I’m honoured to have a personal essay in the summer 2025 issue of The Fiddlehead. This esteemed litmag has been on my radar since I took a creative writing course or two as an undergrad at Acadia University.
There couldn’t be a better home for this essay, which is set in the Maritimes, specifically in Cape Breton. “What Was Her Name” is about my mother, a sometimes troubled and always exceptional woman, and my complex feelings about her.
Many thanks to the editors at The Fiddlehead for publishing the piece. And gratitude to Rob Taylor and the Fraser Valley Literary Festival for commissioning it in 2023 (and posting it on their website). I read the essay aloud onstage, something I’m typically quite comfortable doing. In this case, I quaked from start to finish. That’s emotion for you.
