August - Cape Breton

It's been a treat and a joy to spend a few days in Cape Breton with the good people of ALECC. We've been writing about the conference over at the ALECC blog, in between times, but also in between times there's been the occasional book pickup. Wilfrid Laurier University Press has been a friend to the literature/environment field for years, so it's been pleasant to talk with their Lisa Quinn here, and I even bought a few things from her.

I first note, though, that the most important acquisition is Shirley Bear's collection of art, poetry, and politics Virgin Bones / Belayak Kcikug'nas'ikn'ug. As organizer I gave myself the task of moderating the session in which she and Peter Clair spoke about Mi'kmaq worldviews, and with great kindness she gave me the copy of Virgin Bones she read from. Thank you, Shirley, not just for the book but for your words.

The purchases:

• Shirley Bear, Nekt wikuhpon ehpit / Once there lived a woman / Il etait une fois une femme ($20)
• Joy Parr, Sensing Changes: Technologies, Environments, and the Everyday, 1953-2003 ($13)
• Harry Thurston, A Place between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh ($20)
• ed. J.A. Wainwright, Every Grain of Sand: Canadian Perspectives on Ecology and Environment ($15)
• eds. Damian F. White & Chris Wilbert, Technonatures: Environment, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-First Century ($19.50)