Sarah Emsley's Blog

“The beautiful, capricious, reluctant Canadian spring”

Two weeks ago, I spent a few days in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and I thought I’d share some of my photos with you today.

Some of the highlights included a lovely afternoon of signing copies of The Austens at Indigo, a visit to Bookmark’s gorgeous new location on Kent Street, seeing the inside of St. Dunstan’s Basilica for the first time, walking in Victoria Park, and discovering The Chocolate Chicken, an arts collective and gallery with a special focus on books and art by Phoebe Gilman, author and illustrator of The Balloon Tree and many other books. Isn’t that a great title for a gallery/shop? (And yes, they also have chocolate chickens for sale, in addition to books and art.) I’m looking forward to visiting again when I return to PEI for the L.M. Montgomery conference at the end of June.

Spring had come once more to Green Gables—the beautiful, capricious, reluctant Canadian spring, lingering along through April and May in a succession of sweet, fresh, chilly days, with pink sunsets and miracles of resurrection and growth.

– Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

The grounds at Government House (Fanningbank), the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island

Victoria Park

Beaconsfield Historic House, designed and built by W.C. Harris in 1877

The Great George Hotel

St. Dunstan’s Basilica

St. Dunstan’s Basilica stained glass window detail

A prayer written by Lt. Gordon Roland Deblois, on a memorial tablet at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Charlottetown

Emily of New Moon at the Charlottetown Library

Bookmark PEI

The Chocolate Chicken

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 2nd, I’ll be signing copies of The Austens at Coles in New Minas, Nova Scotia between 12:30 and 2:00 p.m. Please come and see me if you’re in the Valley!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

An April scrapbook page

An invitation to write about The Blue Castle

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on May 01, 2026 07:30

An April scrapbook page

Next Tuesday, April 28th, I’ll be speaking at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic about “Imagining the Austens in Halifax.” The talk begins at 6:30 p.m., but please come early for a cup of tea and a chat with Philip Holmans of World Tea House, who’s going to share period-based teas and talk about their significance in Jane Austen’s time. He specializes in hand-blended, organic small farmed teas from around the world. The tea-sampling starts at 6:15. The Maritime Museum is located at 1675 Lower Water St. in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“Everything L.M. Montgomery”

Kate Scarth was a guest on the “What Should I Read Next” podcast earlier this month, and I enjoyed listening to her conversation with Anne Bogel about L.M. Montgomery and other creative women, magical realism, and books that feature investigations or detective work.

I’ve added several books to my TBR list, inspired by Kate’s recommendations, including The Grace of Wild Things, by Heather Fawcett (“a middle grade book that is Anne of Green Gables meets Hansel and Gretel”), and Tilly and the Book Wanderers, by Anna James (“Tilly actually gets to jump into Anne of Green Gables and go to the Avonlea schools”). The Astral Library, by Kate Quinn (about a magical library in which readers can literally escape into books, including Anne of Green Gables), was already on my list, after I heard Kate Quinn, Janie Chang, and Donna Jones Alward speak at a wonderful event at the Halifax Central Library last month. (Needless to say, I was delighted that Kate also highlighted The Austens in this interview.)

Kate wrote an essay on “Anne Shirley and Marianne Dashwood, #KindredSpirits,” for the celebration of L.M. Montgomery’s 150th birthday I hosted here in 2024. She also contributed essays on Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Emma for celebrations I organized in honour of those novels:

“‘Miss Morland; do but look at my horse’: Horses’ John Thorpe problem”

“Highbury Heights; or, George and Emma Knightley, Suburban Developers”

Kate’s new book, Romantic Suburbs: Imagining Home in Greater London, has just been published—congratulations, Kate!

I can’t look at the cover of Romantic Suburbs without thinking of this line from Jane Austen’s letters:

“I cannot help thinking that it is more natural to have flowers grow out of the head than fruit.—What do you think on that subject?”

– Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, June 11, 1799

Reading with Jane Austen

Elaine Bander’s new book, Reading with Jane Austen, arrived in my mailbox recently!

“Reading with Elaine Bander is a delicious and rewarding experience. She introduces us to the authors and the books that Jane Austen and her readers loved and admired, tracing the ways Austen both subverts conventions and clichés and reimagines what the novel can be. Reading with Jane Austen is a gift.”

– Susan Allen Ford, author of What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why)

I interviewed Elaine here in 2013, and she wrote a guest post on “Henry Crawford and Moral Taste” for the series I hosted for the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park in 2014.

Reading with Jane Austen and a bouquet of flowers

“The details are what matters”

I recommended Kerry Clare’s fabulous new novel, Definitely Thriving, in this newsletter a few weeks ago. Fellow fans of Barbara Pym might be interested in both the novel and this essay Kerry wrote for LitHub:

“The Barbara Pym universe is rendered in small-scale, and the details are what matters. ‘Life was like that for most of us—the small unpleasantnesses rather than the great tragedies; the little useless longings rather than the great renunciations and dramatic love affairs of history or fiction,’ remarks Mildred Lathbury in Excellent Women, a post WWII novel that barely mentions the war, and which is instead about the often invisible women whose labors keep the wheels of the world turning. And it was as a tribute to these women, to this labor, and to Pym’s literary legacy, that my novel Definitely Thriving found its focus.

– Kerry Clare

Kerry wrote a guest post on “The Making of a Story Girl” for my L.M. Montgomery celebration.

“Snippets of fiction among these day-to-day scribblings”

Emily Midorikawa’s debut novel, A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, will be published this summer—more on that in a future newsletter. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of the novel, which is both terrifying and irresistible. A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing is set in Japan in 2003, and Emily wrote recently about her experience of teaching English in a Japanese high school and of spending “great swathes” of time alone. She says,

I used to while away many hours reading books in favourite cafes, watching English-language films with Japanese subtitles rented on chunky video cassettes, or simply riding my bicycle around the streets of the city: passing roadside shrines; traditional noodle bars tucked behind curtained doorways; fashionable clothing boutiques, J-pop melodies trailing from their doors.

I would record my impressions of sights like these, and much more, in a series of notebooks. Over time, I began jotting down snippets of fiction among these day-to-day scribblings. Eventually, I started writing my way into a version of the book that would eventually become my debut novel.

An invitation to write about The Blue Castle

I’m thrilled that so many of you would like to discuss L.M. Montgomery’s novel The Blue Castle with me! Thanks to everyone who’s responded online and in person.

As I mentioned here last month, we’ll plan to celebrate the novel’s 100th anniversary in October. I’ll put together a schedule of guest posts, which is what I’ve done for previous celebrations such as my “Summer Party for Sense and Sensibility.”

This time, I’m also thinking of trying something a little different. I’d like to invite you to send me a paragraph about the novel—up to 250 words—if you feel inspired to do so. I’ll plan to gather these together to share online. I’m thinking of this as an option somewhere between the longer guest essays and the responses in the comments section on my website or on social media. It could be a response to reading the novel for the first time, or a reflection on a memory of discovering the novel, or a brief analysis of a Blue Castle-related topic of your choice.

Please let me know before June 1st if you’re interested by commenting on this post or sending me an email. The deadline for submissions will be August 1st. I can’t promise to include all the contributions I receive, but I’ll be sure to read all submissions with care.

This beautiful edition of The Blue Castle, with cover art by Brianna Corr Scott, will be published by Nimbus Publishing on June 16th.

I had a wonderful time in Yarmouth last week and at the Local Author Showcase at Indigospirit in Bedford on Saturday. Thank you to all the readers who came to my talk at the Yarmouth Library and stopped by the event at Indigospirit, and a warm welcome to those of you who signed up for this newsletter! Here are a few photos from the road trip to Yarmouth, chosen because the blue sky matches today’s Blue Castle theme.

Shelburne, NS

Yarmouth, NS

Liverpool, NS

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 18th, I’m going to do a book signing for The Austens in Prince Edward Island, at 1:00 p.m. at Indigo – Charlottetown, 455 University Ave, Unit 11, Charlottetown, PEI. If you’re in the area, it would be lovely to see you there! Details about other upcoming events, including signings in New Minas, New Glasgow, and Truro, NS, and an illustrated talk at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax on April 28th, are listed on my events page.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

The Austens in Bermuda

A March scrapbook page

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on April 17, 2026 05:32

The Austens in Bermuda

Jane Austen’s brother Captain Charles Austen and his wife Fanny Palmer Austen were married at St. Peter’s in St. George’s, Bermuda, on May 18, 1807. Fanny and Jane are the two heroines of my novel The Austens.

My sister visited Bermuda last month and sent me some beautiful photos, which I’m delighted to share with you today.

St. Peter’s, founded in 1612

As my friend Sheila Johnson Kindred notes in her wonderful book Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen, Fanny was baptized at St. Peter’s on February 21, 1790.

St. George’s

Tobacco Bay, behind St. George’s

My sister writes, “This is the green space between St. George’s and Fort St. Catherine. It’s a golf course now, unfortunately, but I imagine your characters may have walked there.”

The State House

This, too, reminded my sister of me…

And the fish on the sign above reminded me of a present I received in elementary school from a friend who had visited Bermuda, which I keep next to my collection of books on the history of Nova Scotia and Bermuda.

Here are my nieces with a copy of The Austens under the Moongate. (The nearby plaque suggests that “Legend says … honeymooners should walk through the moongate and make a wish! If you are not a honeymooner make a wish anyway!”)

And here’s my sister with The Austens. She also took the book to the beach.

If you’d like to know more about the Austens in Halifax, Nova Scotia, you might be interested in the walking tour Sheila Johnson Kindred and I created. It’s available here.

I have a couple of book signings coming up. Tomorrow, April 11th, I’ll be participating in the Local Author Showcase at Indigospirit in the Sunnyside Mall in Bedford, NS (1595 Bedford Highway) between 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. Several other authors will be there, too, including Donna Jones Alward, Carol Bruneau, Jane Doucet, Vicki Grant, Dean Jobb, Janice Landry, Stephens Gerard Malone, and Sal Sawler. Please come and see us if you’re in the area!

Next Saturday, April 18th, I’m going to do a book signing for The Austens in Prince Edward Island, at 1:00 p.m. at Indigo – Charlottetown, 455 University Ave, Unit 11, Charlottetown, PEI. As always, I’m looking forward to spending time on the Island.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

A March scrapbook page

Let’s Read The Blue Castle (an invitation to read L.M. Montgomery’s novel at your leisure and discuss it online later this year, in October)

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on April 10, 2026 07:30

A March scrapbook page

I’ll begin with a review of The Austens, and I also have a variety of other things to share with you today on this scrapbook page, including poems for Easter Saturday, photos of springtime in Nova Scotia, and book recommendations.

It was wonderful to see my novel The Austens reviewed in the March 2026 newsletter of the Jane Austen Society (UK)!

This “novel, which has been many years in the making, is new and inventive: a judicious and absorbing mix of fact (including Jane’s letters) with fiction. … The breadth of the novel is wide, as attested by its 275 pages, but it is unfailingly interesting.”

– Maureen Stiller

I bought the red scarf that appears in the background of the photo a long time ago, when I was doing my postdoctoral fellowship in the UK. I haven’t worn it recently, but I like the way it looks with the cover of The Austens.

Poems for the Easter Vigil at St. Paul’s Church, Saturday, April 4th

My father and I will be reading poems by George Herbert, T.S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, Elizabeth Bishop, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Boris Pasternak at the Easter Vigil at St. Paul’s Church, Halifax (1749 Argyle St.), next Saturday, April 4th, at 7:00 pm. All are welcome.

Springtime in Nova Scotia

Next: photos taken in Nova Scotia over the last couple of weeks, as winter slowly comes to an end and spring begins. First, a walk through the fog over snow-covered paths near the Shubenacadie Canal.

Snowdrops in my neighbourhood last Friday, on the first day of spring:

More flowers:

New books

I’d like to recommend two books I bought at Bookmark this week: Molly of the Mall, by Heidi L.M. Jacobs, a novel my sister Bethie and I adored when we read it a few years ago, and Definitely Thriving, by Kerry Clare. I recently discovered that I had misplaced my copy of Molly—must have lent it to a friend—and I ordered a new copy. I wrote about the novel here in March of 2023 (“Oh, novels! What would I do without you?”), and I quoted Kerry, who recommended it to anyone who “came of age in the 1990s, worked in a shopping mall, longed for a literary life, ever felt a bit weird about your dad’s devotion to Robbie Burns, dreamed of a romance that was swoon-worthy, felt confused in university English classes, and let 19th century novels play perhaps too great a role in informing your perspective on … everything.” When I went to Bookmark to pick up Molly of the Mall, I was delighted to discover that Kerry’s new novel had just arrived.

Molly of the Mall and Definitely Thriving

The heroine of Definitely Thriving, Clemence, is determined to focus on “Becoming,” which, “finally, is the point of this exercise.” She wants “to become one of those excellent women that Barbara Pym wrote about in her mid-century novels, helping out at church bazaars, fortified with a nice mug of Ovaltine. A woman of substance, of character, who isn’t defined by her relationship to a man. Because Clemence is finished with recklessness, and impulsiveness. Clemence Lathbury, she longs to have people start thinking. She’s such a stalwart.”

Doesn’t it sound wonderful? I’ve read the opening chapters and am keen to read more; I’m also looking forward to rereading Molly.

Over the past week, I’ve done three events for The Austens, all of them delightful: a zoom conversation with the New Jersey Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America, a reading at Open Book Coffee in Halifax, and a talk at the Women’s Council House at a meeting of the Canadian Federation of University Women. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful conversations!

A window at the Women’s Council House in Halifax

I’m looking forward to more book club meetings in the coming weeks, a Local Author Showcase and book signing at Indigospirit in Bedford (in the Sunnyside Mall) on April 11th from 12:30 to 3:30 (with several local authors, including Donna Jones Alward, Carol Bruneau, Jane Doucet, Vicki Grant, Dean Jobb, Janice Landry, Stephens Gerard Malone, and Sal Sawler), and a Tuesday Talk called “Imagining the Austens in Halifax,” on April 28th at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, 1675 Lower Water Street, Halifax, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

“Writers and publishers are an essential part of our democratic tradition”

And today, I’ll be at the All Hands on Deck! rally at Province House in Halifax at noon. Like many Nova Scotians, I am deeply concerned about the severe cuts to arts, culture, and heritage in the provincial budget for 2026, and we have called on the government to reverse the cuts. The budget vote passed on Wednesday; the protests will continue. (I wrote in more detail about this here: Please keep writing letters to help save Prescott House Museum, books, arts, culture, tourism, and heritage in Nova Scotia.) Hope to see you at Province House, Nova Scotia friends.

I’ve been watching some of the presentations to the Public Bills Committee this week, and I loved what my friend Carol Bruneau said about the people of Nova Scotia and our history:

We are all our stories. My books are about the experiences of ordinary Nova Scotians and the history and heritage that make us the tough, smart, resilient, resourceful people that we are and make this province mighty even though it is small. And a big part of that heritage goes back to Joseph Howe, a writer who fought for press freedom and responsible government—democracy. Democracy, from what I’m seeing, is under severe threat in this province. Writers and publishers are an essential part of our democratic tradition that goes back more than 170 years. As a published author, I’m proud and honoured to be one small part of this.

– Carol Bruneau

If you’d like to watch Carol’s presentation, you can find it here, beginning around the 35:45 mark.

I’ll close for today with photos from a snowy walk at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax on Monday afternoon.

(My husband took this photo)

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

Let’s Read The Blue Castle (an invitation to read L.M. Montgomery’s novel at your leisure and discuss it online later this year, in October)

Please keep writing letters to help save Prescott House Museum, books, arts, culture, tourism, and heritage in Nova Scotia

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on March 27, 2026 07:30

Let’s read The Blue Castle

2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of L.M. Montgomery’s novel The Blue Castle, a favourite of mine. Last fall, I asked if some of you might like to read this novel together, and I was delighted to hear an enthusiastic response online and in person. Some of us read The Blue Castle and discussed it online in the fall of 2017—but since it’s a pleasure to reread a beloved novel, let’s read it again!

L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle: The Original Manuscript, edited by Carolyn Strom Collins (Nimbus Publishing)

At the beginning of The Blue Castle, the heroine feels she has had “nothing but a second-hand existence,” but everything changes when she decides to stop “keeping up appearances” and start making her own choices. It’s a wonderful, powerful book, and I hope you’ll join the conversation.

I’m announcing this now so there will be lots of time to read at whatever pace suits you best. Let’s plan to discuss the novel in October.

On a different topic: this Sunday, March 22nd, I’ll be reading from my novel The Austens at Open Book Coffee, 3660 Strawberry Hill St. in Halifax, NS at 1:00 p.m. I’ll read passages set in England, Bermuda, and Nova Scotia—including one on Strawberry Hill.

Coming soon: next week, a March scrapbook page, and after that, a collection of photos from St. George’s, Bermuda, including photos of the church where Fanny Palmer Austen (one of the two heroines of The Austens) and her husband, Charles, were married.

Also: for those in Nova Scotia who would like to continue to protest the cuts in the 2026 provincial budget, another rally will be held next Friday, March 27th at noon at Province House in Halifax. Hope to see you there. For more details about the severe cuts to arts, culture, and heritage, please visit the website of the non-partisan NS Arts Coalition (or read what I wrote here last week). Thank you to everyone who has been writing letters and contacting our MLAs and the Premier and the Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage.

I’ll close with a photo I took at one of the two book club meetings I attended earlier this week. It is such a pleasure to discuss The Austens with readers—thank you again for inviting me!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

Please keep writing letters to help save Prescott House Museum, books, arts, culture, tourism, and heritage in Nova Scotia

Happy Pub Day to Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist!

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on March 20, 2026 07:30

Please keep writing letters to help save Prescott House Museum & books, arts, culture, tourism, and heritage in Nova Scotia

There is still time to raise our voices to help protect arts, culture, tourism, and heritage in Nova Scotia. The budget vote hasn’t happened yet, though it is likely to happen soon. Email addresses are included below.

I wrote another letter to the Premier of Nova Scotia this week to ask him to restore funding to Prescott House Museum—a National Historic Site of Canada and one of the finest Georgian buildings in Canada—and eleven other precious museums and to arts, culture, tourism, and heritage. The severe cuts to these sectors, which were announced suddenly without consultation, will affect the long-term health and well-being—including the economic well-being—of our communities.

Whether you live in Nova Scotia or elsewhere in Canada and other parts of the world, your support matters. Please ask the Premier to keep Prescott House open and restore funding for arts, culture, tourism, and heritage. Even if you’ve already written, please consider writing again. Please write as soon as possible. Even a very brief letter is helpful!

Prescott House Museum, Starr’s Point, Nova Scotia

You could cc the Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage and the Minister of Finance.

Email addresses:

PREMIER@novascotia.ca

MIN_CCTH@novascotia.ca

FinanceMinister@novascotia.ca

(The Honourable Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia; The Honourable Dave Ritcey, Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage; The Honourable John Lohr, Minister of Finance)

For letters about Prescott House Museum, you could also write to (or cc) the Member of Parliament for Kings–Hants, The Honourable Kody Blois: Kody.Blois@parl.gc.ca.

Find your Nova Scotia MLA here.

I have also written to share my concerns about the future of Nova Scotia with the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, His Honour, The Honourable Mike Savage, ONS.

lgoffice@novascotia.ca

Here’s a sample letter about the cuts, from the non-partisan NS Arts Coalition: http://www.nsarts.ca/email-your-mla.html

For residents of Nova Scotia, this site offers a sample letter you can easily personalize; the site will automatically send your letter to your MLA (this template comes from the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-mla-to-vote-no-to-the-2026-nova-scotia-budget

The gardens at Prescott House last September (after a very dry summer)

As I mentioned here last week, Nova Scotia’s arts and culture sector contributes 2.6 billion in GDP and supports 22,000 jobs, and for every $1 invested in the arts, Canada sees $29 in economic activity (from a Canadian Chamber of Commerce 2025 report).

I share the concerns of my friend and fellow Nova Scotian author Carol Bruneau, who in her open letter to the Premier wrote that “The cuts to arts, culture, and heritage will very soon reduce the province to a shadow of what it was.” More than ever, she said, “we need the creativity, energy, resourcefulness, hope, fiery spirit, intelligence, and illumination that arts and culture bring to EVERYONE.”

Becky Druhan, who represents Lunenburg West as an independent MLA, summed up the current situation clearly and concisely earlier this week: “Nova Scotians are asking not only that these cuts be reversed, but also why the government is choosing to cut the very things that define who we are.”

“Save Prescott House & 11 other precious museums” sign

I joined the huge crowd at the New Budget Now Rally this past Tuesday to protest the cuts

In my letter to the Premier, I described a memorable field trip to Prescott House Museum in June of 1984, when I was in grade five. I fell in love with the House and its lovely gardens and elegant rooms. I wrote in my diary of my admiration for Miss Mary Prescott’s ambitious goal of rescuing the house, which had been built by her great-grandfather, with a plan to restore it and preserve it for future generations of visitors to enjoy. I taped postcards of Prescott House on the first two pages of my diary and tucked a brochure inside.

Brochure and postcard of Prescott House and gardens, 1984

The house and Mary Allison Prescott’s story inspired me when I was a child. When I was older and fell in love with Jane Austen’s novels, I felt that I knew the world of these novels already, because I knew Prescott House.

I went on to do a Ph.D. on Austen’s novels at Dalhousie University here in Halifax, and later taught classes on her novels at Harvard University. When I chose to leave Harvard and the United States and move back home to Nova Scotia, I did so in large part because of the rich history of this province. Because of extraordinarily beautiful places like Prescott House. Because of the rich literary tradition in Nova Scotia. I knew it was a good place to raise a family. I believed it was a good place to write books. And it was. I am proud of the fact that my debut novel The Austens, which was inspired by Jane Austen’s connections with Nova Scotia, was written in Nova Scotia, by a Nova Scotian, published by a Nova Scotia publisher, Pottersfield Press, and distributed by another Nova Scotia publisher, Nimbus Publishing.

The teacher who took our grade five class on that wonderful trip to Prescott House was Mrs. Betty McOnie, whose letter to the Premier I quoted here last week. She is now a dear friend of mine. She encouraged and inspired me as a writer when I was ten, and I was honoured that she attended my book launch for The Austens last fall. I’ll quote from her letter again: she wrote, “I’m ninety years of age, and even though my reading eyes have dimmed, I continue to read.” She told Premier Houston of her “concern and sadness over the funding cuts to the arts, books, culture, and heritage sectors in [his] last budget,” saying it is “Very troubling indeed.”

Mrs. McOnie and me at her 90th birthday party in October, a few days after my book launch

I would like Nova Scotia to continue to be a place that offers a warm welcome to visitors from around the world who are interested in our history and historic places. A place where history and heritage are protected, preserved, discussed and analyzed and reinterpreted for new generations of school children on field trips and for people of all ages, from Nova Scotia and beyond. A place where young people are encouraged, as I was, to dream about creating art and sharing stories of Nova Scotia history with local and international audiences. A place where local publishers and authors are supported and valued—by essential programs such as the Publishers’ Assistance Program.

As I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, the budget for 2026 cuts all funding to the Publishers’ Assistance Program. This is a $700,000 program that helps local publishers release more than 100 local books every year, most of them by local authors. The cut makes Nova Scotia the only province in Canada that does not support its publishers and authors.

Please, dear subscribers and friends, I hope you will keep writing letters to help our community protect arts, culture, tourism, heritage, and Nova Scotia books. Thank you.

Part of the crowd at the New Budget Now Rally in Nova Scotia, March 10, 2026

I took this photo at the New Budget Now Rally on Tuesday

The other side of my “Save Prescott House” sign says “Defend NS Books”

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last few instalments, in case you missed them:

Happy Pub Day to Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist!

New events for The Austens!

Please help protect Nova Scotia’s books, arts and culture, and heritage

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

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Published on March 13, 2026 07:46

Happy Pub Day to Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist!

This new book is special to me because it was written by my amazing aunt, Betty Baxter. I was delighted to see her memoir reviewed in the latest issue of The Seaboard Review of Books:

Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist shares the life story of Canadian Olympian Betty Baxter. Baxter played for Canada’s national Women’s Volleyball Team for a number of years, and Outspoken conveys the physical and mental demands placed on high-performance athletes in the 1970s. … Baxter provides a vivid sense of both on-the-court and off-the-court experiences, and shares her tribulations, disappointments, and triumphs. … In January 1982, Baxter was dismissed from her head coaching job because of rumours about her sexual orientation. Baxter was blind sided by the firing, and embittered by the fact that it was driven by prejudicial attitudes rather than performance issues. It took some time to get over it, and Outspoken gives readers a sense of the emotional toll taken.

– Lisa Timpf

Outspoken is published by Nightwood Editions. I pre-ordered my copy from Bookmark here in Halifax, and it was lovely to see the book on this CBC Books list of “50+ Canadian non-fiction titles we’re excited about this spring.”

Here’s one of my favourite passages from the book:

In my own life, hard training always helped me deepen my trust in myself and calm my mind when confronting discrimination, illness or high stress. There is a depth of strength in each of us that enables us to endure tremendous physical distress, but we only learn this about ourselves when pushed to extremes. We learn to focus our psyche, not on the pain but on gratitude for small successful steps and the knowledge that each moment will build steadfastly toward the best possible outcome—maybe even peace or success.

I loved reading Outspoken. My father, who was captain of his high school basketball team, gets a nice shout-out as a role model for his younger sister Betty as her ambitions in sport began to take shape. Hearing from my parents about their experience of attending events at the 1968 Olympic Summer Games in Mexico City was another source of inspiration: Betty writes,

That night, listening to their stories of international competition and youth activism, I could taste the excitement and thought about my own beginnings in competitive sport. I wanted to be part of that intensity, quietly promising myself that I would take part in the Olympics one day.

(It was also fun to see that my sister Edie and I make a brief appearance, at ages two and four respectively, on page 133.)

Congratulations, Betty, and thank you for writing this powerful memoir!

And also: thank you for helping me find the courage to speak up, over the past couple of weeks, to help protect books, arts and culture, heritage, and communities in my beloved home province. The timing for reading this book was perfect. Like many other Nova Scotians, I plan to attend today’s New Budget Now Rally at noon at Province House in Halifax.

(Thank you to the friend who gave me these beautiful tulips yesterday and the friend who gave me this lovely vase last year.)

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

New events for The Austens!

Please help protect Nova Scotia’s books, arts and culture, and heritage

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on March 10, 2026 05:00

New events for The Austens!

First, I want to share a lovely quotation from Joceline Bury, who reviewed my novel in the most recent issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine, which is published in the UK. She writes that “The Austens is a supremely well-imagined examination of a relationship between two women whose lives and opinions represent opposing ends of a spectrum, but whose mutual affection ultimately transcends their differences.”

I’m excited about some upcoming events for The Austens. Thank you to Open Book Coffee in Halifax, NS (3660 Strawberry Hill St.) for inviting me to do a reading and book signing on Sunday, March 22nd from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

On Thursday, April 9th, I’ll be in Yarmouth, NS to do a reading and book signing at the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library (405 Main St.) at 6:00 p.m.

And on Tuesday, April 28th, I’m going to do an illustrated Tuesday Talk on “Imagining the Austens in Halifax” at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, 1675 Lower Water St., at 6:30 p.m. Philip Holmans, owner of World Tea House, will be sharing period-based teas, and he’ll talk about their significance during Jane Austen’s time.

I’m also looking forward to some book club meetings over the next few months.

Here’s a fun piece of news about my daughter. Some of you may remember seeing her at Jane Austen Society of North America AGMs—she was three months old when she attended her first AGM and on a couple of occasions she wore a Regency gown and danced at the ball. She’s a first year university student now, and last week, she danced in a campus production of Jane Austen’s The Watsons. She said I could share this photo of her preparing for the show:

A selfie of a young woman in a Regency gown

It was wonderful to see The Austens on this list of books from 2025 recommended by the staff of the Halifax Public Libraries.

Naomi MacKinnon, owner of the delightful new bookstore The Happy Duck Bookshop & Readery in Truro, NS, included my novel in her Highlights of 2025 and said if someone asked her to name her book of the year, it would be The Austens. Thank you, Naomi!

When I signed more copies of The Austens at Bookmark recently, I remembered that my devotion to this fabulous independent bookstore on Spring Garden Road in Halifax goes back a very long way.

I checked the acknowledgements page for my PhD dissertation when I got home, and I found a thank you to four specific staff members, Sarah, Mike, Brett, and Nicholas, who had ordered many Austen-related books for me in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Mike (currently the manager) and his staff have ordered many more Austen-related books for me since then, including (most recently) these ones:

Wild for Austen, A Guide to Regency Dress, She Played and Sang, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf

Thank you, dear friends at Bookmark, again and again, for these books and for all you do for readers and writers in this community. Thank you for all your support for my debut novel, which was published here in Nova Scotia by Pottersfield Press.

And thank you to everyone who has bought copies of The Austens from this beloved bookstore in the heart of Halifax. What a joy it’s been to sign books here, from those first pre-orders I signed last August to these ones I signed recently. I still can’t quite believe that my book was Bookmark’s top selling book of 2025.

Speaking of books written in Nova Scotia and published by Nova Scotia publishers, #DefendNSBooks!!

I attended the SPEAK UP! Rally for Arts, Heritage & Culture on Wednesday, to protest the severe cuts proposed in the provincial budget that was announced last week. As I mentioned here earlier this week, I’m deeply concerned about the future of arts and culture and heritage in Nova Scotia. Many thanks to everyone who read what I wrote and decided to join the chorus of voices writing to our Premier about the cuts. I hear you and I appreciate your support—from, for example, Nova Scotia, the United States, Spain, Italy, and other parts of Canada. Thank you!!

I stayed up late the night before the rally to make a sign saying “Defend NS Books” on one side and “Save Prescott House & 11 other precious museums” on the other. Hundreds and hundreds of people gathered outside Province House to share our support for arts and culture and heritage and to encourage the Premier to change his mind and reverse the cuts.

Protesters at Province House carrying signs saying “Culture is Critical: No More Cuts” and “What is Life without Art?”

I’ll close with an excerpt from the letter my grade five teacher, Mrs. McOnie, wrote to the Premier (shared here with her permission). I’ve mentioned her here a few times over the last year or so—she was an inspiration to me when I was ten and she continues to be an inspiration now. Thank you, Mrs. McOnie.

I’m writing to express my concern and sadness over the funding cuts to the arts, books, culture and heritage sectors in your last budget. Very troubling indeed.
I’m ninety years of age, and even though my reading eyes have dimmed, I continue to read and I enjoy receiving a nice painting as much as I ever did. The closing of Museums speaks for itself.
Looking back in History, I think of a time when people risked their very lives to protect the Bible from being destroyed. During the wars in Europe, so much of the art that the world is able to enjoy today, was protected and saved by many who risked their lives. … May common sense prevail!!

If you too would like to write to the Premier, you can find email addresses for him and the Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage and the Minister of Finance on the non-partisan NS Arts Coalition website. Every letter counts!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

Please help protect Nova Scotia’s books, arts and culture, and heritage

A February scrapbook page (Also: #DefendNSBooks!)

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on March 06, 2026 07:30

Please help protect Nova Scotia’s books, arts and culture, and heritage

If you’ve ever enjoyed a visit to Nova Scotia or dreamed of making a trip to our beautiful province, I hope you will consider writing a letter to our Premier to ask him to protect Nova Scotia’s books, arts and culture, and heritage. If you live here, I hope you will join me in writing to our MLAs as well as the Premier. (Email addresses are included below.)

I rarely write about politics, but I’ve spent many years writing about the history of Nova Scotia in non-fiction and fiction and posting online about books written, set, and/or published in Nova Scotia. As a volunteer community organizer, I have (since 2015) supported the work of Project Bookmark Canada, which currently has three Bookmark plaques in our province, honouring brilliant books by Alistair MacLeod, Hugh MacLennan, and Budge Wilson. I take photos of precious historic places—such as Prescott House Museum, a childhood favourite—and the stunning natural landscape of this province to share in this newsletter and on social media.

The library at Prescott House

The Project Bookmark Canada Nova Scotia Reading Circle at the unveiling of the Budge Wilson Bookmark plaque in Halifax last fall

For years, I’ve been encouraging people from all around the world to visit and explore the history of Nova Scotia—for example, through the “Austens in Halifax” walking tour my friend Sheila Johnson Kindred and I created, which highlights the connections between Jane Austen’s family and Nova Scotia. After years of living in Boston, Massachusetts, my family and I chose to return home to Nova Scotia in 2008, in part because of the Austen connections, the fascinating history of this place, and the vibrant arts community.

And now arts and culture, heritage, publishing, and tourism in Nova Scotia are threatened by severe cuts in this year’s provincial budget, announced last week. Many arts organizations, such as the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, are facing significant funding cuts. Many programs, such as the Writers in the Schools Program and the Publishers’ Assistance Program, have been eliminated. Twelve provincial museums, including Prescott House, a National Historic Site and one of the best-preserved Georgian houses in Canada, will be closed. Most of the provincially operated Visitor Information Centres will also be closed, including the one in Port Hastings, where the Bookmark plaque for Alistair MacLeod’s award-winning and internationally famous novel No Great Mischief is located. These cuts were announced abruptly and their devastating effects will be felt throughout the province and beyond its borders for years to come. As the non-partisan NS Arts Coalition says, “These cuts are the most severe we have seen in decades. In an already under-resourced sector, they are catastrophic.”

If you live in Nova Scotia and share these concerns, I hope you will join me in writing—before Wednesday, March 4th—to the Premier; the Minister of Communities, Culture, Heritage and Tourism; the Minister of Finance, and our MLAs to ask that these cuts be reversed.

If you live outside Nova Scotia and share these concerns, I hope you too will write to our Premier (before March 4th) about the value of protecting Nova Scotia’s books, arts and culture, and heritage. You could also cc the Minister of Communities, Culture, Heritage and Tourism and the Minister of Finance.

Email addresses:

PREMIER@novascotia.ca

MIN_CCTH@novascotia.ca

FinanceMinister@novascotia.ca

(The Honourable Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia; The Honourable Dave Ritcey, Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage; The Honourable John Lohr, Minister of Finance)

Find your Nova Scotia MLA here.

Please cc the NS Arts Coalition: advocacy@nsarts.ca

A sample letter is available on the NS Arts Coalition website. Feel free to use it as a template or write your own letter—whatever you prefer.

If you live in Halifax, I hope you’ll consider attending the SPEAK UP! Rally for Arts, Heritage & Culture on Wednesday, March 4th at noon at Province House (1726 Hollis Street). Rallies in other parts of Nova Scotia are listed here.

SPEAK UP! Rally for Arts, Heritage, & Culture on Wednesday, March 4th at noon at Province House

Investing in arts and culture is good for the health of our communities and helps make this a place people want to visit. It’s also good for business. Nova Scotia’s arts and culture sector contributes 2.6 billion in GDP and supports 22,000 jobs, and for every $1 invested in the arts, Canada sees $29 in economic activity (from a Canadian Chamber of Commerce 2025 report).

In last Friday’s newsletter, I mentioned the campaign to #DefendNSBooks. I wasn’t planning to write more about the current situation. But I find I can no longer keep writing posts highlighting the literature of Nova Scotia and its rich history without also sharing this essential information about the provincial budget and these severe cuts.

I would like to see our province continue to offer visitors a warm welcome—in person, not just online—and preserve and share stories about the history of this place and its people. I would like the province of Nova Scotia to continue to invest in books, arts and culture, and heritage. I agree with Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Chair of the Nova Scotia Women’s History Society, who says that “a strong sense of the past is fundamental for strong communities today.”

Thank you in advance for your help, dear readers. I believe our letters can make a difference. Please write.

I took this photo of Prescott House Museum and gardens last September

Part of my collection of books published in Nova Scotia

If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up.

Subscribe

Here are the links to the last two instalments, in case you missed them:

A February scrapbook page (Also: #DefendNSBooks!)

An invitation to join the Friends of St. Paul’s Halifax

CBC Radio Documentary: “Our Jane”

CBC article: “‘Our Jane’: N.S. fans celebrate her 250th birthday, and her Halifax connection”

My debut novel, The Austens, is now available from Pottersfield Press! Order signed copies (personalized, if you wish) from Bookmark (for shipping within Canada) or Woozles (for shipping within Canada and the United States). Order from Jane Austen Books (they’re based in Ohio and accept international orders as well as orders within the United States). The ebook is also available; additional sources are listed here.

View more on Sarah Emsley's website »

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Published on March 02, 2026 08:15