Featured Artists—2010
Cabot Trail Writers Festival
Michael Crummey
MICHAEL CRUMMEY is the 2007 winner of
the Timothy Findley Award, given to a male Canadian writer in
mid-career to honour a significant body of work. He is an
award-winning poet, and his 1998 book of short stories,
Flesh and Blood (Beach Holme
1998), includes Serendipity,
selected for the 10th Anniversary edition of the Journey
Prize Anthology.
Michael's first novel, River Thieves (Doubleday 2001), was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2003, and was a finalist for the 2001 Giller Prize. His next novel, The Wreckage, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Galore, his highly anticipated third novel, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, and won both the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Caribbean and Canada), and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. It has been included on many "best book" lists, including the Globe & Mail's 2009 Globe Top 100, and is a national best seller.
Michael was born and raised in Buchans, Newfoundland, and Wabush, Labrador, and now lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
"[Galore is]…one of those books that is so complete that it takes on a life of its own. It will stay in the minds of its readers long after they finish the last page…" — Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo
Visit Michael on the web at Canadian Poetry Online and at Random House.
Marq de Villiers, CM
MARQ DE VILLIERS, CM, is a newly installed
Member of the Order of Canada, honoured for "his contributions
to social and political discourse, notably as an award-winning
non-fiction author."
Marq has been a journalist "for more years than he can count." He worked first in newspapers as a foreign correspondent in Moscow, Cape Town, and other places. Later, he became editor, then publisher of Toronto Life magazine, and then for some years was editorial director of Los Angeles-based WHERE Magazines International. Most recently, he has turned his hand to books.
He has written more than a dozen books on history, travel, and natural history, sometimes collaborating with his wife, writer Sheila Hirtle. White Tribe Dreaming: Apartheid's Bitter Roots (Penguin 1988) won the inaugural 1989 Alan Paton Award for non-fiction. Water: The Fate of our Most Precious Resource (Stoddart 2000) won the Governor General's Award for Non-fiction, 1999, and the Canadian Science Writers Award, 1999. The Witch in the Wind: The True Story of the Legendary Bluenose (Thomas Allen 2007) took both the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction and the Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction in 2008.
Marq's most recent book is Dangerous World, a history of natural calamity. He was born in South Africa, and now lives near Port Medway, Nova Scotia.
"The author's argument here [in Water] is exceptionally persuasive because he does not scold or inveigh but lucidly and readably reports…" — The New Yorker
Visit Marq on the web at the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia and at the Transatlantic Literary Agency.
Sheree Fitch
SHEREE FITCH is the bestselling, award-winning
author of numerous books for children, as well as a poet
and storyteller.
Sheree was the 2000 winner of the Vicky Metcalf Award for work inspirational to Canadian youth, and a winner of the Canadian Authors Association's Marianna Dempster Memorial Award for her contribution to the field of children's literature. Her book of adult poetry, In this House Are Many Women (Goose Lane 1993), was reissued in an expanded anniversary edition in 2004. Her first novel for adults, Kiss the Joy as It Flies (Vagrant Press 2008) was shortlisted for the 2009 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
This fall, Sheree's popular children's book Mabel Murple will be re-released, with new art by Sydney Smith. Also coming out this fall is her new book for senior teens, Pluto's Ghost (Doubleday 2010).
A popular educator and workshop presenter, Sheree is actively involved in literacy advocacy. She is the Honourary Patron of the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick, and Honourary Spokesperson for Nova Scotia's Read to Me early literacy programme. She has travelled widely to work to develop and encourage literacy programmes, and to teach and read in schools.
Sheree grew up in Miramichi, Moncton, and Fredericton in New Brunswick, and now divides her time between Dartmouth and River John, Nova Scotia.
" 'Kiss the Joy As It Flies' is funny and heartbreaking and thought-provoking and sometimes all three… Fitch made us wait a long time for her first novel, but it was worth it… a rare and lovely book." — January Magazine
Visit Sheree's web site at shereefitch.com.
Bev Brett
BEV BRETT works as a
playwright, director, and dramaturge, and is director of St. Ann's
Bay Players. She is a past president of Playwrights Atlantic
Resource Centre. Bev's passion is writing plays about historical
and modern Cape Breton; she has written plays for several Cape
Breton communities, including Cape North, Ingonish, Louisbourg,
and St. Ann's Bay.
Her play, Down North — The Play of Voices from Cape Breton's Magazine, co-written with Ron Caplan and Ruth Schneider, is published by Breton Books. The Margaret was performed both here and in New Zealand.
Bev's contemporary play Out the Meadow was produced by professional company Forerunner Theatre in Halifax. It was nominated for best new play for 2010, Robert Merritt Awards for Excellence in Nova Scotia Theatre.
Of Vision, her new adaptation commissioned by the Festival, Bev says, "I have always thought it one of Alistair [Macleod]'s most powerful stories."
On Out the Meadow "… Brett is gifted at comedic writing and authentically conjuring place. She also has a keen insight into the paths of the human heart and a poetic sensibility." — Ellissa Barnard
Read about some of Bev's plays on the web: The Margaret, The Spirit of Aspy Bay, and Out the Meadow.
Frank Macdonald
FRANK MACDONALD
is an award-winning columnist and former publisher,
The Inverness Oran. His novel,
A Forest for Calum (CBU Press 2005),
was short-listed for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction in 2006,
and nominated for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Award.
Some of his many weekly columns for
The Inverness Oran have been
compiled and published in two books,
Assuming I'm Right (Cecibu 1990)
and How to Cook Your Cat
(Cecibu 2003).
Frank has written a number of poems, songs, and short stories, as well as successful plays. His children's book, T.R.'s Adventure at Angus the Wheeler's (CBU Press 2010), illustrated by Virginia McCoy, was released this summer.
On A Forest for Calum:
"a book that should, if there is any justice
in the world, become a Canadian classic."
— Robert Wiersema, Globe and Mail
"an exceptional first novel … finely rendered and heartfelt in its depth. Unique in presentation and rewarding to the end." — Alistair MacLeod
Visit Frank on the web at the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia and forestforcalum.blogspot.com.
Carmel Mikol
CARMEL MIKOL is a storyteller, crafting
songs with a provocative blend of truth, fiction, and wit.
The title track of her new album,
In My Bones, took first place
in the Folk Category of the Great American Song Contest,
and is a testament to the mature, literary songwriting that
has her being called "the most promising Cape Breton-born
singer songwriter to hit any stage in years"
(whatsgoinon.ca).
The Halifax Chronicle Herald says her songs are "full of life and personality, while her voice is clear, expressive, and direct without overselling the emotion in her soul-baring songs" (Stephen Cooke).
In 2009, Carmel crossed Canada on her Guess Who's Driving tour, playing 50+ shows from Newfoundland to British Columbia. In 2009 and 2010, she was featured at East Coast Music Awards showcase performances.
"I understand that she has recently started taking Halifax by storm. That's one storm that I want to see a bit closer to home." — Dan MacDonald, The Cape Breton Post
Visit Carmel's web site at carmelmikol.com.
Rocky Shore
ROCKY SHORE is Otis Tomas: fiddle; David "Papper" Papazian: whistle, concertina, fiddle; Deanie Cox: guitar; Paul Cranford: fiddle; Sarah Beck: fiddle; Paul MacDonald: guitar.
Rocky Shore is a multi-talented group of musicians who ably represent the traditional music of Cape Breton, Scotland, and Ireland, and who each create new music building on those same traditions. The group draws its name from a tune composed by Paul Cranford to recall the beauty of the rocky coastline of Cape Breton. Enjoy their music after Saturday's special performance of Vision.
Check out Rocky Shore on the web at Celtic Colours.
