Atlantic Canada’s history is alive in its landscapes, its art, and the stories we continue to tell about who we are and where we’ve come from. The Fall issue of ABT 102 celebrates books that document, imagine, and illuminate the region’s heritage in vivid, powerful ways.

Whether through photography, folklore, etching, or lived memory, these five titles offer a compelling journey through the East Coast’s cultural fabric. Here are five books that bring Atlantic history into sharp, unforgettable focus.

1. Black Ice by David Blackwood

Blackwood has been telling stories about Newfoundland in the form of epic visual narratives for 30 years. To bring this narrative to life, the book situates Blackwood’s prints in time and psace by looking at the history of Newfoundland and the people who settled there. Blackwood explores the timeless theme of the struggle for survival between humans and nature in one of the most exposed and hostile environments on Earth. He depicts a town and a centuries-old way of life that has disappeared. His dramas encapsulate class, gender, and intergenerational issues that can only be understood in the context of the formation of the landscape, its natural resources, immigration and settlement, religious and political debate, economic and social conditions, and the environmental threat to the survival of traditional lifestyles.

2. Myth & Legend by David Blackwood

Tracing Blackwood’s career from his days as an art student at the Ontario College of Art to his final drawing, David Blackwood: Myth & Legend brings together more than eighty drawings and prints, alongside proofs, copperplates, and archival materials to provide a unique insight into Blackwood’s creative process. Essays by AGO curator Alexa Greist and Amy Marshall Furness, the archivist who has stewarded the acquisition of Blackwood’s extensive personal archives, round out the volume. This stunning combination of work spans Blackwood’s entire career and reveals the creative evolution of one of Newfoundland’s, and Canada’s, most beloved artists.

3. In the Sunny Long Ago by John W. Doyle

4. The Acadians of Prince Edward Island by Georges Arsenault

Nowadays hundreds of unidentified photos tend to pile up in our computers and telephones. This book on the Acadians of Prince Edward Island shows the cultural and historical importance of carefully documented and organized collections of photos. From some points of view this book is like an old-fashioned family album, except that it illustrates the ordinary life of not just one but many Acadian families. In most cases the photos are informal snapshots taken by Acadians themselves over a time period stretching from the late 1800s to the 1960s. All these snapshots take us back to the olden days of large families and subsistence farming when the church was the centre of village life. Georges Arsenault has created a fascinating portrait of Island Acadians of yesteryear.

5. Leaving Good Things Behind by Darren Calabrese

When a family tragedy pulled photojournalist Darren Calabrese back to Atlantic Canada, the region both he and his wife once called home, he was confronted with a sense of profound grief. But, on returning to the rural property where he grew up, as a new father, he rediscovered an appreciation for the geographies, histories, and people of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, turning his lens to explore the tension between the perseverance of tradition and the inevitability of change.

Darren’s work led him into communities across the eastern provinces, who welcomed him to document the inextricable relationship between people, their stories, and the landscapes—equally beautiful and harsh—where they live and work. The result is an astonishing, evocative collection of curated photographs and archival images, with personal essays on family, coming home, loss, and his experiences exploring the region woven in throughout.

Elegant, spare, and revelatory at every turn, Leaving Good Things Behind shines a light on both the challenges and joys of the places we live.

Why These Books Matter

Together, these five works form a mosaic of Atlantic storytelling—part memory, part myth, part meticulous documentation. They preserve the people and places that define our region, inviting readers to reflect on how deeply our past continues to shape the world around us.

Whether you’re a history buff, an art lover, or simply someone who cherishes homegrown stories, these books offer a powerful way to reconnect with Atlantic Canada’s heritage.