The Porcupine's Quill

Casting into Mystery celebrates the meditative sport of fly fishing, rejoicing in the camaraderie and quietude to be found not only in the gentle flow of river currents, but also in the community and culture of anglers past and present.

2020—eLit Awards,
Runner-up

2021—ForeWord Indies Book Award,
Commended

2021—Independent Publisher (IPPY) awards,
Runner-up

In Frances Boyle’s short story collection Seeking Shade, nuanced characters endure trauma, evolution and epiphany as they face challenges, make decisions, and suffer the inevitable consequences.

2020—Danuta Gleed Literary Award,
Shortlisted

2021—ReLit Awards, Short Fiction,
Shortlisted

2021—The Miramichi Reader Very Best! Book Awards (Short Fiction),
Winner

In this spare, poetic novel, a young homeless man finds solace in friendship, falls prey to the machinations of a malevolent gang of thugs, and ultimately is swallowed up by the inevitability of consequences on the dangerous and deceptively sunny streets of L.A.

2021—ReLit Award,
Shortlisted

2021—Independent Publisher (IPPY) awards,
Runner-up

2021—Canadian Authors - Fred Kerner Book Award,
Shortlisted

In The Blue Moth of Morning, P. C. Vandall by turns acknowledges, embraces and subverts clichés of female relationships, emotions and bodies, exposing the inner tumult women often try to conceal under a thin veneer of aplomb.

2021—eLit Awards,
Commended

In this wordless biography, wood engraver George A. Walker provides a fitting stage to explore the life of Mary Pickford, a silent film star whose groundbreaking contributions to the motion picture industry earned her the title ‘Queen of the Movies’.

2021—eLit Awards,
Winner

What does it mean to think, to imagine, to create, to be? Why do we believe what we do? Is death an ontological state of being, or is it a grammar error? What exactly is poetry? The varied writings in Jeffery Donaldson’s Viaticum explore life’s most basic questions—and its biggest illusions—from the nature of language to the rhetorical potential of the afterlife.

2020—eLit Awards,
Runner-up

2021—Hamilton Arts Council Literary Award for Non-Fiction,
Winner

In The Essential Elizabeth Brewster, questioning, conversational poetry melds the private and the collective, exploring the challenges of constructing selfhood and voicing historically silenced female perspectives.

2021—The Miramichi Reader Best Poetry List,
Commended

In D.A. Lockhart’s Breaking Right ordinary Hoosiers experience extraordinary moments that reveal the complicated correlations between their beliefs, their relationships and the land beneath their feet.

2021—The Miramichi Reader Best Fiction List,
Commended