David Suzuki famously said of the climate crisis: “We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.” For 30 years, Atlantic Books Today has been featuring regional books that shine a spotlight on burning issues—and that has never been more evident than with the Fall 2022 edition’s theme of environmental literature. The decision to focus on this issue was based on the sheer number of books about it being published right now. It is a crucial issue we must all consider and address. 

Atlantic Books Today editor Chris Benjamin, who worked as a professional environmentalist for many years, has this to say about the worrisome state of the world and the local literary response to it: “Publishers and writers from across the region have long grappled with the existential crisis that is climate change, and other equally fundamental crises facing our world, like toxicity and habit loss.” 

In the Fall 2022 issue’s cover story, environmental journalist Erica Butler talks of the dual need for books exalting the nonhuman world and books lamenting its decline at humans’ hands. She spotlights seven new Atlantic books serving one or both of those functions, and includes an additional reading list of new books and classics on the environment.

Beyond the environment, you’ll find diverse voices in these pages examining other pressing, relevant issues.There’s no question that diversity enhances creativity and encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. 

There are such personal perspectives in A Journey of Love and Hope, Sister Elder Dorothy Moore’s new memoir about her lived experience to work toward reconciliation. Frequently Asked White Questions by Alex Khasnabish and Ajay Parasram is a basic guide for people learning about racial privilege. And an excerpt from Acceptance: Stories at the Centre of Us, published by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Engen Books in partnership with Quadrangle NL, celebrates 2SLGBTQAI+ stories.

Atlantic Books Today isn’t alone in celebrating a milestone anniversary. Writer Norma Jean MacPhee profiles Ronald Caplan as he celebrates 50 years as publisher and editor of Breton Books and Cape Breton’s Magazine, which launched in 1972. 

Born in Pittsburgh, Penn., Caplan (whose awards include the Order of Canada) wanted the new magazine to be “the largest on the newsstand,” a goal he achieved—it’s an impressive 10 by 14 inches. “The stories I was hearing were remarkable, they were a new world for me,” he says of arriving in Cape Breton. “I guess I was driven or determined to share them.”

In a special extended digital edition of the magazine, available at https://atlanticbooks.ca/our-latest-edition/, popular Halifax radio-show host Rick Howe reflects on his 50 years working in broadcasting in his new memoir, Behind the Mic: Five Decades Covering the News in the Maritimes, and how his cancer journey cut it a few months shorter than he had planned. With two more books in the works, Howe says, “I just want to say to all the people of Nova Scotia, I’m here, I’m still kicking, and I’ve got a lot more in me yet.”

As always, this issue is packed with even more author interviews and book features, reviews and excerpts. In the print issue, read a special conversation between the editor and author of the new young adult mystery Heartbreak Homes from bestselling author Jo Treggiari, which is also excerpted in the digital issues, along with Ruby Red Skies, a powerful novel that grapples with climate change and rampant wildfires.

Our stories help us understand our place on Earth. They help us understand our own lives and cultures, as well as those of others. They encourage—sometimes urge—us to do better. May the stories in this latest, 30^th-anniversary issue of Atlantic Books Today serve as thoughtful meditations in fact and fiction on our relationship with the environment and each other.

You can also peruse the books covered in the issue at our Fall Collection page.