(and on pilgrimage in its varied forms)
This fall, while signing copies of “Someone Else’s Saint” at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia‘s annual Booktoberfest in Halifax, I had the good fortune that the Pottersfield Press table was right beside the Askance Publishing table, where Sheila Graham-Smith was signing copies of her novel, “if, after snow.”
She had never heard of my book, nor I of hers (although apparently I was the first to recognize the Sappho reference in her title). We exchanged our books accompanied by firm promises to read and report back.
Sheila did much more than report! She penned a pensive and writerly review, wrapped in a meditation on pilgrimage that features Chaucer, writer (and StFX colleague) Anne Simpson, and my dear friend and pilgrimage expert George Greenia.
It’s a perceptive and wise review. A gift! For more from her, look up Sheila’s two books if, after snow (which I’ve only just begun, and which is enchanting and extremely well-written) and The View From Errisbeg!
A pilgrimage is a journey to engage the foreign as foreign, outside our comfort zones.
Sheila Graham-Smith
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