In the anthology Stones, nine Vancouver Island writers present works of prose and poetry. Each a pebble flicked into the pool of life’s emotions, these works send ripples through readers’ minds. Here is what two of BC’s leading writers have to say about the prose and poetry respectively:

The prose pieces in Stones take us on adventures from the West Coast of British Columbia to Islamabad and Korea. Comic or poignant, always inspiring, they show how people learn and grow through encounters involving fire, foreign territory, families and fortune cookies. Blurring the line between fiction and memoir, there is an unmistakable and enduring truth to each story.

- Carol Matthews, author of Questions for Ariadne: The Labyrinth and the End of Times (Outlaw Editions) and Incidental Music (Oolichan Books).

The poems in Stones are “grace-notes fallen from fiddle airs” and “distant falling things.” Their ripples linger. These writers celebrate the places, people, and events they have known, in the world and in their imaginations, through language so charged that “the skin painted thin on bones” prickles at the experiences recalled.

- Yvonne Blomer, author of The Book of Places (Black Moss Press) and a broken mirror, fallen leaf (Gerald Lampert Award finalist).

As One Cradles Pain is an anthology that explores the various issues concerning disorders. Many people, at one time or another, will suffer with some form of disorder. The challenge remains for individuals to find ways of reclaiming their lives. In this anthology you will find many diverse issues that surround these disorders; issues, that despite all our science, medicine and caring, still exist. “Monsters are still among us,” as Norma West Linder says. There are many “kinds of crazy.” There is emptiness, “the long division of pain”, lives that don’t end happily, voices in the head, people “out of reach”, “wildfires”, raging tempests, loss of power and control, and disorders of the heart.
Inside you will find the creative efforts of sixty-five writers, from five provinces in Canada, from eight states in the U.S.A. and from Argentina, Britain, and Israel.

“The sheer volume of contradiction, whimsy, apprehension, pithiness, and diversity contained in this wonderful collection of words about poetry, by poets, proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that those of us who call ourselves poets frequently have no idea what we’re doing, or why we do it. All we know is that it must be done. Perhaps Carl Sandburg said it best: ‘I’ve written some poetry I don’t understand myself.’ "

David Bateman

“This little book is a kaleidoscope of ways of seeing, being, reflecting, deflecting, confessing, professing, processing, revealing the mystery at the heart of things. Open anywhere to lift the spirits.”

Patricia Ludwick, writer,
editor, and addicted reader

Dan Lundine’s memoir, Signpost - A Prairie Town is set in and around a fictional community in Saskatchewan. Through the eyes of a rookie cop from B.C.’s west coast, we observe the little town of Signpost, and become acquainted with a delightful mix of local characters. Lundine’s earthy prose sweeps us along with the newcomer, as we come to understand small-town prairie life in the 60’s—its people, its challenges and its humour.

- Patricia Smekal

Hilarious, tender, unflinching, always honest—Dan Lundine is a natural storyteller whose keen eye recorded small town Saskatchewan and its characters all those many years ago when he was a just-sprung Mountie fresh from the west coast and raring for adventure.

- Ursula Vaira, publisher, Leaf Press

“Bill Perry’s collection of thirteen poems, Shadows of Norfolk, was written in part when he was growing up in Norfolk, Connecticut in the late 1950s … and other poems were penned when he returned to Norfolk in 1968.

There is nostalgia — wondering nostalgia — in his writing. In ‘Homecoming,’ the ‘faintly lilac breeze across the Village Green’ offers a ‘composite of a once-was place’; or in ‘Hillborn,’ ‘Our memories are pathless woods and mountains … We have dreamed in newcut hayfields drying hot beneath the bluejay summer sky.’

Bill Perry is at his best in his romantic description of a night at a drive-in movie; in his Gothic treatment of violence and ‘deathical visages’ on a long-ago Halloween in Norfolk, and in the tragedy that may lie just around the bend on ‘Route 44.’”

— from “Home-grown poet” by Wakeman Hartley, the Register Citizen, July 19, 1984

Caught in My Throat, David Fraser’s fourth collection of poetry, courageously reveals versions of his truth. These poems are passionate narratives that are both evocative and entertaining, as he weaves stories that have shaped his life and the lives of others. In a metaphorical sense his truth is lodged in his throat and he is driven tell it. As a witness, the poet is compelled to break the silence that inhabits memory. Caught in My Throat is a testament to this poet’s evolutionary growth. Here is an exploration of possibilities, a juggling of the truth, and a mining of the sediment of his life.

David Fraser lives on Vancouver Island. He is editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine. His poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Rocksalt, An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry and Walk Myself Home. He has published four collections of poetry, Going to the Well (2004), Running Down the Wind (2007), No Way Easy, 2010 and Caught in My Throat, 2011. He is the artistic director for Nanaimo's spoken-word series, WordStorm. www.wordstorm.ca Home Site: www.davidpfraser.ca

Close to Quitting Time is an anthology depicting the various facets of work. Labour is inherent in our lives, in our memories of loved ones and in the archetypal images of a lost paradise where the first work began. The work of the sea with its relentless waves that erode the landscape and the work of nature’s creatures add to the collective abundance of the earth. Turn over a rotting log and you will find a miniature landscape of moving things, visible and invisible, all gainfully employed.

Some of us know the graveyard shift at the mill, the hard toil of the prairie, the patience needed for customer service, the challenge of caregiving, the kneading of our daily bread, the boredom of the work camp, the slavery of the sweatshop, and the struggle of thought.

Work is never easy. It can be drudgery; it can be bliss. If one is lucky, it is a passion that can turn every effort into a form of play.

Inside you will find the varied creative efforts of sixty-eight writers, from six provinces in Canada, from twelve states in the U.S.A, and from Argentina, Britain, Israel, and Scotland.

We are the Easy Writers, a group of Vancouver Island writers who were drawn together by a shared love of writing, and a desire to perfect and perform our work. Our group name is a spoof of the 1969 American road movie Easy Rider that starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as counterculture bikers. In tribute, each of us took up the challenge to write a “motorcycle” poem or prose piece to introduce our work in this anthology – and to use in group performances. (We are frequent performers at Nanaimo’s popular spoken word event, WordStorm, and at other Vancouver Island venues.)

We Easy Writers are an eclectic group. Some of us write poetry or haiku; others favour prose. We all share a love for the written and spoken word. We invite you to journey through the pages of this anthology, and hope you will find the trip to be “One Sweet Ride”!