Two unrelated, aspiring writers, born on the same day in the same year to parents with the same first names, grow up together and eventually gain national prominence as authors. As the years pass, the complex sexual identities of Miller Sark and Hal Pierce undermine their intense private relationship, inflicting damage that cannot be undone by the distinction of their fiction and poetry. Inspired by the lives and works of American literary giants Ernest Hemingway and Hart Crane, This Cleaving and This Burning reveals the passion and purpose behind masks of public reputation and creative expression.

J. A. Wainwright has lived in Spain, Greece, and England, and for the last twenty years has lived in Nova Scotia where he teaches. He edited Notes for a Native Land, coedited Soundings, is the author of Moving Outward, The Requiem Journals, After the War, Flight of the Falcom: Scott's Journey to the South Pole 1910-1912, and Landscape and Desire: Poems Selected and New. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Canadian Literature from Dalhousie University where he is McCulloch Professor in English.  

J.A. Wainwright's profile page

• Winner, Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction

With page-turner bravura, the novel explores the layered emotions and tensions in the relationship between the two men. But it’s so much more than a literary bromance. The book is also a mediation on creativity and the sacrifices involved in becoming an artist in a world often indifferent to such pursuits. Suffused with Wainwright’s deep understanding of Hemmingway and Crane’s work and their titanic contributions to literature, the novel is a stylistic tour-de-force. The poetry and muscular clarity in Wainright’s prose enlivens every page, and at times eerily channels the spirit of the writers who inspired him. While reputations come and go in the so-called marketplace of ideas, Wainwright has persevered as a major creative force and, much like his heroes, is producing great works today for the literary heritage of tomorrow.

Larry Gaudet

This Cleaving and This Burning by J.A. Wainwright is a novel I will never forget....I felt every emotion our two main characters felt; I grew up with them as they discovered the world around them and themselves, trying to understand their own feelings. Their constant underlying search for the next thing to write, their stumbling across moments too right not to write about, their confusing emotions as they discovered themselves and rewrote who they were.

The Miramichi Reader

This Cleaving and This Burning is a bold and brilliant novel that will transport readers to another era. Andrew Wainwright tells the story of an intense friendship and forbidden desire. With great sensitivity, authentic characters and powerful scenes, this engaging tale burns into the mind and heart long after the journey has ended in its pages.

Sonia Saikaley, author of The Lebanese Dishwasher

J.A. Wainwright’s novel is a moving, brilliantly written and often gripping portrait of two vividly imagined literary figures living and working in the early decades of the previous century. The story, enlivened by period detail, draws on the careers of Ernest Hemingway and Hart Crane, but though it makes use of the historical record and refers to many individuals who were alive at the time, it does not precisely mirror those authors’ experiences. In the story Wainwright conjures, Miller and Hal are two sides of a coin, representing the rational and intuitive aspects of the creative impulse.

Ian Colford

I was enthralled by this story from the very first page. The distinct voices of the characters, compelling subject matter, and lyrical prose weave together to form a touching and unforgettable novel about identity, friendship, the secret desires of the heart, and love.

Anita Kushwaha, author of Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters

I felt every emotion our two main characters felt; I grew up with them as they discovered the world around them and themselves, trying to understand their own feelings. Their constant underlying search for the next thing to write, their stumbling across moments too right not to write about, their confusing emotions as they discovered themselves and rewrote who they were.

The Miramichi Reader

I was enthralled by this story from the very first page. The distinct voices of the characters, compelling subject matter, and lyrical prose weave together to form a touching and unforgettable novel about identity, friendship, the secret desires of the heart, and love.

Guernica Prize Jury

Insightful moments and emotional scenes involving each hit their mark, and the reader feels drawn to the passions of both for life and literature.

Ottawa Review of Books