Way to go Sarah Felix Burns!

SooToday.com received notice today that Jackfish, The Vanishing Village, written by former Saultite Sarah Felix Burns, was chosen by the Ontario Library Service-North for inclusion on its Northern "Lit" Award shortlist.

Now living in Colorado, Burns used the Sault for one of the settings in her debut novel.

Full text of the official Ontario Library Service-North follows.

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Ontario Library Service-North in conjunction with Northern Ontario public libraries is pleased to announce the forth annual Northern “Lit” Award.

The Northern “Lit” Award will recognize the outstanding contribution Northern Ontario authors make to Northern culture.

Shortlisted titles for 2009

Here After by Sean Costello

Following the death of his ten-year-old son, physician Peter Croft embarks on a desperate, seemingly random search for a missing child, sacrificing even his career in a grief-induced quest.

His journey propels him into the darkest reaches of human loss, and pits him squarely against an adversary whose own obsession defies all reason.

(From the publisher)

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village by Sarah Felix Burns

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village tells the story of a woman unravelling from a traumatic past and her yearning for redemption.

When her sister dies prematurely, Clemance-Marie Nadeau leaves her family and village behind, boarding a train bound for Sault Ste. Marie, where she falls under the spell of a charming stranger who promises her a life of adventure, and then holds her captive with her guilt and his threats of violence.

Years later, when Clemance moves to the United States, she feels like an outsider, but Clemance is also in exile from herself.

Discovering she is pregnant at the age of forty-two sets in motion a series of events that awakens a painful memory, long-buried in her embattled body, and so begins the long and sometimes harrowing journey back to her homeland, and to herself.

(From the publisher)

Ramasseur by Richard deMeulles

A magically-realistic novel in the form of a story-sequence, Ramasseur is a series of exquisitely crafted, highly readable tales that conspires to draw readers into a larger puzzle that’s sure to keep them up late into the night.

While these gripping little tales of beasts, prophets and saints are set in a remote mining town and span three generations, the book’s themes resonate with universal modern anxieties about memory, identity and the possibility of reconciliation.

(From the publisher)
 
Winners will be recognized during the Ontario Library Service-North Annual Conference Award Banquet on May 13, 2009.

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Previous SooToday.com coverage of Sarah Felix Burns:

Korah graduate now a published author


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