Stop 2: Halifax

Taddle Creek landed in Saint John, New Brunswick, hometown of the editor, on Sunday, July 18, Saint John serving as the magazine’s base for the Maritime portion of the tour. The next day, in a rented PT Cruiser that was to serve as the Taddle Creek Mobile 4 for this leg, the magazine headed out on the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Halifax. Incorporated in 1841, Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and the largest city in Atlantic Canada, with a population of more than 280,000. 

Taddle Creek arrived with a bit of time to spare and, with the on-line (but, sadly, not in-person) help of the former/future Halifax resident and the once-and-always-Taddle-Creek-Twitter-crush Bethany Horne, saw a few key literary sights, including Strange Adventures Comic Book Shop (highly recommended), and JWD Books, home of the “Hardcover” book section. The Propeller Brewing Company was pretty cool too.

Zach Wells, who was on the maybe list to read this evening, was unable to make the show due to work commitments, and Kim Dawn, a one-time Taddle Creek Out-of-Towner, was in a minor car accident a few days prior—unhurt, but not feeling up to reading, which was a shame because Taddle Creek was looking forward to finally meeting her in person. Thanks to the above-and-beyond help of Mr. Peter Norman, two last minute (read: same day) authors were secured, for a final lineup of: Nicole Dixon, a former Journey Prize long-lister; John Barger, a poet and university instructor; Ryan Turner, author of the short story collection What We’re Made Of; and the aforementioned Peter Norman, whose poem “Freight” appears in the Out-of-Towner issue.

Taddle Creek was slated to appear onstage ahead of Queer Comedy Night (it’s Pride Week in Halifax) at the Company House, a spacious bar on Gottingen Street with good food and lots to drink. For what ended up being a half-hastily thrown together event, it was an excellent evening of readings. Taddle Creek enjoyed meeting the authors a great deal. A crowd of about twenty showed up, a few of which were not friends of the talent. There was even someone in town from Toronto. (A nice piece in the Coast probably didn’t hurt.) Little was sold, not much promotion was done, but a good time was had by all.