Words and music
Novels, poetry, photo collections and other new works by Concordia alumni
By Ian Harrison, BComm 01
A finalist for the 2023 Hamilton Literary Children’s Book Award, What the Dog Knows (Dundurn Press, $23) is a tribute to the many dogs that writer Sylvia McNicoll, BA 78, has loved. McNicoll has authored more than 35 novels for young audiences.
Richard Bercuson, BA 74, and E.W. Zrudlo have coauthored The Burden of Guilt (Amazon, $19.95). The fast-paced novel of intrigue, primarily set in Paris in 1980, asks who the genuine figures of courage were throughout the Nazi occupation of France.
Top Gun Governance (Newman Springs, $52.06) by Derek Stevens, BA 76, BCompSc 90, examines governance and management challenges in an unpredictable world and offers insights and practices designed to improve judgment and prediction in any industry.
Louise Carson, BFA 79, has written The Cat Looked Back (Signature Editions, $19.95), the latest instalment in her Maples Mysteries series. When two houses are burned to the ground in suspicious circumstances, housekeeper Prudence Crick is drawn to the scene of the crime and into the lives of the victims, which includes one uncatchable cat.
Bella Ellwood-Clayton, BA 99, has published her debut novel. In Weekend Friends (Post Hill Press, $18.99), a food photographer and her tween daughter move from Alaska to Boca Raton to escape a painful past, but soon find themselves entangled in lies and deception that unravel their fresh start.
Shepherd’s Sight: A Farming Life (ECW Press, $24.95), the latest from Barbara Mclean, BA 71, is a poignant reflection on the joys and challenges of farm life as the author contemplates the future and meaning of her labour.
Fishmonger and Wordsmith (Cat Creek, $13.02), by Kristina Drake, BA 06, offers heartwarming vignettes of two best friends cherishing life’s simple pleasures and challenges, celebrating the essence of friendship through reflective and charming stories.
Anthony Kirby, BA 78, has written For a Dream: A Novel of the Great War (Amazon, $20). The story follows a bank official turned soldier and a nurse through pivotal moments of the First World War as they navigate various horrors and hopes for Ireland’s future.
René Balcer, BA 78, LLD 08, a writer, producer and director of television (Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and documentary films, has published Seeing As (ACC Art Books, $145). The collection of photographs captures diverse locations from West Africa to the Arctic and is infused with a sense of disquietude, narrative and social justice.
The poems in All This As I Stand By (Ekstasis Editions, $23.95), the fifth poetry collection from Carolyne Van Der Meer, MA 97, explore the unimportant, the everyday, the avoided and the forgotten.
Neurodiversity and Work (Palgrave Macmillan, $291.95), a new interdisciplinary work from Eric Patton, MSc 00, PhD 07, a professor of Management at Saint Joseph’s University, connects neurodiversity to disability in the workplace and examines the factors that contribute to the successful employment and integration of neurodiverse workers.
In Human Prehistory: Exploring the Past to Understand the Future (Cambridge University Press, $42.95), Deborah Barsky, BA 91, a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, uses archaeological knowledge to address contemporary challenges such as racism, the rapid pace of technological change, human migration and war.
Science writer Amorina Kingdon, GrDip 10, has published Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water (Crown, $39.99), which explores how marine scientists have uncovered the vital role of sound in the ocean, revealing how it travels through water, aids marine life and is impacted by human activity.
In Goodbye Professor: Memories of My Father (self-published, $9.99) Andrew Kavchak, BA 85, pens a touching tribute to his late father, Andrzej (Andrew) Kawczak, a former professor, and then chair, of the Department of Philosophy at Loyola College, one of Concordia’s founding institutions. Kavchak traces his father’s roots from Poland in the mid-1920s to the United States and Canada up until his passing in 2023.