Meet 4 New Brunswick writers carving out a space of their own

New Brunswick has a deep treasure trove when it comes to writers. With the likes of Bliss Carman, Shirley Bear, and David Adams Richards, the soil seems rich for growing literary talent.

Here's a look at some New Brunswick writers working away at various stages of their careers, hoping to build a reputation of their own.

Gemma Marr: 'A magical place for creatives'

Gemma Marr has reviewed books for outlets such as Atlantic Books Today and the Miramichi Reader.

She's also an instructor at UNB in saint John and a co-ordinator at the Lorenzo Society, an arts and culture organization. 

Marr got into creative writing in elementary school after a teacher really encouraged her class to write.

"I remember she asked us to write a story about whatever we wanted and, for some reason, I wrote a story about this abused dog, and she really enjoyed it and thought it was quite good and encouraged me to keep writing."

Marr has found a supportive community of writers in Saint John, which she describes as "a kind of magical place for creatives."

"I'm very lucky to have found a great group of people in the city who are writing and are extremely supportive." 

For a while, writing brought her such uneasiness that she was unable to do it. Yet, she says, dedication is key. 

"I try to write every day, even if it's only for 20 minutes. I really do try to sit down and pick away at something, whether that's on my computer or by hand or even in a Note app on my phone," Marr said.

"Just try to move something forward."

Rebecca Salazar: 'Weird rage scream of a book'

Rebecca Salazar is already a published author. She's has written three books of poetry, one of which, sulphurtongue, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 2021. Her new collection, antibody, will be released in March.

She works as an editor for The Fiddlehead and Plentitude, both literary journals, and is a PhD student at UNB Fredericton.

Salazar describes antibody, her new poetry collection that is about to be released, as "a weird rage scream of a book," dealing with the intersections of trauma and body horror. 

She also started writing at a very young age.

"I think I was probably eight years old when I decided that being a bookworm was not enough, and I wanted to start writing as well."

She found a writing community in Fredericton through the university.

"When I came to New Brunswick, I came to study creative writing at UNB and met a lot more writers through that, got to know various different aspects of that community too… mainly through working with small magazines," Salazar said.

She worked with QWERTY magazine first , which is student run at UNB, and with The Fiddlehead as well, "which is larger and more established. It's just my involvement through that side of the publishing world that got me connected with writers all over the country and outside the country."

Salazar describes her writing process as messy. She tends to write fragments at a time and then find a thread with which to weave them together. As she works, she finds the trail. 

"So just kind of like reshuffling all these fragments and recombining them until something comes out of it," she said.

"And there's always kind of a sense that there is something driving it, even if at first I don't know what it is. It kind of becomes clearer the more I play around with it."

Teresa Wu: 'Crying in calculus'

Teresa Wu, 17, winner of the 2024 Writers Federation of New Brunswick Sheree Fitch prize for young writers, for her story, Sunken Ship of Theseus.

Wu first got into writing as a "coping mechanism" when she began to write a journal in middle school to get her emotions out. It was only when a teacher in Grade 11 "forced" the students to enter writing competitions that she began to push herself, she said.

Wu said that one of her life goals is to publish a book but she is still just learning about the writing process and the literary industry.

At the moment, she said she doesn't time to write because of schoolwork and joked that she might write something titled 'Crying in Calculus.' 

Because she is known as the writer in her friend group, her friends have developed a habit of writing her letters, which she loves.

Wu said that, as someone trying to pursue science, she has often received feedback that she should not focus on the arts: 

"Most people don't see the relevance of my love for literature and my desire to write. And it's always been presented as a binary choice. It's either like become a writer or become a doctor. It's left or right, black or white," she said.

And she was inspired by the Paul Kalanithi book, When Breath Becomes Air.

"He's a neurosurgeon that wrote this very beautiful memoir/novel. And he really proved that people who study science can be equally fluent in art," Wu said.

"And I think that's something we all need to see. Like, we need to see the art in science and understand the science in art."

Casey Shelley: 'Rexwood Rings, YA Fantasy'

Casey Shelley is the award-winning author of the forthcoming novel, Rexwood Rings, is an elementary school teacher and has also worked as a copy editor.

Rexwood Rings is a young-adult fantasy novel which will be published by CSG Books, a small local publishing house, in April.

It tells the story of Landon Rexwood, an immortal who lives beneath the earth's surface, and his attempt to save the only world he knows.  

Shelley says that she got into writing as a child but it slipped away as she grew up.

It was only in the past few years, after actively seeking out a writing community, that she got back into it.

She now writes daily and participates in several different writing groups in Saint John, including Write Now Saint John and Saint John Writes. She credits these groups with bringing her back into the writing world.