Naming the Shadows

Sharon Berg

Jan 2019 · The Porcupine's Quill

About this ebook

The stories in Naming the Shadows are touched with humour and outrage, mystery and shadow. Curious preteens receive an unexpected education at a mall-side carnival show. A lonely dairy farmer develops a special bond with his neighbours’ children, then suffers unexpected consequences. An ageing author manages to get one up on her adversarial interviewer, while another woman’s unsettling way of remembering past lovers confirms her emotional freedom.

In these stories of loss and learning, conflict and memory run through generations, innocence gives way to experience, and all must learn to redefine themselves and the way they see the world.

About the author

Sharon Berg is the author of poetry and stories as well as nonfiction that focuses on First Nations history and education. She has published several poetry collections, including To a Young Horse (Borealis Press, 1979), The Body Labyrinth (Coach House Press, 1984) and a number of chapbooks. After these early successes, Berg focused on her career as an educator, and on her international literary e-zine and chapbook press, Big Pond Rumours, which she established in 2006. Her retirement in 2016 inspired her to take up her pen once again, and since then she has written poems, short stories and novelettes for a number of publications, including Story Quilt, Quarry, The Fiddlehead and The Malahat Review. Naming the Shadows is her first published collection of short fiction. She lives in Sarnia.