Fiction Archives - Nova Scotia Advocate

Book review: Through the elephant ears, by MJ Dominey

September 11, 2021

Anne Bishop reviews Through the elephant ears, by MJ Dominey, and she likes it a lot. “If you grew up in a small town, anywhere, but particularly in Cape Breton, and particularly on the wrong side of the tracks, Through the Elephant Ears will go straight to your heart. If you grew up elsewhere, it will open your heart to the scary and complicated path young women living in poverty must travel on the way to adulthood and how it sticks to them for life.”

Chris Benjamin: “The challenge becomes to put myself in another person’s shoes and see the world through their eyes”

November 15, 2020

“”Not all these characters are nice people, but they’re all going through interesting things, and so I just want to see the world through their eyes. It often leaves me with a different point of view on things, or a different way of thinking.” An interview with Chris Benjamin about his excellent short stories collection A Boy With a Problem.

Calling for poetry and short fiction submissions (and illustrators)

March 18, 2020

These are very difficult times for people who make their living in the arts sector in Nova Scotia. To do our tiny little thing to help, the Nova Scotia Advocate, in yet another bad business decision, commits to featuring (at least) one poem or piece of short fiction each month, for the next five months. And we pay.

A Christmas Eve walk 1953

December 24, 2019

“And for all sixty years of their lives together every Christmas was more than Christmas because each one was imbued with the joy they’d felt that first Christmas Eve as they walked down that rural road, the snow, like grace, floating down around them.” Another lovely story by Catherine Banks, about poverty, love, and yes, Christmas.

Anne Bishop about writing Under the Bridge: ‘There is this idea out there that you can’t write fiction about social justice issues’

December 18, 2019 1 Comment

A bit of a book review, and an interview with Anne Bishop, who wrote the wonderful novel Under the Bridge, set in Halifax in the mid-nineties, one of these times in history when activism had real energy.

My father’s gift, a Christmas memory

December 21, 2017 3 Comments

This wonderful story by Catherine Banks (and equally wonderful illustration by Kate Phillips) is our thank you to all our readers and friends who struggle to make ends meet but refuse to let poverty define them. Next year we’ll fight for a living wage and decent income assistance benefits even harder, but for now, have a great holidays!