August 2008 | $19.95
9781554470631| Trade Paper
In the mid-nineteenth century a man who became known as Jerome was alleged to have been found on the shores of Baie Sainte-Marie, Nova Scotia, mute and missing both legs. He lived for over forty years with a local family. Many attempts were made to locate his relatives, with hopefuls rumoured to have travelled from as far away as Alabama and Milan, but when he died in 1912 the mystery of his background was still unsolved. The story of Jerome, the Mystery Man of Sandy Cove, has turned up in various collections of folk history over the years. Now, best-selling novelist Ami McKay has written a play centred on Jerome’s appearances as a sideshow curiosity.
Two Planks & A Passion’s world-premiere production of Jerome will ran August 1–17 at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, outside Canning, Nova Scotia, as part of the company’s “Theatre Off the Grid” outdoor series.
Ami McKay was born and raised in Indiana. She moved to Scot’s Bay, Nova Scotia, in 2000. Her first novel, The Birth House, is a Canadian bestseller and was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She is currently at work on her second novel.
September 2008 | $27.95
9781554470563 | Trade Paper
In an unusual blend of fiction and memoir, Andrew Steinmetz’s first novel tells the story of his great-aunt Eva who performed in the first workshop production of Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece The Threepenny Opera, in 1928.
In their sessions with the tape recorder running, we see Steinmetz’s own life as it intersects with Eva’s, and his changing perspective on her life and work. Tied together with threads of Brecht’s play, Steinmetz presents a life lived as though the world were a stage. A fictional tribute, Eva’s Threepenny Theatre is as much concerned with what happened as what might have or was imagined to have been.
Andrew Steinmetz is the author of a memoir, Wardlife: The Apprenticeship of a Young Writer as a Hospital Clerk and two collections of poetry, Histories and Hurt Thyself. Steinmetz’s work has been shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award, the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF) First Book Award, the Mavis Gallant Prize for non-fiction, and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Presently Steinmetz is the editor of Esplanade Books, the fiction imprint at V_hicule Press. He lives in Ottawa.
September 2008 | $24.95
9781554470648 | Trade Paper
On the eve of her first day of senior high, May Sutherland’s mother gives her a diary in which to record her experiences. It’s 1948 and the entire student body at Magee High in Vancouver is divided according to their preference for Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra. After losing her two best friends overnight, May struggles between her disdain for the debate and her loneliness as one of only a handful of neutrals. Parked in front of the living-room console, May conducts an extensive comparison of the two singers, only to find her questions one day answered by a different kind of music altogether.
The diary entries reveal May’s commitment to being genuine and truthful, and her endeavours to match her parents’ poise while passing for a normal teenager in the process. In the often hilariously rigid turns of phrase with which May records her misunderstandings and attempts at maturity, Headrick captures the inner life of a good girl coming of age.
Paul Headrick lives in Vancouver with his partner, novelist Heather Burt. He teaches literature and creative writing at Langara College. Headrick’s work has been published in numerous journals, including The Malahat Review and The Antigonish Review.
September 2008 Fiction | $24.95
9781554470570 | Trade Paper
Ven Begamudr_’s latest work of fiction combines Hindu mythology with the story of a family. Through the veil of Vishnu’s unions with Lakshmi and his incarnation in the tale of Manu and the fish, the novel portrays a pair of siblings as they navigate 1960s North American culture under the weight of their emotionally abusive father and ambitious mother. By day Subhas and Durga master the logistics of junior highschool in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, while at night they watch the disintegration of their parents’ marriage.
Following the breakup, and in the wake of an unfortunate misunderstanding between the two siblings, Durga moves to Canada with their mother, while Subhas remains in the United States with their father. Now in her late teens and training as part of the Seaforth Highlanders reserve regiment in Vancouver, Durga struggles to find her way in a place she loves, while back in Pennsylvania, Subhas works a part-time job at a gas station during the oil crisis.
Ven Begamudr_ was born in South India and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was six. Among his publications are a novel, Van de Graaff Days, a collection of poetry, The Lightness Which is Our World Seen From Afar, and a biography, Isaac Brock: Larger Than Life. His short-story collection Laterna Magika was a best book finalist in the Commonwealth Prize Canada-Caribbean division. Begamudr_ has completed numerous writer-in-residence appointments, most recently at Iowa State University. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.
October 2008 | $59.95
9781554470624 | Trade Hardcover | Illustrated
A new and expanded trade edition of Jim Rimmer’s letterpress limited-edition original makes available the autobiography of this gifted type designer and private-press printer. Beginning with his less than shining early academic career, Rimmer recounts his first experiences setting type at Vancouver Technical High School and leaving school after grade ten for a six-year apprenticeship in the composing room at J.W. Boyd’s in the 1950s. With stories about the colourful characters who inhabit the printing trade and his alternately calamitous and successful attempts at refurbishing printing and typecasting machinery, Rimmer revels in the influences and misadventures that have shaped his life.
Pie Tree Press contains reproductions of Rimmer’s illustrations and presswork, as well as samples of his original metal and digital type designs. The book also includes photographs and detailed descriptions of Rimmer’s unique typecutting processes and a new chapter on his experiences with Giampa Textware creating digital fonts in the 1980s and 90s.
Jim Rimmer is a designer, illustrator, typographer and type designer. Rimmer was born and raised in Vancouver, BC, and worked for many years as a commercial designer. He was type director at Lanston Monotype during the 1970s when it was based in Vancouver. At his Rimmer Type Foundry in New Westminster, BC, he has created 190 digital and seven metal typefaces.
October 2008 | $59.95
9781554470587 | Trade Hardcover | Illustrated
First published as a limited edition in 2005 by the celebrated American private press Bird & Bull, In Black & White is Wesley Bates’ account of his career as a freelance illustrator. Beginning with his earliest inspirations in the pages of books browsed in childhood, Bates recalls his first set of wood-engraving tools, his first and subsequent commissions, becoming established in the Hamilton arts scene, and his collaboration with friends and acquaintances in the private press and publishing communities.
Bates tells the stories behind several book projects and commissioned works, including illustrating W.O. Mitchell’s The Black Bonspiel of Willie McCrimmon for McClelland & Stewart, George Elliott Clarke’s award-winning Execution Poems for Gaspereau Press and the lasting friendship that developed in the process of illustrating the work of American poet and essayist Wendell Berry.
Wesley Bates was born in the Yukon and raised in Saskatchewan. He now lives in Clifford, Ontario, where he runs West Meadow Press. Known primarily as a wood engraver, Bates’ work has been commissioned by numerous publishers, including Penguin, Random House, McClelland & Stewart, The Porcupine’s Quill and Gaspereau Press.
October 2008 | $27.95
9781554470594 | Trade Paper | Illustrated
Though often associated with hibernation – for bears and humans alike – winter can in fact be a time of observation and discovery in the outdoors. Winter Nature provides the interested walker, skier or snowshoer with a guide to the mammals, birds, trees and shrubs found in the Maritime provinces during the winter months.
With an overview on temperature, sunlight, snowfall and seasonal adaptations, notes toward identification, and tips for differentiating between similar species, biologists and nature enthusiasts Merritt Gibson and Soren Bondrup-Nielsen share their passion for the outdoors and the biodiversity of the Maritime region. Each species entry is accompanied by an original ink drawing by Nova Scotia artist Twila Robar-DeCoste.
Merritt Gibson is a former professor of biology at Acadia University. He enjoys hiking and skiing about his community, with visits to other parts of the Maritimes, to look for plants, birds and other animals. He is the author of Seashores of the Maritimes, The Old Place and Gibson’s Guide to Birdwatching.
Soren Bondrup-Nielsen was born in Denmark and at thirteen immigrated to Canada with his family. He is currently a professor in the Biology Department at Acadia University where he teaches Ecology and Conservation Biology. He is the author of a memoir, Winter On Diamond.
Twila Robar-DeCoste lives in Aylesford, NS, where she owns and operates Windsong Studio and Gallery. She has illustrated numerous books of natural history, and her art can be found throughout Atlantic Canada and Ontario and in many corporate and private collections in North America and Europe.
October 2008 | $49.95
9781554470655 | Trade Paper | Letterpress
“In August 2006,” writes Don McKay in his introduction, “a group of artists working in different media, and out of a variety of traditions, assembled in the Muskwa-Kechika wilderness of Northern British Columbia. This ‘art-camp’ was organized and managed by Donna Kane and Wayne Sawchuk as a way to direct aesthetic attention to an area – one of very few – in which a wild ecosystem remains virtually intact. This book is my response, presented in a form which, so I hope, fits both the region and the experience.”
Spreading a map of the Muskwa-Kechika out on the kitchen table prior to the trip, McKay studies the region framed by the Toad River in the north and the Tuchodi Lakes to the south. Written on the ground and in retrospect, the assemblage of poetry and prose describes encounters with the landscape and its inhabitants – lichen, caribou, moose, loons, and an unruly pack horse named Bucky.
Don McKay has published ten books of poetry, two of which, Nightfield (1991) and Another Gravity (2000), won Governor General’s Literary Awards. His most recent collection, Strike/Slip, won the Griffin Prize for Poetry in 2007. McKay has taught creative writing at University of Western Ontario and University of New Brunswick. He is presently the associate director for poetry at the Banff Centre for the Arts. McKay lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Release date: 12 August 2008 | $41.95
9781554470549 | hardcover
Gaspereau Press is pleased to announce the release of the hardcover new-edition reprint of Wisdom & Metaphor, Jan Zwicky’s GG-nominated book on the importance of metaphor to understanding. The new edition makes this title available in a more compact (octavo) format, while retaining the spatial arrangement so integral to the 2003 (quarto) edition.
In the foreword to Wisdom & Metaphor, Jan Zwicky describes how "those who think metaphorically are enabled to think truly, because the shape of their thinking echoes the shape of the world." Wisdom & Metaphor is a different kind of book, one that proceeds not by single pages but by ‘openings’. On the left-hand side are Zwicky’s own thoughts, which build throughout the course of the book, introducing the range of cultures and concepts that contribute to her thinking. On the right-hand side are selections from the work of fellow thinkers – poets, philosophers, mathematicians and essayists.
Along the path of connections that features language, haiku, ontology, home, duende, time and music (to name but a few), Zwicky manages to clarify without simplifying, and to involve a broad range of voices without collapsing them into her own. The author’s roving influences, coupled with an understated, largely spatial, style of discourse, make this book truly thought provoking. As fellow poet and reviewer Anne Simpson says, "there is no doubt that what Zwicky has given us is a book of wisdom."
This book is smyth-sewn, casebound in cloth and enfolded in a letterpress-printed jacket. The text was typeset by Andrew Steeves in Laurentian and printed offset on cream-coloured wove paper making 320 pages trimmed to 5.125 _ 8.25 inches.
A new edition of Zwicky’s companion volume, Lyric Philosophy (1992), is forthcoming
December 15, 2008
Goose Lane Editions Launches New Online Media Resources
December 15, 2008
New From Gaspereau Press
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The whales leap, the sport of giants.
Flippers, huge tails smacking water,
joyful, cutting across the bay.
The play on the title of Joseph Brodsky’s essay, “Footnote to a Poem”, is deliberate.
December 15, 2008
Goose Lane Editions Launches New Online Media Resources
December 15, 2008
New From Gaspereau Press
