Books Written or Edited by SHARON BERG
Edited by SHARON BERG
Stars in the Junkyard is my latest poetry collection, released in late 2020. It is both hard-hitting and tender as it delves into some difficult subjects. It took more than thirty years to publish, though many of its poems followed closely on the heels of my second book. However, it's double the size of regular poetry books. Much of my best poetry is included here. It was published in 2020 by Cyberwit Inc.
​
Back cover blurbs:
​
RUSSELL THORNTON says: "Berg is a 'truth teller' - and no matter how painful the truth, whether of her own searing individual history or the wider world's, she refuses to pretend her way out of it... [T]his is a transforming, triumphant book -- and a valuable one".
​
MAUREEN HYNES says: "With clarity, purpose and skill, Sharon Berg examines losses, traumas, betrayals -- both personal and political. ...Berg's vision extends widely across continents, and is especially compelling and compassionate in her long poem about the 1990 Oka crisis.
​
Reviews
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3421511075
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Naming the Shadows means to do just
that, name the negative things that often
shadow us through our lives. It assembles
a collection of tales dealing with the
negative shadows that might collect in
anyone's life, while acknowledging the
existence of positive light. It draws on
experiences that intersect the secrets
children don't share with their parents
and those that adults don't share with
their partners. It expresses some of the
grief felt by a single parent and her
struggling teenage daughter who manage
to see each other differently after noting
how each of them deals with their fears.
This is a book that faces trouble head on in ordinary lives. Listed on 49th Shelf's 'Most Anticipated Books' for Fall 2020, it is a collection of nine shorts stories and two novelettes As Berg quotes C.G. Jung at the front of the book, "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." The book is beautifully published by Porcupine's Quill (2019) with a cover by Liana Russwurm.
​
Reviews
Three people offer reviews at the link below. They are Debbie Okun Hill, Lucy Black, and Bianca Lakoseljac's review in Prairie Fire is also copied.
​
​Read these reviews by following this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44326748-naming-the-shadows
_________________________________________________________________________
​
The Name Unspoken: Wandering Spirit
Survival School is a cross genre book
offering a well-researched narrative
history of the first Native Way school in
Canada. It started life a an M.Ed. thesis.
The school was founded in the living room
of Pauline Shirt as a private school in
September 1976 and it was adopted by the
Toronto Board of Education in February
1977 as an Alternative Culture School. It
was the only one of its kind before the
founding of the Afrocentric School in
September 2009.
The name Wandering Spirit came to
Pauline Shirt as a Cree Chief who should be remembered with pride if you read between the lines in white history texts which had twisted the story and painted him as a traitor to Canada hung in 1885. The words Survival School meant survival of a culture that had been forced underground by a government who imprisoned the first peoples of the land and stole their children from them with the aim of wiping the Indian out of the Indian. This was meant to be a learning place unlike any other Canadian school because it focused on giving First Nations students a comfortable place where they could learn about their culture and tradition in the companionship with others of a like mind.
Indeed, despite many struggles, including its renaming as First Nations School for close to 30 years, the school has been renamed Wandering Spirit and it still survives. In fact, it was moved into its own building in January 2017. That is unusual for an Alternative School. However, Wandering Spirit began to offer high school classes in September 2018, adding a grade each year following. In September 2021, WSSS will offer all grades. This book was published in a run of 50 by Big Pond Rumours Press (2019).
​
Reviews:
​
In 2020, The Name Unspoken: Wandering Spirit Survival School won
a Bronze Ippy Award for Regional Nonfiction in Eastern Canada.
​
"I thought the narrative arc and the book's structure were fantastic. I particularly loved the non-linear aspect of the narrative and how that was a perfect "show, don't tell" example of the Indigenous concept of time and view of history/community, which of course all ties back to the story of WSSS. The narrative arc presented an evolving, complex picture."
Whistler Independent Book Awards Review, 2020
​
_________________________________________________________________________
​
​
Two Purdys is a book I worked on
over several years in the role as
my brother's agent, editor, and
book designer. It goes without
saying, I offered editorial advice
as I typed and retyped poems,
designing the manuscript's face.
My work with Brian stretched in
all directions over countless hours
and years as anyone can imagine.
It was begun formally in 2016 and
the book was finally published
in by Potterfield Press (October, 2023) Nova Scotia.
________________________________________________
​
Before the Heart Went Down is a
book that remained in its planning
stage for three decades. Robert
Billings is a renowned poet and
editor who disappeared suddenly
on All Hallows Eve, 1986. He had
mailed a letter to his ex-wife.His
body was discovered in Spring
1987. He'd given me 10 unpublish-
ed poems the last time we met. I
wanted to honour Robert and his
work. I thought of releasing a
chapbook but Richard Olafson of Exstasis Editions said create a 'Selected Poems' with the previously uncollected poems as an end section. In the midst of doing this, James Deahl told me that Robert published several pieces from a ms. called 'The White City Poems' in Malahat Review. I discovered two additional poems that didn't appear in his books there. I asked Robert's wife if she knew of other uncollected work. She told me she'd tossed his things long ago and gave me permission to 'do what I wanted' with the poems I had. This book is the result. It includes a memoir by Cathy Ford, President of the League of Canadian Poets while Robert Was VP (the year he disappeared) and another by myself. Published by Cyberwit (2020).
JAMES DEAHL says: "Robert Billings possessed an outstanding talent... I soon became convinced that Robert Billings was the foremost poet of his generation."
​
BRUCE MEYER says: "As someone who knew and published the work of Robert Billings this book is long overdue.Although few recognized it at the time, Billings was one of the leading lights of Canadian poetry in the Eighties."
​
MICHAEL CLARKSON, a school friend of Robert, says: ...Sharon Berg has captured the enigmatic, sometimes elusive, but always spiritually-provoking Robert Billings in this collection of his poems... I am thrilled that she is keeping his memory alive with these gems of man's connection to nature, of mortality, of family, of problematic and yet somehow romantic flashes of city life. The 12 unpublished works are a huge bonus.
______________________________________________________
​
​
Earlier books
Sharon took a break from her focus on creative writing while she studied in university. Her break also extended through the first years of her teaching career. In 2006 she founded Big Pond Rumours E-Zine (an international journal) & associated press to stay in touch with the writing community. In the process, she also published two chapbooks by her brother, Brian Purdy. They are: A Poet's Garden of Pointers (BPR Press 2007) and Black Ink: Portraits (BPR Press 2016).
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
____________________________________________________
​
In addition to releasing these chapbooks by Brian Purdy, Sharon gained loads of book design experience through publishing the winners of the contests in Big Pond Rumours E-Zine, including: Phil Elliott, Tom Gannon Hamilton, Debbie Okun Hill, John B. Lee, Wendy Maclean, John Oughton, Bob Wakulich, and others.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
She also published three chapbooks of her own with Big Pond Rumours Press: Odyssey and Other Poems (2017), The Great Hoop Dance (2016), and Black Moths (2006).
​
​
​
In 2007, Sharon released a CD through Big Pond Rumours Press called Sharon Berg that featured a poetry performance done in Ottawa in 1984.
​
​
​
That CD drew on two audio tapes: Black Moths (Public Energies, 1986) and Tape 5 (Gallery 101 Editions, 1985, both recorded and produced by George Young.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Finally, Sharon Berg began her writing career with the release of To A Young Horse (Borealis Press, 1979). That debut was followed by her startling collection called The Body Labyrinth (Coach House Press, 1984.) Both o.o.p.
​
​
​
​
​
​
The Body Labyrinth was published by Coach House Press in 1984.
To a Young Horse was published by Borealis Press in 1979. It is my debut collection.
