‘Travelling The Lost Highway’ with Sarnia Writers Deahl & Linder

We awaken to distant thunder,/the sound of rain in the black walnut – James Deahl*

Three cheers and a thunderous applause for Sarnia’s literary couple James Deahl and Norma West Linder who continue to travel and entertain readers and audiences with their prolific work.

Norma West Linder – September 9, 2019

James Deahl – September 9, 2019

James Deahl and Norma West Linder are prolific award-winning Canadian writers who call Sarnia, Ontario, Canada their home. Both launched new work on September 9, 2019.

Last month, their double book launch officially introduced Travelling The Lost Highway, Deahl’s 164-page poetry collection inspired by some of the secluded Canadian and American roads Deahl and Linder travelled as a couple plus Perk’s First Love– A 1984 Drum Corps Summer, Linder’s fictional novel aimed at the youth or young adult market.

 The double book launch featured more than just two books.

Both shared their work at the literary celebration which also included readings by four contributors to Tamaracks and Lummox anthologies. Guest readers were Joseph A. Farina, Ryan Gibbs, David Haskins, and Rhonda Melanson.

The launch included readings by Joseph A. Farina, Norma West Linder, David Haskins, James Deahl, Ryan Gibbs, and Rhonda Melanson.

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Artist John Di Leonardo Follows His Passion in Debut Poetry Book

Among cold things, I whisper your name/in the sweetness of morning jams, evening fruits/and the Atlantic that draws me towards you. – John Di Leonardo*

February perfumes the air with desire and passion fruit while the cover of John Di Leonardo’s debut poetry collection Conditions of Desire is scarlet like rose petals, like a daring shade of lipstick, like Cupid’s heart.

Launched in late October 2018 by The John B. Lee Signature Series imprint of Hidden Brook Press, this 74-page collection of 54 ekphrastic poems evolved from Di Leonardo’s visual art exhibition “The Contentious Nude in the History of Canadian Art.”

Before becoming a published poet, John Di Leonardo taught visual arts for 30 years. His latest exhibition of graphite drawings was at the Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. Photo courtesy: Druworx Photography

As Lee penned for the back cover, “John Di Leonardo’s masterful ekphrastic project involves the writing of a collection of fine poems each of which is inspired by an original work of art. Although he is working in the poetic tradition of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts,” Di Leonardo is first and foremost a painter who brings to bear the eye of a man whose primary art is visual.”

His transition–from an established artist and visual arts teacher to a poet who paints with his words–has been fascinating to watch.

ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH IN TORONTO – OCTOBER 19, 2014

If you missed all the fun at the official launch in Peterborough last month, then stop by the Toronto launch. More information on the book here.

They Have To Take You In – Launching Sept 11 in Peterborough

Mark your calendars! Next week, Hidden Book Press heads to Peterborough to officially launch a fundraiser anthology on the theme of family.

More than just poetry! More than a book launch!

They Have To Take You In is a cross genre publication including mainstream, slipstream and magic realist work by writers from across the country. “ – Ursula Pflug, anthology editor

Below is information received from both the editor and publisher:

  About the book:

“We are reading our way out of sadness.” So writes Linda Rogers in her fine poem, “Paper Stairs.” And as our relationship with home and family is a complicated and varied one, Ursula Pflug’s Hidden Brook Press anthology They Have to Take You In, provides the reader with ample evidence of the profound complexity of blood and clan. The Welsh word “hiraeth” translates roughly as “longing for home,” and yet there are those for whom home is not so positive and the fine line between being homesick and being sick of home is just as often not so fine. “I remember being put out on the street/
at the age of nine or ten/
by my father for reasons that still remain a mystery/ even to me,” writes Darryl Salach in his poem, “On the Road”. None of the mushy sentimentality, false memory and treacly greeting-card nostalgia for these writers-no, these writers are interested in the healing truths we tell when writers are writing their way out of sadness for the sake of love. Herein they tell the entire grumble of the story, sometimes in memoir, sometimes in fiction, sometimes in a poem, but never in the candy-coated dithyrambs that populate the pages of those ‘chicken soup for the soul’ books. This anthology is filled with serious truth, the kind that goes deep and heals from well within the wound. – John B. Lee, Poet Laureate  of Brantford and Poet Laureate of Norfolk County

 About the Dana Fund:

“The Dana Fund was created in July of 2010 at the Canadian Mental Health Agency (CMHA HKPR) in Peterborough Ontario, at the suggestion of friends and family who wished to make donations in her memory. Dana Tkachenko inspired many people through her own experiences of struggling against tremendous obstacles and succeeding in creating a stable and fulfilling life for herself and her family. Dana’s memory is honoured through the Dana Fund, by dedicating donations to the cause of supporting young women and families in transition, experiencing similar challenges, who could benefit from some help along the way.” – Gordon Langill

 About the writers:

Writers who have contributed fiction and poetry include both internationally published award winners and those who appear here in print for the first time. Dana Tkachenko’s remarkable contribution closes the anthology.

 Table of Contents

   Fiction

Edited by Ursula Pflug and published by Hidden Brook Press 2014; Cover painting by Christiane Pflug. Introduction by Gordon Langill.

Life Skills by Jan Thornhill

The Doppelgängers by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Orange and Amber by Tapanga Koe

Murky Pinks by Georgia Fisher

Winterstorm by Barbara Ponomareff

Just Like Rain by Michelle Berry

Giiwedinong by Leanne Simpson

Foxford by Sandra Kasturi

The Missing Elephant by Robert Runté

Up, Away, Here, Gone by Andrew MacDonald

A Better Closet by Mela Brown

Zhezhi by Michael Matheson

Witness by Ruth Clarke

Arnold Pepper Doesn’t Care by Joe Davies

The Corner of Crack and Ho’ by P.J. Thomas

Belvedere by Margaret Slavin Dyment

Leadfoot Sally: An Excerpt from Uranium City Return by Tim Becket

Anna’s Story by Dana Tkachenko

   Poetry

About The Creation of Life On Earth by Robert Priest

McLoneliness by Ron Chase

Paper Stairs by Linda Rogers

100 Percent Acrylic by Debbie Okun Hill

Family Tree by Colleen Anderson

Metro West by Ariel David Skelly Langen

On the Road by Daryl Salach

ode’min giizis (heart berry moon) at Couchiching First Nation by Gord Bruyere

Lethe by Donna Langevin

Note: There will be a second event in Toronto: Sunday, October 19, 2014 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Black Swan Tavern, 154 Danforth. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. More info here.

Order info here.