Hello, Halifax!

Your new central library really is spectacular. It wasn’t here when I visited last August. I’m especially

excited to see the Paul O’Regan Hall, in which, on Nov. 18, I will present my new book, Celtic Lightning: How the Scots and the Irish Created a Canadian Nation. Clearly, given the name O’Regan, that hall is the perfect venue. I’m here to do some teaching in the country’s first MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. So everything is coming up bookish. . . One more shout-out: Yo, Atlantic News! Just a couple of blocks from the library, it’s thriving as a quintessential magazine and newspaper vendor . . . . Call it old-fashioned, but one man who works there says the store is four decades old and still humming.  Awright!