Newfoundland Issue
What is regional literature and why is it important to distinguish pieces of work based on their home? Regional literature refers to literature capturing features, such as characters, dialect, and culture, specific to a region. The 201st issue of The Fiddlehead is a collection of works by prominent Newfoundland writers. Editor Ross Leckie elucidates the importance of capturing literature through region in the issue’s editorial. All regions are unique in their own way. All have different cultures and histories distinctive from the rest of the provinces. As Ross Leckie points out, Newfoundland has “a unique culture, a geographical isolation, an historical experience quite separate from Canada’s, and an island mystique that gives its literature a special resonance.” The focus on Newfoundland literature, or lack thereof, is what propelled the issue itself. Newfoundland’s emerging literature, “remarkable for its diversity and excellence,” seemed to be overlooked by the rest of the country. The goal was to give it its own space to be prominently displayed and recognized.
This issue captures Newfoundland life and culture, while exhibiting the talent of Newfoundland writers whose work may not have anything to do with the region at all. Kenneth J. Harvey contributes with his work “An Argument with God,” a compelling story that explores a man’s struggle with finding faith after experiencing the excruciating loss of his wife. “The Whittler” by Lillianne Bouzane showcases how region can influence literature, as she tells the story of a tight-knit community undergoing the loss of three young men during a five-day long storm. Poetry and fiction works are gathered in this issue to create a regional reading experience that, as Ross Leckie puts it, “is by no means exhaustive.” It simply offers a glimpse into the discovery of the brilliance of emerging Newfoundland literature.
Bailey Noiles
Intern, February 2022
Contents:
Editorial
5 Ross Leckie
Fiction
7 Claire Wilkshire: Contribution
19 Lisa Moore: Craving
25 Libby Creelman: Boat Ride
37 Don Austin: Lotty Amazona
48 Joan Clark: from Latitudes of Melt: The Drook
63 Lillian Bouzane: The Whittler
77 Bernice Morgan: Cautionary Tales
95 Kenneth J. Harvey: An Argument With God
Poetry
13 Michael Crummey: Five Poems
40 Michael Winter: Three Poems
46 Barbara Nickel: Two Poems
70 Robin McGrath: Two Poems
72 Mary Dalton: Two Poems
74 John Steffler: Three Poems
89 Patrick Warner: Three Poems
Reviews
104 Bill Bauer: Powerfully Part of the Present
Flesh and Blood and
Hard Light, Michael Crummey
107 Lance Callahan: An Abandoned Nation: The Strange Case of Joseph Smallwood and Sheilagh Fielding
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Wayne Johnston
109 Anne Compton: Seeing Things
Before the Flood, Alan Wilson
112 Ian Colford: ...piled here like kindling
Man of Bone, Alan Cumyn
114 Adam Dickinson: Headwaters
Weighted Light, Allan Briesmaster
flowers in the empty house, albert fuller
Ophelia After Centuries of Trying, Merike Lugus
119 Ross Leckie: The Resources of Poetry
Waterglass, Jeffery Donaldson
All the God-Sized Fruit, Shawna Lemay
Chess Pieces, David Solway
125 Notes on Contributors
Cover
Peter Gross
Ektachrome Photograph
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