Thurston, Harry 1950–

views updated

Thurston, Harry 1950–

PERSONAL: Born March 3, 1950, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada; son of Kenneth (a carpenter) and Betty (a receptionist) Thurston; married Catherine Rideout (a child psychologist), July 1, 1972; children: Meaghan Ruth. Education: Acadia University, B.Sc., 1971.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Arcade Press, 141 5th Ave., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Canada Manpower Centre, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, youth worker and manpower counselor, 1971–73; farm laborer in Greenfield, Nova Scotia, 1973–75; Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, veterinary research technician, 1975–77; freelance writer, 1977–. Reporter, Farm Focus, 1977–80; writer-in-community, Springhill, Nova Scotia, 1983; instructor in writing poetry and writer-in-residence, St. Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1988. Director, Evelyn Richardson Literary Memorial Trust, 1978–80; chair, Ship's Company Theatre, 1985–87. Has given numerous poetry readings.

MEMBER: Canadian Periodical Publishers Association, League of Canadian Poets, Canadian Science Writers' Association, Periodical Writers' Association of Canada, Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia (executive committee, 1979–81).

AWARDS, HONORS: Dorothy Shoemaker Award for Poetry, Mid-Western Ontario Library System, 1976, for "Professor Out of Work"; author's award for personality feature, Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters, 1982, for feature article "Pratt & Pratt, Christopher and Mary: The First Couple of Canadian Contemporary Art," and author's award for public affairs, for magazine feature "The Enemy Above: People versus Pulp in New Brunswick"; National Magazine Award for Science and Technology, National Magazine Awards Foundation (Canada), 1983, for "The Basque Connection"; explorations grant, Canada Council, 1985, for Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy; Science and Society Award, Canadian Science Writers' Association, 1986, for article "Icebound Eden," 1987, for article "Everlasting Oasis"; author's award, Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters, 1987, for personality profile article; Atlantic Bookseller's Choice Award, 1991, for Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy; City of Dartmouth Book Award, 1991; Evelyn Richardson Memorial Literary Award, 1991; Visionary Award, Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, 1993 and 1994, for increasing public awareness on environmental issues; National Magazine Awards, including silver award, science journalism award, and three Author's Awards.

WRITINGS:

Barefaced Stone (poems), Fiddlehead Poetry Books (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1980.

Clouds Flying before the Eye (poems), Fiddlehead Poetry Books (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1985.

Exploring Change: People and Places (textbook), Douglas & McIntyre (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1989.

Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy (nonfiction), Camden House Publishing (Camden East, Ontario, Canada), 1990.

Atlantic Outposts (essays), Pottersfield Press (Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1990.

Against Darkness and Storm: Lighthouses of Atlantic Canada, Nimbus Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1991.

World of the Shorebirds, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

Building the Bridge to P.E.I., Nimbus Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1998.

The World of the Hummingbird, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1999.

If Men Lived on Earth, Gaspereau Press (Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2000.

The Sea among the Rocks: Travels in Atlantic Canada, Pottersfield Press (East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2002.

Island of the Blessed: The Secrets of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis, Doubleday Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003, published as Secrets of the Sands: The Revelations of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis, Arcade Publishing (New York, NY), 2004.

A Place between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh, Greystone Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2004.

A Ship Portrait: A Novella in Verse, Gaspereau Press (Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2005.

Contributor to books and anthologies, including Ninety Seasons: Modern Poems from the Maritimes, McClelland & Stewart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1974; Canada and the Tropics, edited by Aaron Schneider, University College of Cape Breton (Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1989; and Till All the Stars Have Fallen, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989. Documentary scriptwriter for CBC-TV series Land and Sea. Contributor of articles and poems to periodicals, including Prism International, Audubon, National Geographic, Reader's Digest, Grain, Antigonish Review, and Atlantic Insight. Germination, editor and publisher, 1977–82, publisher, 1982–83; contributing editor, Equinox, 1984–.

SIDELIGHTS: Naturalist Harry Thurston illuminates the mysteries of a strange land in his book Island of the Blessed: The Secrets of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis, which was published in the United States as Secrets of the Sands: The Revelations of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis. Egypt is dominated by the Great Sand Sea, a region that sees rain only every few decades; it is so dry there that most rain showers that do fall evaporate before they hit the ground. Within this desert, however, is a place called the Dakhleh Oasis, a fertile area that has been frequented by people since the early Stone Age. Archaeologists have found artifacts there indicating three major peaks of prosperity in the Dakhleh Oasis. Rock art depicts the changing relationships between man and animals, with evidence of corrals indicating that animals had been domesticated there. The oasis is currently occupied by humans, but in his book Thurston notes that failure to use good water conservation techniques, along with other pressures brought by human beings, may be in the process of setting up another decline. A Kirkus Reviews writer recommended Secrets of the Sands as a volume of "juicy archaeological journalism, brimming with facts and speculation about the deep desert's critical influence on Egyptian history." A Publishers Weekly contributor also found this book valuable, too, although the critic remarked that it might have been even more useful if the author had dwelled less on environmental issues and "focused more on the human history of this incredible area." The mysteries and history of Dakhleh are "fascinating," according to Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor, who credited Thurston's "exploratory spirit and fluid narrative style" with making the book accessible and interesting.

Thurston explored a very different environment in his book A Place between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh. The book is based on the author's yearlong observations of the tidal area near his home in Nova Scotia. He also incorporates his memories of growing up during the 1950s. Taylor, reviewing the volume for Booklist, praised the author's acute, vivid observations and described A Place between the Tides as "a well-considered work."

Thurston, who is also a poet, once told CA: "I live in the oldest part of North America as Westerners know it. To Nova Scotians history is important to their daily lives. People still tell stories here. That oral tradition has led me to speculate that each Nova Scotian has a personal memory that spans one hundred fifty years. The feeling (formed early in childhood) that the past is extant in the present has informed much of my writing. Time—seasonal, historical, and personal—is my natural subject.

"My poetry has a definite quality of rootedness. I describe my first book, Barefaced Stone, as agrarian. In it, I explored my farm-boy background, and it reflected the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 1970s. But as one who came from the land, I heed D.H. Lawrence's charge not 'to idealize the soil.' Today, I live on a thirty-acre farmstead, but I do not farm. My writing does not allow time for that. I am a vegetable gardener.

"My science background has proven useful to me, equally as a poet and a freelance writer. I have not specialized in science writing. In fact, I have found that the best thing about freelancing—certainly it is not the money—is the opportunity it provides to indulge personal interests that in my case run the gamut of natural history: from art and archaeology through ecology, human community, and primary production.

"I have no journalistic training and consider myself a 'writer' rather than a 'journalist.' I believe that this is a useful distinction only if it leads you to explore your own voice. It seems to me that editors, more than anyone, are looking for writers with a way of saying and seeing things, rather than someone who merely trots out techniques and information. In this sense, my discipline as a poet has helped me in the marketplace. The only trick for me is to allow the free-lancing to nourish me, without, at the same time, having it absorb all my creative juices."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1996, Mary Carroll, review of The World of the Shorebirds, p. 632B; October 15, 2003, Gilbert Taylor, review of Secrets of the Sands: The Revelations of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis, p. 386; May 15, 2004, Gilbert Taylor, review of A Place between the Tides: A Naturalist's Reflections on the Salt Marsh, p. 1586.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2003, review of Secrets of the Sands, p. 1066.

Library Journal, November 15, 2003, Edward K. Werner, review of Secrets of the Sands, p. 82.

Publishers Weekly, September 29, 2003, review of Secrets of the Sands, p. 55.

Science News, April 24, 2004, Harry Thurston, review of Secrets of the Sand, p. 271.