The Seaboard Review of Books: A Wednesday Edition
March 4, 2026
In this issue:
Excerpt: The Breakwater by Leslie Shimotakahara (Fiction)
Accomplished BC Poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar Offers Insights & Editing Tips (Interview, Poetry)
Moving Beyond Neat Endings: A Review of Audrey Hyams Romoff’s memoir, The Ripple Eclipse: Turning the Tide of Inherited Trauma (Non-Fiction, Memoir)
Thanks for reading this issue of The Seaboard Review of Books!
James M. Fisher, editor-in-chief
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Moving Beyond Neat Endings: A Review of Audrey Hyams Romoff’s memoir, The Ripple Eclipse: Turning the Tide of Inherited Trauma
Poetry
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True Confessions from the Ninth Concession by Dan Needles
Author and playwright Dan Needles’ rurally-inspired humour columns have appeared in Harrowsmith, Small Farm Canada, In the Hills, Watershed, and other venues. True Confessions from the Ninth Concession, published in 2017, pulls together a selection of Needles’ columns and essays dated from 1997 to 2016. These witty and insightful short pieces discuss a range of topics, including hobby farm livestock hijinks, the joys of puttering, and the idiosyncrasies of old machinery and vehicles, and are largely based on Needles’ experiences as a child spending summers on a farm near Alliston, and as an adult, living on a farm near Collingwood, Ontario.
Needles shares anecdotes about rural family life, reflections on the rural lifestyle past and present, and stories about the supportiveness, strength, and resilience of rural communities. Having lived for a time on a rural property in Dufferin County, I was familiar with many of the places referenced in Needles’ stories, including Duntroon, Creemore, and Rosemont. But Needles’ writing transcends place, and his writing offers plenty of scope for appreciation by fans of rural life and witty humour regardless of where they live. (Contributed by Lisa Timpf)
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