Dundurn Press is thrilled to announce that Persephone’s Children by Rowan McCandless is a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards in the Non-fiction category. This title was published under the Rare Machines imprint, a bold and contemporary imprint of Dundurn Press that seeks to publish works of literary fiction and poetic nonfiction that are playful, unusual, daring, or innovative. Congratulations Rowan!
Rowan McCandless is an award-winning author of fiction and creative non-fiction, and serves as the creative non-fiction editor for The Fiddlehead. She has been longlisted for the Journey Prize, won the Constance Rooke Creative Non-fiction Prize, and received gold for One of a Kind Storytelling at the National Magazine Awards. Rowan lives in Winnipeg.
Persephone’s Children chronicles Rowan McCandless’s odyssey as a Black, biracial woman escaping the stranglehold of a long-term abusive relationship. Through a series of thematically linked and structurally inventive essays, McCandless explores the fraught and fragmented relationship between memory and trauma. Multiple mythologies emerge to bind legacy and loss, motherhood and daughterhood, racism and intergenerational trauma, mental illness and resiliency.
The Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks) celebrate literature and inspire the general public to read books by creators from Canada. They provide finalists and winners with valuable recognition from peers and readers across the country. The winners will be announced online on November 16th, 2022. To learn more about the Governor General’s Literary Awards, click here.