hall walks and writes by her shoormal, somewhere on the 60th parallel in her windswept Shetland Islands, Scotland’s most northerly archipelago. “Shore”, as described by J. L. Leprohon in her “Sea Shore Musings” poem, is the Creator’s power—in her own Canadian home, “Mysterious, moaning main,/ in dreams I’ll see thy snow-white foam”. It’s described by Chile’s bard Pablo Neruda in “No me hagan caso / Forget about Me”, as a place where the sea washes, throws up crab claws and skulls of many kinds …

The news of the death of Elizabeth Brewster has saddened us at The Fiddlehead, and me in particular as editor.  During World War II Alfred Bailey organized a group known as the Bliss Carman Society to meet at his home to critique each other’s poetry, and Betty Brewster, as she was known, was a part of this group.  It was the idea of Don Gammon to form The Fiddleheadto publish the members of the group, and so Elizabeth Brewster joined in to found The Fiddlehead, which first appeared in 1945.  As far as I know, she was the last living member of the Bliss Carman Society.

Very pleased to announce that Downstage Theatre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada has adapted ‘Amphibian’ as a play and that the premiere is set for Spring 2014.  After the premiere, the creative forces behind this adaptation, Ellen Close and Braden Griffiths, hope to tour the play across Canada.

Downstage Theatre Productions:

“In Spring 2014, Downstage will premiere “Amphibian”, a funny, imaginative and moving new play that will engage Calgarians in vibrant dialogue about how we talk to our children about the challenges facing the natural world. Adapted by Downstage Creation Ensemble members Ellen Close and Braden Griffiths from the award-winning novel by Carla Gunn & directed by Downstage Artistic Producer Simon Mallett, “Amphibian” will engage young adults and adults alike in a fast-paced story about environmental anxiety, using whimsical puppets that transform from everyday objects.”

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Ash Steps is Lane’s fourteenth book of poetry, and this one is a “meditation on loss and reorientation, continuity and memory.” She’s won the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Alden Nolan Award for Excellence in the Literary Arts, as well as the Bliss Carman Award and the prestigious Pat Lowther Award.

Widowhood and mortality are at the centre of this quiet collection, but fear and self-pity are not to be found here: only a clear-eyed coming-to-terms. Lane’s metaphors are unforced, natural yet always surprising. Her acute powers of observation are entwined with historical and cultural awareness, attunement to the natural world, and a music that holds it all together.

SACKVILLE, NB — Mount Allison University and l’Université de Moncton welcomed one of their most known alumni back to campus today. Canadian writer, artist, and former New Brunswick Lieutenant Governor Herménégilde Chiasson has been named the first Casino New Brunswick Artist-in-Residence, a three-year appointment shared between the two universities. Casino New Brunswick donated $500,000 to establish the program.

Chiasson says, “I am so pleased to have this opportunity to work with students and faculty at two of Canada’s best universities. Mount Allison University and l’Université de Moncton are both important academic, cultural, and artistic institutions in Atlantic Canada and I look forward to collaborating with students and faculty.”

UNB Creative Writing graduate Corinna Chong announces that her first novel, Belinda's Rings, will be published by NeWest Press in Spring 2013.

Read a sample:

The 14th book of poetry by M. Travis Lane is an exploration of memory, longing, and contemplation. There is a quietness, an insular element to Lane’s verse, and her hushed poetics focus on themes of mortality and love. The poet dives deep into the well of loss, and swims in the depths of grief. In “Waiting,” she writes, “You told me once you wished to drown, / to swim out, let the long tide take / you to the ocean’s rim. That’s what / it’s doing now, I think. You float. / You do not swim.”

Many people believe artistic form and truth telling are incompatible. Truth-telling, they suppose, will be spontaneous, unpremeditated, unrehearsed, impulsive, awkward, unpolished. We know from experience how such “truth telling” sounds: the clichés, the self-justifications, the vacuous generalizations, the “you know” and the “like” of those who can’t find words. Even reporters, like gossips looking for “grab-you” facts don’t try for “eloquence.” But in such artless tellings there can only be facts. Only art can “make real.”

Elizabeth Brewster was born in Chipman, New Brunswick, daughter of Frederick John Brewster and Ethel May Day Brewster, and youngest sister of Percy, Cyril, Marion and Eleanor. She was educated at rural New Brunswick schools and at the Universities of New Brunswick, Radcliffe, Toronto and Indiana. At Toronto she earned a degree in Library Science, and at Indiana she earned a Ph.D. with a dissertation on English poet George Crabbe.