This new collection of short stories from UK writer A.L. Kennedy will probably make you sad. All of its characters are in love in ways that are bad for them, and they are all painfully aware of it. In the title story, a man waits for a train with his wife and recalls his years […]
Michael Lake
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Serafim and Claire
Mark Lavorato’s third novel, Serafim and Claire, plops us into a dirty, cutthroat Montreal in the 1920s. Claire is a dancer whose ambition probably outweighs her talent and who is mostly alone and mostly sad. She dreams of stardom but things go a little wrong along the way. Serafim has just come to Montreal on […]
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Critics’ picks 2013: Books
MICHAEL LAKE Michael has been writing for The Coast since July of 2013. He once took a photo of Michael Ondaatje and Jeffrey Eugenides and asked them to pose on a jungle gym. They said no. 1996 By Sara Peters (Anansi) The poems in this debut collection from Nova Scotian-cum-Torontonian are full of deftly observed […]
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Hanson and Sonnenberg’s internal language
Most Haligonians are probably familiar with the three lampposts installed on the waterfront: one is drunk and has fallen over, one is pissing in the harbour and the other is probably checking its phone. Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg are the Brooklyn-based duo behind these pieces, which are part of a larger body of work […]
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Shashi Bhat
Like the main character in her first novel, The Family Took Shape, Shashi Bhat grew up in Richmond Hill, a suburb just outside of Toronto. After high school she headed a few hours south to Ithaca, New York, where she attended the illustrious Cornell, studying English and doing pre-med. Always a reader, Bhat got the […]
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Rachel Lebowitz
Rachel Lebowitz has been a writer on the east and west coasts and a few places in between. Now settled back in Halifax, she juggles her time between writing, raising a child and working at the Halifax North library coordinating adult literacy programs. She originally planned on a life in academia but after completing her […]
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Walrus get psyched
Psychedelic pop emerged as a musical genre in the mid-1960s from a culture of drug use and mind expansion. Trying to replicate in music what drugs did to the mind, bands like The Byrds and The Grateful Dead used fuzz guitar and reverb effects to refashion the tired pop song into something more relevant. More […]
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Rae Spoon gets back to their roots
“When you don’t fit into the gender system people tell you that you shouldn’t exist and you don’t exist. But I’m here to tell you: I exist.” This is Rae Spoon, speaking with a down-to-earth chuckle in the trailer for the upcoming NFB documentary My Prairie Home. The film, directed by Chelsea McMullan, follows Polaris-nominated […]
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Burnwater’s creative forge
When asked how long they had been preparing for the show, Erin Donovan pipes up: “Our whole lives.” Everybody laughs. It’s not true, but it is. Burnwater is a multi-disciplinary performance taking place this weekend in East Dover on the land of local blacksmith and sculptor John Little. Little makes sound sculptures; elaborate forged compositions […]
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Love, meet Halifax
The Company House is going to be seeing some love this weekend. Haligonians Chantal Caissie and Jen Ochej have put together Love Does, a benefit concert headlined by folk darling Amelia Curran. The event was conceived as a response to the polarizing reactions of HRM residents to the announcement that Chris Brown was to play […]
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PINEO interest
You wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear a DJ at the Halifax Urban Folk Fest, and that’s totally fair. But a booty-shaking opportunity is a booty-shaking opportunity, so don’t miss out. Mitchell Pineo, AKA PINEO, adds a little night life variety to the festival, with remixes, wild beats and bass for days. “The set I’ll play […]
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Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
David Rakoff is probably best known for his performances on the radio show This American Life. Last August he died of cancer, but not before completing a whimsical and utterly original novel in verse. The author of three essay collections, Rakoff’s only work of fiction is a sequence of interconnected portraits that spans a century […]
