Some of these essays have seen the light of publication in previous years. They have since been adapted for this collection.
“The Brightness and Darkness of Lucifer” was published in the Malahat Review, 2016, and Best Canadian Essays 2017 (Tightrope Books). It was also longlisted for the CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize, 2015.
Part of the essay “Scars” was published in Hakai Magazine under the title “Echoes of Lives Lost on Haida Gwaii.” It has been blended with an earlier essay, “Finding Light in No-Man’s Land,” which was shortlisted for the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for travel writing in The Spectator magazine, 2003.
“Radio Wave” first appeared in Paddling Through Time, published by Raincoast Books in 2002. It was later excerpted in Shared Vision magazine in 2001. Wavelength magazine published the original version of “The Colour of Time” in 2001, under the title “Rhapsody on a Theme of Ice,” while “Fair Game” was one of my first dangerous moments. It began life as a cover story for BBC Wildlife Magazine in 2000, entitled “Wolf At My Door.”
Cori Howard sought out my experience of motherhood on a floathouse for her collection, Between Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth About Motherhood, published by Key Porter Books Ltd. in 2007. Pieces of that essay can be found in “Letting Go.”
The original version of “Say The Names” was published in the anthology In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth and Reconciliation, edited by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail (Brindle and Glass, 2016). At that time it was entitled “Dropped, Not Thrown.” The new title is a tribute to my favourite Al Purdy poem—one I’ve read aloud at many events for its lyric beauty and vital sentiment. It can be found at: www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/say-the-names-by-al-purdy/article4161335, and/or Beyond Remembering by Harbour Publishing.