Join us for an encore presentation of interviews with Sher Leetooze we made last year. Sher wanted to write all through school, and to that end submitted material to the annual High School Year Book. In 1994 she published her first local history book and it was an instant success. Sher went on to publish the history of all the other townships in the former county where she lives. From this sprang other books, WW1 Nursing Sisters, Clarington’s Home Children, and a History of the Churches of Old Durham. In between these she wrote a trilogy following the people known as Bible Christians from England to their new homes in Canada. Sher then went on to compile genealogy source books, gardening books, wild plant books and a couple of cook books. Her latest endeavour has been in the world of fiction – a book of short stories, a novella, The Queen’s Pawn and a novel just about ready to go to the printer called Finding Sean McRory.
Month: July 2024
Felicity Sidnell Reid
Meet Felicity Sidnell Reid. While Felicity taught high school English, History, ESL and Drama for the TDSB, she also wrote poetry and short stories, two mystery novels with a friend, designed costumes for university, school and amateur dramatic societies and directed school plays. She is the author of ESL is Everybody’s Business (with Frances Parkin) and a series of textbooks for language learners. Her books include: Alone: A Winter in the Woods (Hidden Brook Press, 2015, e-book in 2020), The Yellow Magnolia (Glentula Press 2021)and The Many Faces (Aeolus House, 2022 e-book 2023). Her poetry, short fiction and memoir have been published in anthologies, journals and collections. She is the co-producer and cohost of Word on the Hills in which the hosts interview area writers and invite them to read from their work. This programme has been running on Northumberland 89.7 FM for eleven years. She is presently secretary of the Board of Directors for Northumberland Festival of the Arts, 2024.
Allan Briesmaster
Our guest this week is Allan Briesmaster. He is a poet, freelance editor and publisher who’s been active on the Toronto-area literary scene for many years. He has been a workshop leader and reading series organizer and was a partner in Quattro Books in 2006-2017. He currently operates his own small, independent press, Aeolus House, specializing in custom-designed, limited-edition books of poetry.
The most recent of Allan’s nine poetry collections are The Long Bond: Selected and New Poems, from Guernica Editions in 2019, and Windfor, from Ekstasis Editions in 2021. His new book Later Findings has just been released. He has read his poetry, given talks, been on panels, and hosted events at venues from Victoria to St. John’s. He is a Life Member of The League of Canadian Poets and of The Ontario Poetry Society.
Donna Wootton
This week we talk with Donna Wootton about her new novel, The Age of Privilege. Donna is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. She is a member of TWUC (The Writers Union of Canada), PEN International, and SOTH (Spirit of the Hills – Northumberland). Her book about her late father, who was a charter inductee in Canada’s Lacrosse Hall of Fame, is called MOON REMEMBERED. It was published in 2009 and is archived in Trent University’s Library. Most recently her poetry was published in The Divinity of Blue (a collection from CCLA-Canada Cuba Literary Alliance), The Beauty of Being Elsewhere (a travel anthology), and Musings from the Heliconian Club. Her novels include Leaving Paradise (2008), What Maisie Missed (2018) and Isadora’s Dance(2021). Now her new novel is being released by AOS Press.
Jennifer Bogart
This is an encore presentation of an interview with Jennifer Bogart. Jennifer is a writer, with three adult novels and two middle-grade books to her credit. For many years she was a publisher and editor at Morning Rain Publications and then became the owner of Let’s Talk Books, Cobourg’s independent book store. The store was featured in a Globe and Mail article in 2019 and is now celebrating its ninth year in business. She frequently hosts writers, whose books she admires and arranges very successful readings for them, as well as organizing a number of book clubs at the store for readers of different genres.
Gwynn Scheltema
After over 20 years of diversified experience in accounting, education, and administration Gwynn Scheltema decided to stop counting beans and start counting words. Since then, Gwynn has been a columnist, magazine article writer, ghost writer and a fiction editor for Lichen Arts & Letters Preview literary journal. Her award-winning fiction and poetry have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies and, Ten of Diamonds was published in 2021 by Glentula Press. Her latest poetry collection Everchild was published by Aeolus House in 2023. Gwynn co-hosts and co-produces Word on the Hills radio series on Northumberland 89.7FM and writes, edits, coaches and teaches creative writing. At present however her focus is on the preparations for NFOTA24 which she leads. This year the festival will take place in September again and Gwynn is here to tell us all about it.
Word on the Hills Radio Program 