As the crisp air of September settles over Atlantic Canada, it’s the perfect moment to dive into a new book. This month, we’re celebrating the vibrant literary culture blossoming across our region by highlighting a couple of this month’s upcoming new releases!

Spring Theory

Written by Wanda Campbell

Published by Pottersfield Press 

Wanda Campbell’s sixth poetry collection, Spring Theory, meets the chaos of the current times with forms that are fractured and familiar in poems of lament and love, hunger and hope. It moves from exploring the darkness of fall to capturing spring’s rejuvenating light. Between these contrasting seasons are three suites: ekphrastic poems inspired by Alex Colville’s images of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, prose poem tributes to twelve Canadian writers, and the heart of the collection, the lost sonnets of “Dementia Diary Down Under.” These 26 poems compare Alzheimer’s to the topsy-turvy world of Australia and subject the sonnet to scattering, loss and erasure to echo what happens to a brain with this degenerative illness. Nearly a million Canadians and 55 million worldwide suffer from dementia and the poet attempts to understand the unpredictable experiences of her own aging relatives with empathy and insight. In exploring the challenges faced by the “sandwich generation,” Campbell employs a variety of forms: from free verse to found poetry and reimagined sonnets. With curiosity and candor, she finds striking comparisons in the world around her: caring for elderly parents and canoeing, Colville’s crow and a landing plane, Covid cures and hummingbirds, war and Easter eggs, a Botticelli painting and the loves of her life, and in the poem selected as a Montreal International Poetry Prize finalist that inspired the title of the collection.

The Austens: A Novel

Written by Sarah Emsley

Published by Pottersfield Press 

Jane Austen chooses art and the freedom to write fiction instead of marrying for money and thereby selling her body and soul, while her sister-in-law Fanny chooses to marry for love. Their disagreements about work and family threaten their friendship in a world that is hostile to art and love, and even the idea of a woman making a choice.

A Door in the Middle of Nowhere

Written by Karen Lundy

Published by Flanker Press 

What would you do if you stumbled upon a door that shouldn’t exist—a door that leads to secrets buried too deep in time to ignore?

Maddie Murphy and her husband, Mark, thought they were escaping the monotony of their lives in Toronto when they bought a summer home in Lockston Brook, Newfoundland. But the house has a past no one dares speak of, and a door hidden in the basement reveals a parallel world tangled with haunting truths, forgotten lives, and a tormented soul named Gerome Falconer.

As Maddie begins uncovering the chilling events tied to the house and its former occupants, she is drawn into a mystery that resonates with her own buried past. Gerome Falconer, a man both alive and not, holds answers to unspeakable horrors—and the only thing standing between redemption and ruin. Maddie’s journey into folklore, forgotten journals, and ghostly visions will challenge her beliefs, her marriage, and her very sanity.

When the mist rolls in and the falcon takes flight, will Maddie risk stepping through the door into the unknown? Or will the secrets of the house consume her forever? A Door in the Middle of Nowhere is a gripping tale of suspense, heartbreak, and healing, where past and present collide in a chilling exploration of trauma and resilience. Step into the mist . . . if you dare.

Spirit of Scatarie

Written by Lesley Crewe

Published by Nimbus Publishing 

A stunning new work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer, set on Nova Scotia’s remote Scatarie Island, following three friends whose lives are inextricably bound, and the spirit who guides them.

You might be startled that this tale will be told to you by a ghost. I prefer the word spirit but it’s all the same. The truth is, I have as much right to tell this story as anyone. Scatarie Island belongs to the living and the dead

Christmas Day, 1922: three babies are born on Scatarie Island, off the coast of Cape Breton. Although born to different parents, Hardy, Sam, and Mary Alice grow up together in their wild homeplace, exploring the rocky coastline, picking bakeapples, and scavenging treasures from the countless ships that have wrecked there over the centuries.

But change is lapping at the shores of this isolated island, the Second World War the biggest change of all. One friend leaves to fight, one tends the light, and one struggles to understand how a place where wealth is measured in fish and family can possibly survive this outmigration.

Only one of them knows about Cara. A girl who wrecked on the island’s shores a hundred years earlier, emigrating from Ireland. A girl who fell in love with the windswept grasses and salt-scrubbed air and tight community of Scatarie, and remains as a spirit. A girl who keeps watch, everywhere from the rugged island to the blood-soaked beaches of France?nudging the three friends towards their destinies.

Part ghost story, part romance, part history, and a stirring tribute to young soldiers and their brave war brides, The Spirit of Scatarie is an epic tale with whispering island winds at its heart.

Coastal Healing

Written by Bruce Graham

Published by Purple Porcupine Publishing 

A shattered soldier. An unexpected rescue. A second chance at redemption.

At 27, Heather Hatfield returns to her coastal hometown in Nova Scotia, carrying the weight of a shattered career and an uncertain future. Her once-promising military service has come to an abrupt end, leaving her confidence in pieces and her sense of purpose adrift. Worse, she fears how her military discharge will read and how it might define her in ways she can’t control.

Seeking solace, Heather turns to the place that once brought her peace?the rugged cliffs and salt-kissed air of her childhood. Long walks along the shore, familiar faces, and the steady rhythm of the waves seem like the perfect refuge to clear her mind and rebuild what’s been broken.

But when a simple fishing trip turns into a dramatic rescue, Heather is thrust into the public eye as an unexpected hero. With the media’s attention comes a looming fear: that her past will be exposed, and the fragile sense of self she’s rebuilding will come crashing down. Can she outrun her past, or is this small community the key to embracing a future she never saw coming?

Birth of a Hippie: A Graphic Memoir

Written by JoDee Samuelson

Published by Pownal Street Press 

Birth of a Hippie is a heartfelt graphic memoir that begins in the Prairies, as JoDee Samuelson, the youngest daughter of a Baptist minister—begins to search for her place in the world. Through her enchanting illustrations and witty storytelling, JoDee chronicles life on the Canadian prairies. Ultimately JoDee’s journey takes her from Alberta to Prince Edward Island.

In telling her story, JoDee blends humor, heart, and introspection. Birth of a Hippie recounts JoDee’s coming of age story from Prairie girl to be an independent spirit, back-to-the-lander, and health-food pioneer in a small Island on the East Coast. This graphic novel explores themes of family, identity, and self-discovery—offering an intimate glimpse into the life of a woman finding her place in an ever-changing world.

Perfect for fans of LGBTQ2+ narratives and those interested in the history of the back-to-the-land movement, Birth of a Hippie is both a personal story and a universal exploration of roots, resilience, and belonging.

Ship Moms

Written by Jen Winsor

Published by Breakwater Books 

The lives of cruise ship crew members don’t stop when they are below deck. Ship Moms is a collection of behind-the-scenes stories about the relationships that bloom between crew members and all the wonderful mixed-nationality babies being brought into the world as a result, representing nearly forty countries and ten cruise lines. Here are the stories of these ship moms—stories of their strength, their endurance, and their tenacity in making it work against all odds. Beautiful and complicated, heartwarming and heart-wrenching, this collection spills the dirt on the ship life experience, telling real-life stories about connections that result in real-life babies.