Publications
Glass Houses: Saving Feminist Anti-Violence Agencies from Self-Destruction
Written by Rebekkah Adams, Published by Fernwood Books
A critical analysis examining why women’s anti-violence agencies implode and the roots of the dysfunction bred within the internal dynamics and current structures. This book is designed to incite creative discussion, debate, and creation of new healthy feminist models designed to support this unique field of work.
Written by Rebekkah Adams, Published by Fernwood Publishing, 2009
Nana Underhill’s intoxicated plan to run Lily over with her car seemed like a good idea at the time. Having slept with Lily’s husband, she needed to ease her guilt with an act of kindness—however bizarre. The accident would bring Lily’s husband racing to the scene and back into Lily’s affections.
But when Mark fails to show up as planned, the staged accident backfires and Nana has to pull Lily from a pool of blood and take her to hospital herself. Then Daryl, the husband of their eccentric friend Alice—who spends afternoons sitting on the front porch with her mannequin Delane—finds a severed hand in the middle of a rural Ontario highway. He scrapes it off the road with a snow brush and puts it in a cereal box for safekeeping.
Who the severed hand belongs to is only the first challenge for small town detective Harris Cool. Why the hand was severed in the first place sends him on a chilling journey into the complexities of one woman’s tortured past. Only when Cool confronts his own demons—and when Lily’s crazy mother Carol reveals hers—do Nana and Lily come to the startling truth about their own fractious relationship.
Threads: Piecing Together the Underground Railroad
Written & Illustrated by Bonita Johnson de Matteis, Published by the Ginger Press
When she was growing up, the author/illustrator Bonita Johnson de Matteis recalls that the patches, rags and leftover fabrics were called “goods” by her Grandmother. Raised by her Gramma, Bonita and her siblings were like these lost pieces of fabric… a unique blend of threads sewn into a heroic family legacy of free slaves and courageous Europeans.
This story is a thread from Gramma Susan (Earls) Johnson Wilson to her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The Lady of the Cat
Written by Brian Barrie, Illustrated by Bonita Johnson de Matteis, Published by the Ginger Press
This story was born from the bed-time curiosity of our children: “Dad, how did the stars come to live in the night sky? What are the Northern Lights?” And so I told them. As Talya, Morgan and Alexa grew, the “tellings” grew. After an inspiring visit to the caves at Lascaux, the story changed shape again. And of course, Bonita’s remarkable paintings have added more layers than I thought possible. Now Talya, Morgan and Alexa will be able to share this telling of The Lady of the Cat with their children. And that’s how life and nature should be – a repeating of mystery, discovery and magic.
- Brian Barry, February 2009
The Neighbour That Wasn’t
Written by Brian Barrie, Illustrated by Bonita Johnson de Matteis
Available at the Ginger Press, Owen Sound
Lest We Forget
Written and Designed by Bonita Johnson de Matteis