From the Publisher
In the summer of 2008, Pottersfield editor, Lesley Choyce sent a letter to a select and varied list of Nova Scotians to contribute to a book about this province''s future. In part that letter read:
I am writing to ask if you''d be willing to contribute some writing for a book project I am pulling together called Nova Scotia: Visions of the Future. The idea is to invite some of the best minds (and hearts) around the province to present their vision of this possible province of the future. Absolutely anything goes.Two things have prompted this grandiose plan. First, I became a grandfather in May. My daughter Pamela had a boy Aidan. His arrival, of course, makes me think about the
world he will inherit and what he will see and experience in his lifetime. Second, while I was away in Yellowknife in June, a forest fire nearly took my house. The flames were not exactly licking my door, but it was headed this way with a strong north wind and a lot
of fuel in the form of forests ravaged by Juan and clear-cutting. When I got home, I went hiking several times up into the charred land. Once the sadness wore off, I started thinking about renewal. and about the future.
And that''s when I decided to pull this book together. You can write anything you want. I hope that various writers will cover environment, technology, immigration, social aspects, urban life, rural life, energy, politics, government, family, economics, forests, the ocean and much more. The bolder the vision, the better. Stories and personal aspects are okay. Controversial ideas are fine. Which future? Anything beyond ten years and up to a thousand.
The results of that request have been varied, ambitious and surprising. In the spring of 2009, Pottersfield will launch this most insightful book that may set in motion some serious action that can help Nova Scotia live up to its full future potential. The writing is personal, reflective, pro-active and thoroughly captivating by over thirty contributors from many diverse fields of expertise.
Some of the contributing writers include Marq deVilliers, Peggy Hope-Simpson, Richard Zurawski, Rodney MacDonald, Budge Wilson, Alan Wilson, Dr. Richard Goldbloom, Carol Bruneau, Tom Gallant, Geoff Regan, Sunyata Choyce, Neal Livingston, Barb Stegemann, Bill Carr, Bob Howse, Ralph Martin, and Stephen Clare among others.
About the Author
Lesley Choyce was born in New Jersey in 1951 and moved to Canada in 1978. Choyce teaches part-time at Dalhousie University, runs Pottersfield Press and has written 40 adult and young adult books. Choyce also hosts a nationally syndicated TV talk show in Halifax. His recent novel, The Republic of Nothing is currently being developed as a feature length movie. In 1996, Viking/Penguin published Choyce's best-selling Nova Scotia: Shaped By The Sea. Along with the Surf Poets, he has released a poetry/music album titled Long Lost Planet.