Taproot III: Poetry, Prose and Images from the Eastern Townships. This 120-page anthology contains an exciting mix of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, photographs, and artwork, which is sure to please a wide readership. Taproot III will take you on a journey that is sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, sometimes artsy, sometimes folksy—but always interesting.“Clearly, the Townships have no shortage of talent….There isn’t a bad piece in the whole anthology.” –Montreal Review of Books, Spring/Summer 2005
When Judith Avinger drove out of Bellingham, Washington, in her white Honda, on her way to a new life in Quebec, Canada, she knew, of course, that she was going to a different country, and to a province with a different language, but she also felt she was looking for something else, something elusive, something she couldn’t define. What she found was a new family, a spiritual path, a new name (Munira) and the vision of a cabin in the forest, a cabin she eventually built in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
The Cabin is the story of how she dreamed that cabin into existence. But it’s also the story of her deep connection to the people and places she left behind and her trips back and forth between the east and the west coasts. She began writing this memoir the day she left Bellingham, recording each day’s adventures in her journal. Nearly 20 years later, it is finally finished.
Like any memoir, The Cabin isn’t just a story; it’s also a reflection on life’s journey, which brings the past and the present into focus and explores the decisions that lead to major turning points. Munira is one of today’s nomads, free to move from place to place thanks to the speed of modern transportation but often troubled by feelings of displacement. In The Cabin, the author describes her struggle to adjust to the life she has created for herself and her discovery, through her travels, writings and meditations, that she can redefine and extend her awareness of what it means to feel at home.
It’s July 1975 and Dave Rogers has just landed his first reporting job at the Granby Leader Mail. Having grown up in Montreal, it’s not a part of Quebec’s Eastern Townships he knows very well, despite having been born there. Amidst the stories of little old ladies turning 100, petty thefts and small town politics, Dave soon finds himself covering real news. But before long he’s raised the ire of the local crime boss, the mother of a cattle thief, and an English rights vigilante group. Not to mention the mysterious characters who seem to be watching his every move, or the father he barely remembers who haunts his dreams. There are longstanding scores to be settled, but extracting truth from the lies pushes Dave to the limits of what he can, and can’t, live with.
A History of Barns and Fences in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Since the late 1990s, photographers Louise Abbott and Neils Jensen have travelled thousands of miles in the Eastern Townships of Quebec in their quest to document the remnants of the historic agricultural landscape in the form of barns, fences and silos. The Heart of the Farm showcases over three hundred and fifty of their evocative photos, along with more than fifty rare archival images. The book also features an engaging and enlightening text by Abott that traces the evolution of barns from log to steel and the evolution of fences from wood to wire.
