The Creative Writing Tradition:
St. Francis Xavier University and the surrounding community have been home to numerous writers over the years. The first creative writing course was taught by Father R.J. MacSween of the Department of English in 1963. The English Department offers five different courses in Creative writing on a rotating basis. Current creative writing faculty include poet/novelist Jeanette Lynes, poet Douglas Burnet Smith, fiction writer/essayist Phil Milner, and poet/novelist Anne Simpson. Past creative writing faculty include Sheldon Currie, Leo McKay Jr., Patrick Walsh, and Father R.J. MacSween.
Antigonish has a thriving writing community. Wenda Young, Anne Simpson, Anne-Marie MacDonald, Pam MacLean, and Gerald Trites make their home in Antigonish. Mary-Pat Cude, J. Maureen Hull, Leo McKay Jr., and Janette Fecteau live in the surrounding area. Janette Fecteau has taught creative writing in the department and is the third prize winner in the Poetry category of the 2009 Atlantic Writing Competition. Numerous authors funded by the Canada Council, the League of Canadian Poets and the St. F.X. Department of English give readings at the university. The St. F.X. English Society also hosts student open mike readings, and writing competitions throughout the academic year.
Distinguished Grads in Creative Writing:
Distinguished creative writers who have graduated from St. F.X. include: Alastair MacLeod, winner of the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (2001), Sheldon Currie, Leo Furey, and Dan Petrie. James O. Taylor and Tony Tremblay have published critical studies on a number of Maritime authors, including Tessie Gillis and David Adams Richards. Sheldon Currie’s Glace Bay Miners’ Museum was made into an award-winning film (dir. Mort Ransen), starring Helena Bonham-Carter. Currie’s Glace Bay Miners’ Museum was also produced on stage in San Francisco.
Publications:
Creative writing faculty members at St. F.X. have published numerous books. Douglas Burnet Smith’s collections of poetry include, among others, Sister Prometheus: Discovering Marie Curie (Wolsak & Wynn, 2008) and Surface to Air (Frontenac House) forthcoming. Phil Milner has published A Yankee Professor in Nova Scotia and numerous essays and works of non-fiction. More recent publications by Jeanette Lynes include The Factory Voice (Coteau Books 2009), and It's Hard Being Queen (Freehand Books 2008). Anne Simpson, winner of the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize for Loop, has recently published a collection of essays entitled The Marram Grass: Poetry and Otherness Gaspereau Press (2009) and Falling, a novel (McClelland & Stewart 2009).
The Antigonish Review:
The Antigonish Review was founded by Father R.J. MacSween in 1970. The Review is supported by St. Francis Xavier University and the Canada Council for the Arts. Edited by Jeanette Lynes, the Review publishes fiction, poetry, translations, essays and reviews. Authors from Atlantic Canada, are featured as well as other Canadian and international authors. Writers whose work has appeared in The Antigonish Review include: Fred Cogswell, Leo Furey, Dan Petrie, Peter Sanger, Veronica Ross, Michael Thorpe, Stuart Donovan, Rohinton Mistry, Earle Birney, Carol Shields, David Adams Richards, Sheldon Currie, P.K. Page, Lorna Crozier, Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, Alastair MacLeod, Jean McNeil, Leo McKay, Auberon Waugh, and many others. The Antigonish Review is nearing its fortieth anniversary.
Canada Council Readings:
Through the Readings Programme of the Writing and Publication Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, St. F.X. brings Canadian writers to campus to read from their published works. They often meet with writing students in our writing courses.