So how did literature become New Brunswick’s most underrated resource? Northrop Frye once argued that the “imaginative contrast” of the Maritime landscape contributed the region’s creative identity, and many Canadian critics have linked the two since. This isn’t surprising since geography is one of CanLit’s go-to selection pressures, but it is relevant—New Brunswick’s local infrastructure is a major reason for its long-standing literary importance. Home to several significant institutions, including The Fiddlehead and Goose Lane Editions, the province keeps a cohort of Canada’s finest writers in print. It’s also become a literary destination, as evidenced by Poetry Weekend, an annual festival hosted at UNB. Over the past fifteen years, Poetry Weekend has attracted an increasingly varied crowd of participants from across Canada, all looking to connect with other writers and enrich their artistic practices.
While The Fiddlehead and Goose Lane Editions are well-established examples of New Brunswick’s literary framework, aspiring writers rarely emerge fully formed and ready to publish at this level. Enter chapbooks. Unseen by the general reading public, chapbooks are a proving ground where raw talent, craft and instinct intersect in new and often mercurial ways. In the late-1960s, a fine example of this kind of small press enterprise was Nancy Bauer’s New Brunswick Chapbook Series. Though characteristic of its time in terms of the cultural homogeneity of its authors, the influence of the series shouldn’t be underestimated. Besides Richards and Lane, who were highlighted earlier, Robert Gibbs, Kent Thompson, Fred Cogswell and Brian Bartlett—all significant New Brunswick figures—were members of Bauer’s line-up before the press folded in 1981.
Not many small presses thrive for over a decade, and those that endure in public consciousness thirty-plus years after their dissolution are even more uncommon. It’s this legacy that Frog Hollow Press, operated by Caryl Wyse Peters, has kindled with their revisioned New Brunswick Chapbook Series. Under the stewardship of Shane Neilson, Bauer’s original series has been relaunched and rebranded for a contemporary audience. The new series isn’t simply homage, however, and the most noticeable change in the first six volumes selected by Neilson is the range of forms (poetry, prose and drama) presented. This multiformity, along with Peters’ throwback design (inspired by Bruno Bobak), makes an attractive package for readers looking for an entry-point into contemporary New Brunswick literature.