June was non-stop here at Breakwater Books and we're entering July with just as much to look forward to as we continue to pack up our shelves and prepare to unveil our new location! We're putting the finishing touches on an exciting new space, and we can't wait to open the doors and welcome you in (keep scrolling to find out our new address!).

While we're surrounded by moving boxes, we haven't slowed down with exciting new releases and events as we kick off the summer! And we have two brand new Spring releases which hit the shelves in June that are available now to add to your summer reading list: Cautiously Pessimistic by Debbie McGee, and The Saltbox Olive by Angela Antle.

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!)
  • Big News (exciting updates!)
  • Breakwater Buzz (reviews, interviews, and more!)
  • Have You Heard? (the latest on Breakwater in our community!)
  • Coming Soon (a July release and a sneak peek at Fall titles!)
  • 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

 

Cautiously Pessimistic is both deeply moving and funny as McGee tells the story of her husband’s diagnosis of brain cancer and the eight months leading up to his death. Through social media posts, text exchanges, and emails, as well as journal excerpts and letters, McGee delves into their story, which plays out amongst the scintillating backdrop of the tightly-knit St. John’s arts community and its vibrant affairs. 

Available now on our website and at select local bookstores!

When Caroline Fisher studied art in Florence in the mid-1990s, she was unaware of her family’s history in Italy—how her grandfather had travelled the same streets she did, or how her great-uncle lay buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the mountains between Florence and Bologna. And how could she, when her grandfather burned his brother’s letters after returning home from the war? When an olive tree arrives at Caroline’s front door, family secrets begin to unravel, sending her back to Italy to find answers. 

The Saltbox Olive is available now from your local bookstore and on our website!

 

SAVE THE DATE

  • 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! We're so excited for all of the Breakwater authors who are participating this year, including Yvonne Rumbolt-Jones, Karl Wells, Heidi Wicks, Debbie McGee, Monica Kidd, Andy Jones, Craig Francis Power, and Sharon King-Campbell!
  • July 10th: Yvonne Rumbolt-Jones will be signing copies of Just Around the Corner at Downhome's Water Street Store from 1:00PM! The Pedestrian Mall is open, so it's a great time to stop by to say hello!
  • July 10th: Yvonne Rumbolt-Jones will be at Costco in St. John's signing copies of Just Around the Corner from 6-8PM!
  • July 10th: Monica Kidd will be reading from The Crane at Ben McNally Books in Toronto alongside authors Kim Fahner and Lindsay Zier-Vogel!
  • July 12th: In partnership with St. John's Pride, we are excited to host a panel of 2SLGBTQ+ authors and artists for Pride Through The Ages at the Theatre Hill Cafe, beginning at 2:30PM! Our panel will feature Karl Wells (author of Openly Karl), Berni Stapleton (author of love, life), and Robert Chafe (author of Two-Man Tent), and will be moderated by Rhea Rollmann (A Queer History of Newfoundland, Engen Books, 2023).
  • July 19th: Ashleigh Matthews, author of otherwise grossly unremarkable, will be signing books at Coles in the Corner Brook Plaza in Corner Brook beginning at 1PM!
  • July 26th: Paul Moorehead will be reading from Green at the Riddle Fence pop-up! The event will run from 3-5PM.
  • August 8-10th: Check out the full lineup of Winterset in Summer 2025 here, and get your tickets! BMO Winterset Award Winner Susie Taylor will be in conversation with Angela Antle, and Noreen Golfman will host a Breakwater Book Breakouts panel featuring Monica Kidd, Rod Moody-Corbett, and Willow Kean. Also, Breakwater author Ashleigh Matthews will be in conversation with Marjorie Doyle and Sara Power!
  • August 19-24th: There are still some tickets available for this year's Writers at Woody Point Festival! Breakwater authors Bridget Canning and Angela Antle will be featured! Check out the events and grab tickets here.

 

BIG NEWS

Our new address is...

The word is out! Breakwater Books is moving back to downtown St. John's! We can't wait to welcome you into our new location — stay tuned to future newsletters and social media to find out when we'll be officially opening our new space!

Awards, awards, awards!

We've had so much to celebrate in the month of June! We're incredibly proud of several of our authors who have recently won awards, and others who have recently been nominated with winners to be announced soon!

Vigil wins the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction!

Congratulations to Susie Taylor, author of Vigil, who was named the winner of the 2025 Alistiar MacLeod Award for Short Fiction, announced at the Atlantic Book Awards gala in Halifax on June 5th!

Find out the rest of the night's winners here!

Breakwater Gold Medal Winners in the 2025 IPPY Awards!

Double congratulations are in order!

Greg F. Naterer's Called by Mother Earth: A Father's Search for His Son was named the Gold medal winner for Best Regional Non-Fiction in Canada-West. Addtionally, Clayton B. Smith's A Seal of Salvage won the Gold medal for Best Regional Fiction in Canada-East.

All medalists can be found here!

A Seal of Salvage longlisted for the 2025 Sunburst Award!

In addition to its IPPY Gold Medal win, A Seal of Salvage was also recently named to the longlist for the 2025 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic! The shortlist will be announced in July, and winner announced in the Fall.

Discover the rest of the longlist here!

 

BREAKWATER BUZZ

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

  • To celebrate the release of The Saltbox Olive, Angela Antle contributed an essay to 49th Shelf for their "This Book Made Me" feature, all about Lisa Moore's February and the ways it inspired Angela's debut novel. Read it here!
  • Robin McGrath recently reviewed two of our newest books in The Seaboard Review! Check out her thoughts on The Beltane Massacre here and her review of Cautiously Pessimistic here.
  • Monica Kidd's The Crane continues to delight reviewers! Check out the latest review in Alberta Views: "The prose comes alive in passages of dialogue set in Newfoundland, demonstrating Kidd’s familiarity with the place and its patterns of speech."
  • Here by Heidi Wicks was recently reviewed in Quill & Quire: "Here is something of a mosaic-as-novel, glistening shards of story carefully polished and placed to create something far greater than the sum of its parts." Read the rest of the review here!
  • Check out 49th Shelf's July Summer Reading List! We're excited to see The Crane make an appearance, and we think you should add it to your summer reading list too!
  • Both Just Around the Corner by Yvonne Rumbolt-Jones (#3) and Openly Karl by Karl Wells (#5) are holding steady on the list of Top 5 Bestsellers in NL from Atlantic Books for the month of May! Check out the lists by province here.

 

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Hear, Hear! Here is Here!

On June 5th, we celebrated the launch of Here with Heidi Wicks at the Theatre Hill Cafe and Bar! After COVID prevented a celebration of the release of Heidi's debut novel, Melt, we finally had the opportunity to throw a party and celebrate both of her books!

Heidi read passages from Here and answered questions from the fabulous Noreen Golfman, and then we celebrated with cake and a performance by Duane Andrews and Erin Power!

A Conversation with Karl Wells!

On June 11th, we officially launched Openly Karl during a wonderful evening at The Rooms! After a reading from Karl, he was interviewed by the fantastic Rhea Rollmann. Afterwards, he signed books right up until the museum's closing time!

 

COMING SOON!


July brings our final Spring release of the year! We're incredibly excited to launch Fly on The Wall on July 8th — you won't want to miss this best-of-the-best collection from renowned cartoonist Kevin Tobin!

About Fly on the Wall : Fly on the Wall doesn’t just collect the best of 40 years of Kevin Tobin’s editorial cartoons for The Telegram (The Evening Telegram when he began); it tracks 40 years of Newfoundland and Labrador’s history: politics, social movements, sports, celebrities, boondoggles, feel-good stories, schemes, emergencies, and triumphs, all seen through the lens of a keen, satirical, and no-holds-barred fly on the wall. Inside you’ll find many familiar faces and events, from Joey Smallwood and Danny Williams to Muskrat Falls and the pandemic—all skewered, marinated, and ready to BBQ. Tobin’s cartoons not only capture current events as they happen along with the colourful characters involved; they also bring to image and word the true nature of Newfoundland and Labrador’s famous sense of humour. Readers of The Telegram will be familiar with Tobin’s tiny flies, sketched into the corners of his cartoons since the early days—a symbol for the cartoonist himself, a fly on the wall of Newfoundland and Labrador life: watching, listening in, waiting to cut through the buzz.

All of our Spring releases are available now on our website, plus a sneak peek of our upcoming Fall 2025 titles! Head there now to shop new releases and pre-order upcoming titles!

FROM THE VAULT

 

ARCHIVE AND BACKLIST HIGHLIGHTS


Jackytar, based on award-winning research conducted by Douglas Gosse, is the novel of self-development and social critique. Jackytar delves into twisting family secrets, the nature of language and identity, the influence of heritage, and a four generations' sexual interface with the world.

Written by two Mi'kmaw authors Mi'sel Joe and Sheila O'Neill, Suliewey supports Mi'kmaw oral history of friendly relationships with the Beothuk; the novel reclaims the settler narrative and represents an existing kinship between the two through the character of Sylvester Joe. In recognition of Indigenous History Month in June, delve into the series with My Indian and Suliewey now!

From the archive: Jackytar

From the recent backlist: Suliewey

PHOTO ALBUM

There's been so much excitement here at Breakwater this June! Check out some more snaps from our launches, signings, and appearances!

When Debbie McGee stopped by the Breakwater offices to sign copies of Cautiously Pessimistic, she brought along the cutest guest — her adorable puppy Cammie!

We were excited to host a booth at the St. John's Board of Trade's Love Local Sip. Savour. Shop. event, alongside our friends at East Coast Quilt Co.!

Karl Wells signed books at Johnny Ruth's Grand Opening of their Churchill Square location recently! Plus, check out their fabulous display of Breakwater books!

All Hallows Elementary in North River, NL had a "Battle of the Books" and Cara Kansala's The Ewe Who Knew Who Knit You came out on top!