With humour, irony, reminiscences and nostalgia, MARTY GERVAIS brings small town living and its people back to life. The son of an auto worker, he was raised as a staunch Roman Catholic in Windsor, Ontario. The 1950’s was an era obsessed with morality, followed by the hope and turmoil of the 1960’s. Marty Gervais was a keen and insightful chronicler of all decades, one of the best journalists in southwestern Ontario, writing for the Windsor Star. Finally, AFTERNOONS WITH THE DEVIL: GROWING UP CATHOLIC brings together his best writing over those many decades.

Marty Gervais was appointed Windsor's first Poet Laureate in 2011. Gervais has written more than a dozen books of poetry, as well as two plays and a novel. He is an award—winning journalist, poet, photographer and editor. In 1998, he won Toronto's prestigious Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian letters and to emerging writers. He has won more than two dozen journalism awards for his work with the Windsor Star where he was best known for his "My Town" column. As a poet, Gervais was awarded the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award in 1996 for his book Tearing Into A Summer Day. That same book was also awarded the City of Windsor Mayor's Award for literature. Gervais won the same award again in 2003 for To Be Now: Selected Poems. He received the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2012.

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