The New Brunswick Literary Times

On October 25, join The Fiddlehead and The Malahat Review , two of Canada’s most respected literary journals, as they present their West Coast and East Coast editions. We've also collaborated on a blog, which features expanded and original content! Visit it here!

The Fiddlehead surveys West Coast writing and The Malahat Review shines a lighthouse beam on East Coast writing. A number of authors will be present to read from these two journals, and the event will be hosted by Ross Leckie, editor of The Fiddlehead, and by John Barton, editor of The Malahat.

About the Film: Bliss Carman- Divine Force of Nature by Tony Merzetti

Fredericton poet Bliss Carman contemplates a major regret in his life, the 15 year separation from his cousin and best friend, Charles GD Roberts. Carman, the author of Low Tide on Grand Pre and other celebrated books of verse becomes dependent on the patronage of Mary Perry King and her husband Dr. Morris King, which leads to a change in the course of his writing, and ultimately to a schism between the poets.

The 2012-13 UNB Reading Series is proud to present John Barton, who returns to Fredericton to read from his newly released collection, For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems.

Drawn from nine collections published over the last 30 years, the 38 poems in this retrospective reveal the poetic accomplishments of John Barton. This selection embraces his passion for art, literature, the city and nature, and it explores the role of love in contemporary society.

John Barton is the editor of The Malahat Review. He spent the 2010-11 academic year as UNB's Writer-in-residence.

"Here there are ninety-nine poems, thirty-seven poets, Canadian favorites and newcomers, a thousand images to transport our small perceptions in all dimensions. If I leave you with any image it should be of yourself, buying this issue and re-forming your world as you devour and inhale it page by page—a delicious drowning...."

Award Winning Authors & Singer headline WordsFall in Woodstock
by: Kellie Underhill (September 26, 2012 at 2:06 pm)
Award winning authors, a rising New Brunswick music star and a former Penguin Books publisher will headline Words Fall in Woodstock, October 19 and 20, 2012. WordsFall is a semi-annual presentation of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB) and features a full line-up of learning, networking and entertaining events.

Yesterday, I sat in front of my computer, and, as luck would have it, so did Corey Redekop. We spent the next half hour talking about Husk, the follow up to his biblio-rrific novel Shelf Monkey.

Husk is the story about everyzombie Sheldon Funk. It’s sharp-witted, gross, “stupid-funny” and astute in its observations on what it means to be alive even if you’re dead.

“There are rules for what I’ve done.
Specific punishments for
crimes against friendship.”

Laren Olivier knows the rules, but her attraction to a friend’s ex-boyfriend is strong. She tells herself that if only they can keep their romance a secret, no one will get hurt. But Laren is not the only one with something to hide.

SUSSEX, New Brunswick — A small group of Sussex high school students got the writing critique of a lifetime Friday morning when literary horror-master Stephen King made a surprise visit to their school.

King, the renowned author of books such as “The Stand,” “The Shining,” “The Dark Tower” series, “The Green Mile” and the recent JFK book “11/22/63: A Novel,” gathered with 18 lucky students in the school’s library to provide feedback on their work.

“I thought it was absolutely insane that he was actually at our school,” said Matthew Beyer, a 12th-grade student who shook King’s hand.

“It was quite a shock. We just walked into the library and Stephen King is standing there.”

King then spoke to about 80 other students in the auditorium where he told them about his short time as a high school teacher and about how he dreams up the ideas for his novels.

King was at the school after a yearlong campaign to get the author, who lives in Bangor, Maine, to visit the school by Halloween 2012.

East Coast Swaps West Coast Swaps East Coast

Through the imagination we can truly see where we live, but sometimes it’s illuminating to see ourselves through the eyes of others—especially through those trained on us from afar.

During the fall of 2012, The Malahat Review, based in Victoria, British Columbia, at the University of Victoria, and The Fiddlehead, based in Fredericton at the University of New Brunswick, are celebrating the writing of each other’s regions, with the former publishing an East Coast issue (MR #180, Autumn 2012) and the latter a West Coast issue (Fiddlehead #253, Fall 2012). More than a year has gone into the editing and publication of each issue—and the contributors to both most likely have laboured even longer to write and refine what they—and we—now place before your eyes.

For the purposes of The Fiddlehead’s and The Malahat Review’s collaboration, the East Coast is defined as including all four provinces of Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador). The West Coast embraces the whole of British Columbia, including Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, and the B.C. mainland all the way to the Continental Divide (and just slightly beyond). Both magazines recognize that each region has a far-flung and often homeward-looking diaspora.

New Brunswick writer David Adams Richards is the winner of the $20,000 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award for his novel Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul (Doubleday).

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia Literary Awards were presented Friday in Halifax at the Dalhousie University Club in Halifax.

The Evelyn Richardson Memorial Non-Fiction Award ($2,000) was presented to Harry Thurston of Amherst for The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History (Greystone Books with the David Suzuki Foundation), and the Atlantic Poetry Prize ($2,000) was awarded to Sue Goyette of Halifax for outskirts (Brick Books).

Bob Mersereau continues his look at Music NB award nominees with Moncton's Pipher (Lee Thompson) on CBC Shift -  nominated for two NB Music Awards.

Fredericton’s Goose Lane Editions, which printed its first poetry collection, The Stunted Strong by Fred Cogswell, in 1954, is shaking things up with a new imprint called Icehouse Press.

Icehouse is run by a multi-city editorial board, led by Goose Lane poetry editor Ross Leckie, who is joined by Montreal writer and editor Katia Grubisic, St. John’s poet James Langer, and Toronto poet and filmmaker David Seymour.

Qwerty is a literary magazine published by graduate students at the University of New Brunswick. It features fiction, poetry, art and photography from Canadian and international artists and writers

The Canada Council’s peer assessment committees selected this year’s finalists out of approximately 1,700 submitted books, choosing works that tell readers compelling stories about themselves and the world around them.

French-language finalists Fiction

Ryad Assani-Razaki, Montreal, La main d’Iman
(Éditions de l’Hexagone, Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature, a Quebecor Media company; distributed by Messageries ADP)

Charles Bolduc, Montreal, Les truites à mains nues
(Leméac Éditeur; distributed by Socadis)

France Daigle, Moncton, N.B., Pour sûr
(Éditions du Boréal; distributed by Diffusion Dimedia)

Catherine Mavrikakis, Montreal,
Les derniers jours de Smokey Nelson
(Héliotrope; distributed by Gallimard)

Audrée Wilhelmy, Montreal, Oss
(Leméac Éditeur; distributed by Socadis)