“Early-2000′s Burning Rock Fiction”
In 2004, just before I started writing myself, I was introduced to two Newfoundland writers, Michael Winter and Lisa Moore, and shortly after, discovered they belonged to the country’s most celebrated and critically acclaimed writers’ group, The Burning Rock. Back to back, I read the six books mentioned here, by some of Burning Rock’s members, and it was these six books that educated me in contemporary creative writing: pay attention to detail, use lively, evocative diction, try a fresh way of saying things, experiment with narrative structure. Ever since reading these six books in 2004, I’ve been rightfully alert to sentence-level writing, as both a writer and a reader. My fond jealousy of each one of these writers has made me an obsessive and diligent self-editor.
Lisa Moore’s Open: This book transformed and expanded on the notion of what could be done with language and story. It was also nominated foe the Giller Prize and Winterset award, and is an Amazon.ca Book of the Decade.
Michael Winter’s One Last Good Look: The Globe & Mail review of this book nails it: “Winter is blessed with an elegant, assured sense of rhythm, topped off with a kinetic, vital prose, with precise imagery that jars delightfully.”
Beth Ryan’s What Is Invisible?: An “exploration of family, morality, and identity,” and a winner of the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award.
Ramona Dearing’s So Beautiful: A collection of remarkably well-written stories, which have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including three different volumes of Oberon’s Best Canadian Stories.
Libby Creelman’s Walking in Paradise: Shortlisted for the Winetrset Award, this is crisp writing and concrete imagery from a Journey Prize anthologee.
Hearts Larry Broke: A themed Burning Rock anthology, which you can read more about and buy for 4$, by clicking here.
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