ALL ABOUT APRIL...


It has been a busy start to Spring at Breakwater Books! From sold-out events to celebrated author appearances, plus two fantastic new releases, we've had lots to be excited about! Plus, we're getting ready for our first Spring release to hit shelves in just a couple of weeks...

April is National Poetry Month, and we celebrated with the release of Paul Moorehead's debut poetry collection, Green. We also released the much-anticipated Openly Karl, the frank and engaging memoir of Karl Wells, familiarly known to generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as "the weatherman."

Read on for more exciting updates from Breakwater Books!
 
In this issue:

  • New Releases & Upcoming Events (what’s out now and where to catch us!)
  • Breakwater Buzz (reviews, interviews, and more!)
  • Big News (exciting updates!)
  • Have You Heard? (the latest on Breakwater in our community!)
  • Coming Soon (it's time for Spring!)
  • From The Vault (not-to-be-forgotten backlist features!)
  • Photo Album (catch up on the latest happenings!)
  • Keep Connected (follow us on social media!)

NEW RELEASES & UPCOMING EVENTS

Green is the debut poetry collection from Paul Moorehead exploring existence in a world of wonders — from nature and science to parenting and pop culture. Drawing on scientific ideas, baseball culture, comic book imagery, the traumas of healthcare professions, the joys and pitfalls of parenthood, and everything in between, Green challenges readers to find the connections in a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Available now on our website and at select local bookstores!

Openly Karl is a frank and generous memoir by Karl Wells, one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s most well-known media figures. From his birth in Buchans and early life in St. John’s, to his rise in media and 32-year career at the CBC on Here and Now, Openly Karl is a rare opportunity to bring the face and voice you know from your television back into focus. At times fascinating and funny, at others harrowing and heartbreaking, Karl’s story will keep readers tuned in.
Get your copy from your local bookstore or the Breakwater Books website!

SAVE THE DATE

  • April 26th: From 10:30AM to 2:30PM, celebrate National Independent Bookstore day with a signing event at Running the Goat! Authors like Andy Jones and Craig Francis Power will be at the bookstore in Tors Cove to sign copies of their latest releases.
  • April 26th: Pop over to Chapters on Kenmount Road from 3:30PM to 5:30PM for a group signing with an impressive cast of Breakwater authors! Stop and have a chat with authors like Cara Kansala and Bridget Canning while picking up your books!
  • April 26th: If you're looking for a book club, MUN's Coast Lines is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Memorial's Creative Writing Program with a special event at 5:00PM!
  • April 27th: It's time for Sparks! MUN's annual literary festival will be running from morning till evening this Sunday, with stacked panels full of authors from every discipline, including several Breakwater authors. And it's free to the public!
  • May 2nd: Sheila O'Neill, co-author of My Indian and Suliewey, will be giving a featured welcome at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association. If you happen to be attending, make sure to visit Sheila's book signing on May 2nd!
  • May 4th: Come out to the Jack Byrne Arena for the biggest shopping event of the Spring, the Milestone Mega Market! Breakwater Books will be there alongside dozens of other amazing local vendors. Don't miss out! Details here. 
  • May 17th: The Carbonear Public Library will be hosting author Susie Taylor for a reading and Q&A about her book Vigil on May 17th, from 2PM to 3PM.
  • May 25th: Find author Paul Moorehead reading from and signing copies of Green at Downtown Comics in St. John's, May 25th at 6PM!
  • June 11th: Join us at The Rooms for the official launch of Openly Karl, featuring a talk from Karl himself. Stay tuned to The Rooms website for ticket information coming soon!
  • July 4th-6th: The full line-up for Ochre Fest 2025 has been announced! Get your tickets for this amazing weekend of literary discussions and celebrations now!

 

BREAKWATER BUZZ

Want to know more about our books, our authors, and what to read next? We have new reviews and new interviews to dig deeper into the story behind your favourite recent reads:

  • Monica Kidd's The Crane continues to garner glowing reviews and recognition! Check out these recent reviews from Compulsive Overreader and Bookworm!
  • Digitally Lit listed Leahdawn Helena's Stolen Sisters as a must-read book in honour of March being Women's History Month — check out their full newsletter here!
  • Paul Moorehead's debut poetry collection Green made The Tyee's list of new Canadian poetry to celebrate National Poetry Month! Click here to read the full write-up! Green was also on the radar for CBC Books and their list of 39 Canadian poetry collections to watch for this Spring. To learn more about Paul's writing process for this highly-anticipated collection, and to hear his recommendation of another poem to check out during Poetry Month, head over to All Lit Up and their Tributaries series!
  • Want to know more about Yvonne Jones and the journey that led her to writing her new memoir, Just Around the Corner? The Newfoundland Quarterly has part 1 and part 2 of their interview with her available on their website! 
  • We are so proud to say that Allison Graves, currently shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction for her collection Soft Serve, has been named one of the Writers' Trust of Canada's 2025 Rising Stars, selected by author Michael Crummey, to participate in their mentorship program! Read all about the program here.

 

BIG NEWS

Susie Taylor's Vigil announced as 2024 BMO Winterset Award winner!

During an April 10th ceremony at Government House, Susie Taylor's Vigil was announced as the winner of the 2024 BMO Winterset Award! In celebration of the award's 25th anniversary, a one-time prize for non-fiction was added to this year's awards. Congratulations are also in order for Invisible Prisons by Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen!

Read the press release announcing the 2024 winners here!

Breakwater Books nominated for Atlantic Book Awards!

Did you catch the Atlantic Book Awards Shortlist announcements on March 31st?

We're so excited to see TWO Breakwater authors on the shortlist for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Award — Susie Taylor for Vigil and Allison Graves for Soft Serve! And that's not all! Vigil by Susie Taylor has also been shortlisted for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award!

Atlantic Book Award winners will be honoured at the Atlantic Book Award Festival and Gala on June 5th, 2025.

 

100 Women for 100 Years!

April 3rd, 2025 marked the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in celebration, Breakwater Books was honoured to partner with Memorial University Press and Equal Voice NL to host 100 Women for 100 Years, an inspiring and uplifting evening celebrating women's voices and women's stories — because sharing women's voices through their stories is directly tied to hearing their voices at the ballot box. We featured Yvonne Jones, Margot Duley, Kathy Dunderdale, and Sheilagh O'Leary in a fascinating discussion with Joan Sullivan. We were also incredibly lucky to be joined by Breakwater author Sheila O'Neill, offering a greeting. The fabulous Ana Luísa Ramos and her band rounded out the evening with musical entertainment! It was a night to be remembered!

We were also incredibly excited to launch the Before the Ballot Leadership Fund, an endeavour intending to break down financial barriers for women and gender diverse folks from marginalized and underserved communities who aspire to run for office. Find more information about the fund and donate here.

Here's to the next 100 years!

HAVE YOU HEARD?

The 2025 Elks Avalon Spelling Bee Crowns a Winner!

On April 12th, students from across the Avalon gathered for the 2025 Elks Avalon Spelling Bee, and third-grader Mason Gill from Octagon Pond Elementary was crowned the winner! Mason will represent Newfoundland at the Canada Super Spelling Bee in Ottawa this summer. Breakwater Books was a proud sponsor of this event, and we're so proud of all of the hard work the participants put in!

Check out some great footage from The Bee from CBC's Here and Now (skip to the 31:45 minute mark... and prepare for some heartwarming scenes!).

 

COMING SOON!

In May, we are excited to release our first two titles of the Spring season, Here, a linked collection of short stories by Heidi Wicks, and The Beltane Massacre, the debut mystery novel by Ray Critch.

About Here: Aristocrats, hippies, housemaids, an all-girl rock band, a politician, a theologian, a biologist, a ballerina, a crow—Here trails the inhabitants of a colonial mansion on Circular Road in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, over a span of 100 years. Over the decades, the house has a way of bending time for its varied occupiers, making readers question how our histories shape us and whether we can ever truly escape—or make peace with—the ghosts of the past.

About The Beltane Massacre: Former Canadian Forces intelligence officer Rowan McRae lives in the UK with a beautiful wife and healthy baby. He is about to finish his PhD and assume a teaching post in London, when the unthinkable happens. A bomb is planted in the bonfire at the Edinburgh Beltane Festival, killing many and turning Rowan’s world upside down. A high-stakes mystery and an in-depth exploration of grief and loss, The Beltane Massacre is reminiscent of a classic spy novel—with a modern twist.

FROM THE VAULT

ARCHIVE AND BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS

As April is poetry month, we're looking back in our archives to 1993, when Breakwater began The Newfoundland Poetry Series to mark our twentieth anniversary as a publisher. The project aimed to honour and preserve the literary talents of our Newfoundland and Labrador poets. Some titles from this original series are still available from our archives!

In Newfoundland, April also marks the 100th anniversary of the first time women won the right to vote; A Sudden Sun by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole looks back to the early 20th century, breathing life into the amazing, complicated women involved in the suffragist movement.

From the archive: The Newfoundland Poetry Series

From the recent backlist: A Sudden Sun

 

PHOTO ALBUM


Check out some more incredible moments from 100 Women for 100 Years on April 3rd!

On April 12th, we had a fabulous time launching Green and Stolen Sisters at the Theatre Hill Cafe! We're excited to host more events at this fabulous local space in the months to come.

Breakwater Books attended the NLOWE Annual Conference, where Yvonne Jones spoke on a panel for attendees — and signed copies of Just Around the Corner afterwards for nearly three hours!

 

KEEP CONNECTED


We know you love to find us in your inbox, but don't forget to keep up with us on social media too!  Follow all our channels to make sure you don't miss out on any crucial book news. Be the first to get event and book announcements, author appearance schedules, reels and videos, and more!