Literature

Elizabeth Nunez

Nunez emigrated from Trinidad, where she was born, to the United States of America after she completed secondary school. She is presently a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English at Medgar Evers College, the City University of New York, where she designed, developed and implemented many of the college's first major academic programs. She received her Ph.D. and Masters degrees in English from New York University, and her B.A. degree in English from Marian College in Wisconsin. With John Oliver Killens, she founded the National Black Writers Conference sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was director of the conference from 1986 to 2000. Nunez is the author of five novels: Grace (Ballantine, 2003): Discretion (Ballantine, 2002); Bruised Hibiscus (Seal Press, 2000); Beyond the Limbo Silence (Seal Press, 1998), and When Rocks Dance (Putnam, 1986 and Ballantine, 1992)

Rhonda Batchelor

Rhonda Batchelor's first poetry collection, Bearings (Brick, 1985) was followed by two chapbooks: Sukey (Reference West, 1990) and Mirror After Mirror: The Muse Poems (Reference West, 1993) and in 1994 by Interpreting Silence. Her newest book of poetry is Weather Report Her poems have appeared in the following anthologies: Windhorse Reader: Choice Poems of 1994 (Samurai Press, 1995), Portals (Malaspina College, 1995), Because You Loved Being a Stranger: 55 Poets Celebrate Patrick Lane (Harbour, 1994), New Dimensions: A Perception of Poets (Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria/Reference West, 1993), and Something More Than Words (Reference West, 1991). She continues to write short fiction and poetry which have appeared in ARC, CV II, Dalhousie Review, Event, Grain, Malahat Review, Poetry Canada and others. She manages Hawthorne Books in Victoria and, with late husband and poet Charles Lillard, co-authored the Reference West newsletter and press, publishers of award-winning chapbooks from the Hawthorne Society of Arts and Letters reading series. As the longest running continuous series in western Canada, the series was the subject of the CTV documentary "Courting the Muse." Look for a new book of poetry from Rhonda Batchelor in 2000.

Gwen Molnar

Gwen Molnar is a visual artist and poet from Edmonton whose first book of verse for young children, I Said To Sam (Scholastic, 1987) is followed by Animal Rap and Far-Out Fables (Beach Holme, 1996). The NFB, for whom Molnar worked for several years, is now in the process of adapting her verse "How the Spring Came North" for an animated short film. Her work has also been included in several anthologies: Window of Dreams (Methuen, 1986), There Will Always Be A Sky (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), The New Adventures of Mother Goose (Meadowbrook Press, 1993) and New Rhymes for Playtime (Simon and Schuster, 1995). She is a regular contributor to Chickadee Magazine and has had her work featured on PBS as well as CBC television and radio.

Andrea Spalding

Andrea Spalding is an editor, musician, actress, professional storyteller, and writer for radio and television. Brandywine, her folk duo, has produced two records "Breakfast with Brandywine" and "The Most Beautiful Kite in the World." She has co-authored Superguide to the Southern Gulf Islands (Altitude, 1995), The Flavours of Victoria (Orca, 1994),The Pender Palate (Loon Books, 1992), The Whistlers (Jasper National Park, 1986) and Never a Dull Moment (Collins, 1984). She has also written A World of Stories (Red Deer, 1989) and The Most Beautiful Kite in the World (Red Deer, 1988), selected for CCBC "Our Choice." Spalding co-wrote a TV series on Alberta ethnic groups, "Through Western Eyes." She is also a contributor to Winds Through Time: An Anthology of Canadian Historical Young Adult Fiction (Beach Holme, 1998). Her title Finders Keepers (Beach Holme, 1995) was nominated for BC Book Prize's Sheila A. Egoff Award as well as the Silver Birch Award. Her newest novel is An Island Of My Own (Beach

Margaret Blackwood

Margaret Blackwood is a poet, fiction writer and visual artist. With Robin Skelton, she edited Earth, Air, Fire, Water (Arkana, 1990) and Aimed at Nobody (Faber and Faber, 1993). The Monstrous Regiment (Andre Deutsch Ltd., 1990) is a compilation of quotations about women throughout the centuries. Gravity and Light (Cacanadadada, 1991) was co-authored with Anne M. Kelly and Kerry Slavens. She has also published a chapbook, Unfinished World (Reference West, 1991). In 1995 she published The Seed Jar with Beach Holme.

Michael Crummey

Michael Crummey is the author of two books of poetry: Arguments with Gravity (Quarry, 1996) and Hard Light (Brick, 1998). In 1995 he won the inaugural Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry. His first published story was runner-up in the 1994 Prism International short fiction competition. His stories have appeared in Malahat, Prism International, Prairie Fire, Quarry, Blood & Aphorisms and TickleAce; Flesh & Blood (Beach Holme, 1998) is his first short fiction collection. Crummey was born in Buchans, Newfoundland, growing up there and near the Quebec border in Wabush, Labrador. He now lives in Kingston, Ontario where he works for the Ontario Public Interest Research Group at Queens University.

Deirdre Dwyer

Deirdre Dwyer has published poetry in numerous literary magazines across Canada, including The New Quarterly, McGill Street Magazine, Arc, Canadian Literature, Fireweed, Room of One's Own, Dalhousie Review, TickleAce, Windsor Review and others. Born in Nova Scotia in 1958, Dwyer has been writing poetry since her teacher taught her haiku in grade six. She has a B.A. from Dalhousie University where she studied Philosophy, and a M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor. She's worked as a bookseller, an instructor of English in Windsor, Ontario, a Second Language teacher in Tokyo, Japan, and a Creative Writing instructor in Halifax. Now a tutor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, she spends her time in Halifax and in Musquodoboit Harbour, where she and her husband, Hans, are slowly finishing the interior of their house by the water. Beach Holme proudly presents Dierdre Dwyer's debut collection of poetry The Breath That Lightens The Body.

Most Challenging Books of The 90s

Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz — scary, violent, occult

Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite — promotes homosexuality, age inappropriate

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou — sexually explicit, specifically graphic depictions of molestation and rape

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier — offensive language, sexually explicit

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain — offensive language, racist, especially frequent use of "nigger"

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck — offensive language

Forever by Judy Blume — sexually explicit, profanity, morality (pre-marital sex)

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson — offensive language, fantasy (references to witchcraft)

Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman — promotes homosexuality, age inappropriate

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger — offensive language, sexually explicit

Best Novels of The 90s

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy R.U.R..