St. Thomas University has nurtured exemplary people for a century — from its first alighting in Newcastle to its current perch on a Fredericton hilltop. Here, in celebration of St. Thomas's 100th anniversary, is the first-ever collection of fiction, poetry, and prose by the university's most celebrated writers, including David Adams Richards, Sheldon Currie, Leo Ferrari, Sheree Fitch, and Kathy Mac.

Philip Lee's thrumming account of a public auction kicks off the collection. Next up: Sheree Fitch's poem, "Cop," which wends through undercover prostitution and a child's abduction. Hard on its heels: Sheldon Currie's pitch-perfect story from a Nova Scotia coal-mining town. Once you begin, you're sure to read until the entire, delectable volume is consumed.

Douglas Vipond joined the Psychology Department in 1977. He taught in the Writing Program and has published a number of articles and reviews on reading and writing, many of them with Russ Hunt. He co-edited special issues of Poetics and Textual Studies in Canada and has written two books: Writing and Psychology (Praeger, 1993) and Success in Psychology: Writing and Research for Canadian Students (Harcourt, 1996).

Douglas Vipond's profile page

Russell A. Hunt joined the English Department in 1968. He co-authored K.C. Irving: The Art of the Industrialist (M&S, 1973) and has published journalism and scholarship in a wide range of journals and collections. He was a founder of the alternative journal the Mysterious East and of the Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning. On campus, he participated in the creation of the Writing Program, the Learning and Teaching Development Office, and the first-year interdisciplinary Aquinas Program.

Russell Hunt's profile page

Michael Harris calls Philip Lee "one of the country's best-kept journalistic secrets." Drawing on his skill and experience as an investigative journalist, Lee based Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna on a wide range of published material, on diaries, and other confidential records, and on interviews with McKenna and those around him, from family friends to political enemies. Beginning with stories for The Sunday Express that prompted the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Cashel orphanage, Philip Lee's writing has received numerous honours. In 1991, Lee joined the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal and Saint John Times Globe, where he wrote the award-winning series Watershed Down and the book Home Pool. In 1998, after two years as editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal, Lee returned to the Telegraph Journal as editor-in-chief. Under his leadership, the newspaper and its weekend magazine, The New Brunswick Reader, won several regional and national newspaper and magazine awards. Philip Lee currently writes for the Ottawa Citizen and is head of the journalism program at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

Philip Lee's profile page

Herménégilde Chiasson has been called "the spokesperson and conscience of the young Acadian poetry." His poetry has been nominated for and won the Governor General's Award and twice won the Prix France-Acadie. In 1990 the French government named him a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Herménégilde Chiasson studied visual arts at Mount Allison University, Université de Moncton, and New York University, and received his PhD from the Sorbonne. He has produced some 15 films, written 20 plays, and exhibited his paintings and photographs in galleries in the Maritimes, Toronto, and internationally. In 2001, Chiasson was one of a select group of artists chosen to accompany Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to South America. This special state visit was organized to foster new cultural and social links between Canada, Chile and Argentina.

Herménégilde Chiasson's profile page

Fred Cogswell (1917-2004) grew up in the farming community of East Centreville, New Brunswick, started teaching school when he was sixteen, and served overseas in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. After earning his BA and MA from the University of New Brunswick and his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, he became a professor of English at the University of New Brunswick. In 1954, Cogswell and others involved with the literary journal The Fiddlehead founded Fiddlehead Poetry Books. In 1957, Cogswell became the sole publisher, and by 1958 The Stunted Strong had been followed by two more volumes, one of which was Emu, Remember, by Al Purdy. One of only a few poetry publishers in Canada, Cogswell eventually published books by more than 300 poets. As well as devoting himself to poetry by others, Fred Cogswell left a large body of his own poetry. In his lifetime, he published more than 30 collections, and en route to the hospital just before he died, he and his daughter dropped his final manuscript in the mail. As well, in the 1970s, Cogswell pioneered translating French Canadian poetry into English, and in the 1980s, he began his landmark translations of Acadian poetry, often in collaboration with Jo-Anne Elder.

Fred Cogswell's profile page

Wayne Curtis was born in Keenan, New Brunswick, in 1943. He was educated at the local schoolhouse and St. Thomas University where he majored in English. He has won the Richards Award for short fiction, The Lieutenant Governor's Award, and the CBC Drama Awards. Wayne's stories have appeared in literary journals: The Cormorant, The Fiddlehead, Pottersfield Portfolio, The Nashwaak Review, The Antigonish Review, The Dalhousie Review, New Brunswick Reader, New Maritimes and the anthologies Atlantica, Country Roads, The STU Reader, Winter House, The Christmas Secret and Winter. His short stories have been dramatized on CBC radio and CBC television.

In the spring of 2005, Wayne Curtis received an Honorary Doctorate Degree (letters) from St. Thomas University. In 2014 he was awarded the Order of New Brunswick. In 2018 he received the Senate Sesquicentennial Medal from the Canadian Senate and in 2023 he received The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Award. Wayne has lived in southern Ontario, Yukon Territories and Cuba. He currently divides his time between his cabin on the Miramichi River and his apartment in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Our Christmas Guest is his twenty-second published book.

Wayne Curtis' profile page