In writing this memoir I have drawn on some of my other non-fiction books for information and inspiration: Coyote’s Morning Cry, Lilac Moon, The Perfection of the Morning, and Wild Stone Heart, in which the quotation from Greg Grace originally appeared, on page 129. I also quote a remark by J. M. Coetzee found in David Atwell’s J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing: Face to Face with Time (New York: Viking, 2015), on page 209.
Through all of these books, including this memoir, I have had the good fortune to work with editor Phyllis Bruce CM, to whom I owe tremendous gratitude for her brilliant editor’s eye, her expertise, and her unfailing wisdom. My agent, Jackie Kaiser, has been unflagging and invaluable in her perspicacity and her support. I thank them both.
My son, Sean Hoy, daughter-in-law, Carol, and my two grandchildren, Declan and Maeve, keep me on track. Sean, an actor and writer himself, has always supported me in my work, as I have tried to support him in his. My sisters, Cynthia and Deanna, themselves writers, have provided me with invaluable advice and encouragement, as did our youngest sister, Kathleen, to whom this book is dedicated. I cherish my close bond with our sister Sheila, who died in 1998. I thank all of them for their steadfastness and caring. Our mother, Margaret Amy (Graham) Le Blanc, still speaks in our ears every single day, and I thank her and acknowledge all the ways in which she shaped us. I thank, too, Peter’s mother, Alice Butala, especially for her example of bravery and innovativeness.
About Peter’s great gift to me, I let this book speak.
About the Author
© NEIL SPEERS
SHARON BUTALA is an award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction. Her classic non-fiction work, The Perfection of the Morning, was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award and was a #1 bestseller. Her latest novel, Wild Rose, was a finalist for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. She is the recipient of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and the 2012 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence. In 2002 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.
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ALSO BY SHARON BUTALA
Non-fiction
The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory, and Murder
Lilac Moon: Dreaming of the Real West
Old Man On His Back: Portrait of a Prairie Landscape
Wild Stone Heart: An Apprentice in the Fields
Coyote’s Morning Cry: Meditations & Dreams from a Life in Nature
Harvest
Fiction
Wild Rose
Real Life: Stories
The Garden of Eden
The Fourth Archangel
Upstream
Fever: Stories
Luna
The Gates of the Sun
Queen of the Headaches: Stories
Country of the Heart
Bibliography
Athill, Diana. Somewhere Towards the End. London: Granta, 2008.
Auster, Paul, and Coetzee, J. M. Here and Now: Letters 2008–2011. New York: Viking, 2013.
Butala, Sharon. Coyote’s Morning Cry: Meditations & Dreams from a Life in Nature. Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 1995.
———. Lilac Moon: Dreaming of the Real West. Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2005.
———. The Perfection of the Morning: An Apprenticeship in Nature. Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 1994.
———. Wild Rose. Regina, Saskatchewan: Coteau Books, 2015.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings. London: Penguin Books, 1980.
Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
Drabble, Margaret. The Witch of Exmoor. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
Heilbrun, Carolyn. The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty. New York: The Dial Press, 1997.
Hillman, James. The Force of Character and the Lasting Life. New York: Random House, 1999.
Ingram, Jay. The End of Memory: A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimer’s. Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2015.
Kaye, Frances W. Goodland: A Meditation and History on the Great Plains. Edmonton, Alberta: Athabasca University Press, 2011.
Laurence, Margaret. The Stone Angel. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1964.
McWilliams, Candia. What to Look for in Winter: A Memoir in Blindness. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012. (First published in England by Jonathan Cape, 2010.)
Naipaul, V. S. The Enigma of Arrival: A Novel in Five Sections. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Small, Helen. The Long Life. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Butala, Sharon, 1940-, author
Where I live now / Sharon Butala.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4767-9048-0 (hardback). — ISBN 978-1-4767-9050-3 (ebook)
1. Butala, Sharon, 1940-. 2. Butala, Sharon, 1940– —Homes and haunts—Saskatchewan. 3. Authors, Canadian (English)—20th century— Biography. 4. Women authors, Canadian (English)—20th century— Biography. 5. Prairie Provinces—Biography. 6. Moving, Household— Psychological aspects. 7. Bereavement. I. Title.
PS8553.U6967Z46 2017 C813'54 C2016-904919-1
C2016-904920-5
ISBN 978-1-4767-9048-0
ISBN 978-1-4767-9050-3 (ebook)