Gary Campbell continues his US tour with a stop in Calais. The St. Croix Historical Society features guest speaker W.E. (Gary) Campbell at its monthly meeting. Gary will be talking about his new book The Aroostook War of 1839, which details an oft-forgotten incident in the storied history of Canada/US relations.

This event is open to the public. Books will be available for purchase. 

Drop by the Owl's Nest to meet Tyler Trafford. He will be signing copies of his new book Almost a Great Escape: A Found Story, a profoundly moving book about his late mother, Alice, and her One Good Thing.

The Washington County Historical and Genealogical Society features guest speaker W.E. (Gary) Campbell at its monthly meeting. Gary will be talking about his new book The Aroostook War of 1839, which details an oft-forgotten incident in the storied history of Canada/US relations.

This event is open to the public. Books will be available for purchase. 

When a man kills in the name of God, who is to blame?

On a frigid February evening in 1805, Amos Babcock brutally murdered Mercy Hall. Believing that he was being instructed by God, Babcock stabbed and disembowelled his own sister, before dumping her lifeless body in a rural New Brunswick snowbank.

The Ballad of Jacob Peck is the tragic and fascinating story of how isolation, duplicity, and religious mania turned one man violent, leading to a murder and an execution. Babcock was hanged for the murder of his sister, but in her meticulously researched book, Debra Komar shows that itinerant preacher Jacob Peck should have swung right beside him. The mystery lies not in the whodunit, but rather in a lingering question: should Jacob Peck, whose incendiary sermons directly contributed to the killing, have been charged with the murder of Mercy Hall?

In this epic saga, media accounts of what happened in the aftermath of the murder have taken on a life all their own, one built of half-truths, conjecture, and narrative devices designed to titillate, if not inform.

An investigation of a crime from the Canadian frontier, the tale of Jacob Peck, Amos Babcock, and Mercy Hall remains as controversial and riveting today as it was more than two hundred years ago.

Please join Carmelita McGrath for the official Newfoundland launch of her new collection Escape Velocity!

Carmelita will be reading at the Ship Pub in St. John's, NL, on May 19th.

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

Join the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's Terry Graff for a fascinating look at the gems of the gallery's collection!

Bruce MacNab (a finalist for the APMA Best Published Book Award for The Metamorphosis) will be speaking at the Colchester Historeum in Truro, NS. This will be a unique opportunity to learn about the Canadian roots of Harry Houdini's remarkable career in magic.

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

Our thanks to the Colchester Historical Society for all their help with this event.

Join Ailsa Kay at the Elora Writers' Festival (a festival she helped begin) for a relaxing yet thought-provoking afternoon of readings.

Ailsa will be reading from her debut novel Under Budapest. Joining her for the event are fellow authors Sonia Day, Terry Fallis, Carrie Snyder, Andrew Westoll, and Robert Rotenberg.

For $20.00 (includes Reception) you get to enjoy readings by six of Canada's finest authors; a Q&A session; a "Schmooze-fest" replete with wine & appetizers… and BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS courtesy of Roxanne's Reflections.

For more information, please visit the Elora Writers' Festival website.

Adrienne Barrett launches her debut collection The house is still standing in her hometown ot Woodstock, ON.

The house is still standing is peopled with charlatans, gingerbread men, children, and savants — the thousands and the particular. Adrienne Barrett builds this nimble first collection with a supple craft. The poems deke and swerve, from the wry to the theatrical to the intimate. Whether riffing on the secret identities of public intellectuals and pop icons or penning elegiac verse, Barrett’s voice is strong, anchored, inviting. Although she takes her readers through both “substance / and its downfall,” in the end, the structure is sound; she is holding it up.

Don't miss the debut of a fantastic new voice in Canadian poetry.

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

Ailsa Kay will hit the road and join a touring caravan of authors moving about the country, spreading joy and literature. And knitting!

In Waterloo, ON, Kay will be joined by authors Dede Crane (Every Happy Family,), Rachel Wyatt (Letters to Omar), and Mary Hagey.

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

For more information on the Fictionistas cross-country tour, please visit their website.

Ailsa Kay continues the Fictionista road tour, spreading joy and literature. And knitting!

In Toronto, ON, Kay will visit Ben McNally Books for an afternoon of intense literary joy. Kay will be joined by authors Dora Duek (This Hidden Thing), Stella Harvey (Nicolai’s Daughters), and Rachel Wyatt (Letters to Omar).

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

For more information on the Fictionistas cross-country tour, please visit their website.

Concluding a three-day book blast, Ailsa Kay finishes up her portion of the Fictionista road tour, spreading joy and literature. And knitting!

In Kingston, ON, Kay will visit A Novel Idea for an evening of intense literary joy. Kay will be joined by authors Dede Crane (Every Happy Family), Rachel Wyatt (Letters to Omar), Judith Alguyere (A Most Unpleasant Wedding), and Rachel Wyatt (Letters to Omar).

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

For more information on the Fictionistas cross-country tour, please visit their website.

Christine Eddie hits the road and join the famed touring caravan of Fictionista authors roaming about the country, spreading joy and literature. And knitting!

In Ottawa, ON, Kay will be joined by authors Faith Johnson (The Only Man in the World), Rachel Wyatt (Letters to Omar), and Stella Harvey (Nicolai’s Daughters). The host for the evening will be Mary Hagel.

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

For more information on the Fictionistas cross-country tour, please visit their website.

Christine Eddie wraps up her participation with the famed touring caravan of Fictionista authors roaming about the country, spreading joy and literature. And knitting!

In Montreal, Kay will be joined by authors Faith Johnson (The Only Man in the World), Rachel Wyatt (Letters to Omar), and Stella Harvey (Nicolai’s Daughters).

This is a free event. Books will be available for purchase.

For more information on the Fictionistas cross-country tour, please visit their website.

After visits to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa in 2011 and to the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown and the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasedena, Los Angeles in 2012.

David Askevold: Once upon a Time in the East is an AGNS travelling exhibition that is coming home to Halifax in April, 2013. It was identified by Artforum magazine as one of the top 50 shows of 2011.

A personal encounter with the artists and artistic movements that have defined the development of abstraction since the 1940s in Québec and across Canada: that’s what is in store for visitors to the exhibition A Matter of Abstraction, on view at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal starting April 12, 2012. The broad overview provided by the exhibition covers the period from 1940 to 2010, in a display of 110 pieces produced by 60 artists. This multidisciplinary selection encompasses painting, drawing, video and sculpture, with particular emphasis on Québec works in the Collection.

A Matter of Abstraction is laid out in a series of groupings. The circuit continues with spaces devoted to pieces by the Automatists, the Early Plasticians, and gestural expression and structural dynamics as represented in the works of artists like Jacques Hurtubise.

Full information, including hours and prices, may be found on the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal website.