Meghan Rose Allen is up for the Mrs. Dunsters Award for Fiction. Cover image from reluctantm.com.

Tidewater Books owner Ellen Pickle has lots of literary news to share. Not only are two local authors up for book awards right now, but today also marks the beginning of the 24th annual Frye Festival, the Moncton-based, bilingual literary festival which brings ten days of literary events to the region.

“It’s really exciting news,” says Pickle, of two local nominations for New Brunswick Book Awards.

Jon Claytor is up for a Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Nonfiction Award for Take the Long Way Home, published by Conundrum Press. The graphic novel is a “nonfiction account of some of his travels and his struggles with some of his demons,” says Pickle.

Claytor is a painter, graphic artist, father of five and longtime on-and-off Sackvillian. He’s one of the founders of Sappyfest and of the Thunder and Lightning Pub that once graced Bridge Street.

Another local, Meghan Rose Allen, is up for the Mrs. Dunsters Award for Fiction for The Summer the School Burned Down, a collection of fifteen short stories.

“We’re still waiting for it because it’s independently published,” says Pickle, “but we’re eagerly awaiting getting it in the store.”

Allen is a mathematician and writer whose first novel Enid Strange was also nominated for an NB Book Award in 2019. Her new collection of short stories is also up for an Atlantic Book Award this year.

Frye Festival brings ten days of literary arts events

The Frye Festival has been going strong for 24 years, and for 18 of those years Tidewater Books has service as the English bookseller for the festival.

“It’s a ton of work, but we look forward to it every year,” says Pickle. “We run around the city with books and we’re at all the author events. It’s a lot of fun.”

This year Tidewater will be at some events featuring Sackville region tie-ins.

Jon Claytor is appearing at the Frye Festival. Image: @jon_claytor_art on Instagram.

Jon Claytor will be at three Frye events this year. Friday night at 6pm he’ll participate in the opening of Épistola, an ongoing exhibition of a “correspondence project” between illustrators and writers at the IMAGO Artist-Run Printmaking studio. Tea Time on Sunday afternoon features Claytor along with authors Mélikah Abdelmoumen, Charlotte Biron, Lucile de Pesloüan, and Dimitri Nasrallah. And then on Monday April 24 at 8 p.m, he’s part of Archiving In Motion with fellow author David Bradford.

Thaddeus Holownia’s latest book is part of the festivities as well. His collaboration with Harry Thurston, Icarus Falling, is being launched by Goose Lane Editions Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Then on Saturday, April 29 at 7 p.m., Mt A English professor Dr. Andrea Beverly will host writer Joshua Whitehead in the Maillet Frye lecture, On Bodies of Writing.

All of those events take place at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in Moncton, as does one of Pickle’s favourite events, the Frye Jam.

“It’s one of their premiere events,” says Pickle.

The Frye Jam on Friday April 28 features six authors accompanied by musicians.

“Each presentation is slightly different, but they’re all really energetic and fun,” says Pickle.

The Frye is also coming to Sackville this year. On April 29 children’s picture book author Nancy Vo will be at the Sackville Public Library with her book, Boobies.

You can find Frye program booklets at Tidewater Books in Sackville, and more information online at Frye.ca.

Tidewater celebrates Canadian Independent Bookstore Day April 29

While Frye festivities are in full swing next weekend, Tidewater will also be celebrating Canadian Independent Bookstore Day on April 29.

Pickle says Tidewater is only one of two independent bookstores in the New Brunswick English market, alongside Westminster Books in Fredericton. “There has not been another independent bookstore in New Brunswick in over a decade since the last one closed,” says Pickle.

To celebrate the day, Pickle says Tidewater will feature draws for swag from publishers, and double loyalty points for all shoppers. People can also use their receipts to enter draws with the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association for literary shopping sprees at their local store.

“It should be a lot of fun,” says Pickle. “We usually get lots of people in, lots of giveaways for kids, that sort of thing. So we’re hoping to see a good crowd that day.”

Listen to the CHMA story below: