The Other Shore – Where is Here?

The Other Shore officially releases tomorrow.

Over at Calyx, Jan Priddy writes, “Rebecca Campbell […] sometimes leads readers gently into the hearts of troubled and lost souls, sometimes pushes us with ferocious energy into terrifying futures.”

Publisher’s Weekly gave it a star (this is important. we like stars) writing, “[t]his thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection stuns”

Over at Locus, Gabino Iglesias calls the book “the literary version of listening to a concept album.”

In the British Columbia Review, Dana McFarland writes: “Diverse in subject, time, and character, the stories feature places of the Pacific Northwest—as presence or genius loci more than mere setting—and reflect the limits of personal agency to reconcile with landscapes that are altered or altering beyond the capacity of any individual to influence. “

I’m writing this post from Saanich inlet, a place that’s in many of my stories, whether I name it or not. We’ve moved back to the west coast, and it’s strange how quickly Ontario has fallen away from me. We’ve been here a little more than a month, and in that time I’ve had moments of uncanny recognition, so intense they’re almost painful: in the drizzle, eating a spartan from the tree by the door while smoke from the chimney drifts down; low tide in the rain; cedar sawdust from the planer in my hair and eyes and down the back of my shirt (and in my socks); blackberries in sunshine; arbutus bark curling down to the forest floor; rain on the roof and waves on the gravel below the bedroom window.

Most of the stories I have written in the last ten years have been about exile and distance and leaving places behind. I wonder what I’ll write now that I’ve come back?

And in a nice synchronicty, my first collection of short stories is forthcoming from Stelliform Press. It was a struggle to select which stories, to find some kind of through-line across genres and eras. It starts in the past and ends in the future, and each story touches upon the place where I’m writing this: the north Pacific coast of North America. The Salish Sea. Home.