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2024 James H. Gray Awards for Short Nonfiction
A beautiful evening celebrating the incredible writing talent in the province of Alberta. Congratulations to all finalists, and a shout out to Patti Edgar and Thomas Wharton in my own non-fiction / essay category.
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New Sudden Fiction in Queens Quarterly
Check out my newest short-story in the spring issue of Queen’s Quarterly. It was fun to write and return to the Himalayan landscape.
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New Story in fillingStation
Check out my new short-story in issue #83 of fillingStation Magazine. My thanks to fiction editor Tasnuva Hayden for taking a chance on this linguistically-playful story. Check out the other contributors and work in this Language themed issued. https://fillingstation.myshopify.com/products/filling-station-issue-82 The LANGUAGE issue, featuring new work from: Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Matthew Barron, James Braun, Megan Callahan, Douglas Cole, paulo da costa, Jaimie Franchi, Ed Go, Erina Harris, Henry Heavyshield, Chris Hutchinson, Daze Jefferies, Sophia Lengle, Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi, Cassandra Myers, Shane Neilson, Steve Noyes, Coco Owen, kerry rawlinson, Nnadi Samuel, Tosh Sherkat, David Sheskin, Liam Strong, Sara Truuvert, and Xen Virtue. Cover art by Jacob James Bews.
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Short-listed for the 2024 WGA James H. Gray Award
Congratulations to the finalists and to everyone who had works submitted to the 2024 Alberta Literary Awards. My essay, The Stones that Anchor Us, and published in 2023 by Queen’s Quarterly has been short-listed for: James H. Gray Awards for Short Nonfiction paulo da costa – The Stones that Anchor Us (Queens Quarterly) Patti Edgar – Ascending in a Hotel Conference Room (The Dalhousie Review) Thomas Wharton – Cat Fox Neutrino (Hazlitt) This essay is included in my new book, Trust the Bluer Skies. Thank you to the Writers’ Guild of Alberta for hosting these awards, than you to the many funders that ensure the continuity of these prizes. @writersguildab…
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Foreword Magazine Review
AUTOBIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR Trust the Bluer Skies : Meditations on Fatherhood paulo da costa, University of Regina Press Softcover $24.95 (256pp) 978-0-88977-995-2 paulo da costa’s heartbreaking memoir Trust the Bluer Skies is a bittersweet ode to memories of lost times and places. The book explores da costa’s relationship with his four-year-old son, Koah, during a months- long, pivotal trip from Canada to da costa’s birth- place in rural Portugal, undertaken in an effort to expose Koah to his heritage and extended family life. The book is intentional in considering how traditions are passed from one generation to another, as from a loving father to his son. In Portugal, da costa…
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Review of Bluer Skies by Lindsay Wincherauk
audio and written review – click to view
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New Creative Essay
Please check out my creative essay, The Stones That Anchor Us in this just-released issue of Queen’s Quarterly. This text explores the Xmas eve traditions in my family, and also broadly shared by many in this northern area of Portugal. Enjoy. https://www.queensu.ca/quarterly/stones-anchor-us
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The Midwife of Torment & Other Stories by Paulo da Costa
Book Review in Prairie Fire Jul 25, 2018 The author’s subtitle, “60 Sudden Fictions,” illuminates much of what a reader experiences in delving into Midwife of Torment: having entire life-narratives sprung fully grown upon the sensibilities, like Athena’s delivery from her father Zeus’s head to relieve a massive migraine. Spread out among six sections, da Costa’s fictions vary from mere flashes of life, mostly as tormented as the title suggests, to fleshed-out nightmare conflicts. These fictions never occupy more than three or four pages of the collection, yet some require days of mulling to decipher their word-codes. Luckily, the undertaking yields deep-seated surprises and sometimes sheer delights, and turns out…
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Giving Away 20 copies of Trust the Bluer Skies
Goodreads Book Giveaway Trust the Bluer Skies by paulo da costa Giveaway ends March 03, 2024. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway
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James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction
Alberta has just made my writing a little more visible by honouring me with another award for non-fiction. Jury Remarks: “Enclosures” is a skilful study of the environment and the self as both manipulated and restricted by complex cultural expectations and the background of a fascist government. The elegant prose and moving scenes frame a beautiful story of struggling with the idea of freedom for humans and animals alike. The second-person narrative was an effective and touching way for Da Costa to expound his feelings about raising and eating animals all while dancing between history and tradition, childhood and adulthood, revolution and freedom. My congratulations to Kyra and Marcello (who…
