Kreisel Lecture Series #2: Old Lost Land of Newfoundland (The)

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about this book

Wayne Johnston became, in 2008, the second prominent Canadian writer to enlighten and entertain audiences as a speaker for the Canadian Literature Centre’s Henry Kreisel Lecture Series. Author of seven books, including the bestselling novels The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Navigator of New York, he spoke to an enthusiastic audience at the University of Alberta about the myths and realities of his native Newfoundland. A master storyteller, Johnston peppered the lecture with impromptu asides, delighting his listeners with true tales and well-spun yarns.

In collaboration with the Canadian Literature Centre | Centre de littérature canadienne, NeWest Press is pleased to present the Henry Kreisel Lecture Series publications. 

audio

CBC Interview

reviews

"Wayne Johnston's diminutive The Old Lost Land of Newfoundland flirts with the maxim that 'good things come in small packages'.... The lecture reflects on the impact Newfoundland's confederation had on the identities of the province and Johnston's family. Here the familial frame works marvelously, since the Johnstons become a microcosmic window onto the social rifts hewn out by Newfoundland's 1949 'annexation,' as the Johnston patriarch calls it.... While Johnston retreads old territory, he broadens his scope by examining the unstable relationships among collective memory, communal identity, history, and fiction. Newfoundland may be the focus of the lecture, but certainly not its terminus. Johnston is a remarkable humourist and personality, both of which adorn this admirable but too-brief text." — Ryan Porter, Canadian Literature

reader's guide

Excerpt