Harry Thurston
Biography
Harry Thurston - photo courtesy of the author
Harry Thurston was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on March 3rd, 1950, and graduated in 1971 from Acadia University with a Bachelor’s degree in science. Biology was his main focus.
Thurston is the author of more than two dozen books and he has published a number of periodicals and journals such as: Audubon, Canadian Geographic, International Wildlife and National Geographic. He also acted as the contributing editor of Equinox and Harrowsmith Magazine for two decades. Harry Thurston has won a number of awards for his writings including: A National Magazine Award for Science and Technology, two Science and Society awards from the Canadian Science Writers Association, and a Public Affairs award, from the Foundation of the Advancement of Canadian Letters. He’s won four Evelyn Richardson Awards for his non-fiction books focusing on environmental issues, among other awards.
Along with his many publications and awards, Thurston has taught poetry writing at Saint Mary’s University, magazine writing in the School of Journalism at the University of Kings College and held writer residencies at Acadia University, Mount Allison University and Dalhousie University. He also served as Chair of The Writer’s Union of Canada. Thurston recieved an honorary Doctor of Literature from his alma mater, Acadia University, in 2013. In 2020, Thurston was also honoured by St. Thomas University by receiving an Honorary Doctor of Letters, which he said: “It’s very gratifying to have your life’s work acknowledged in that way”. Outside of his writing, he has been quite involved in conservation initiatives, to help his home province Nova Scotia achieve its Protected Areas’s goal.
Thurston is the author of more than two dozen books and he has published a number of periodicals and journals such as: Audubon, Canadian Geographic, International Wildlife and National Geographic. He also acted as the contributing editor of Equinox and Harrowsmith Magazine for two decades. Harry Thurston has won a number of awards for his writings including: A National Magazine Award for Science and Technology, two Science and Society awards from the Canadian Science Writers Association, and a Public Affairs award, from the Foundation of the Advancement of Canadian Letters. He’s won four Evelyn Richardson Awards for his non-fiction books focusing on environmental issues, among other awards.
Along with his many publications and awards, Thurston has taught poetry writing at Saint Mary’s University, magazine writing in the School of Journalism at the University of Kings College and held writer residencies at Acadia University, Mount Allison University and Dalhousie University. He also served as Chair of The Writer’s Union of Canada. Thurston recieved an honorary Doctor of Literature from his alma mater, Acadia University, in 2013. In 2020, Thurston was also honoured by St. Thomas University by receiving an Honorary Doctor of Letters, which he said: “It’s very gratifying to have your life’s work acknowledged in that way”. Outside of his writing, he has been quite involved in conservation initiatives, to help his home province Nova Scotia achieve its Protected Areas’s goal.
All my life I have been returning there,
in dreams to that first place¬–home,
a farmhouse on a hill above a river,
above the attic, to a secret room–in the air?
I first went there out of loneliness
(even then it seems), a room filled with children,
like me seeking solace. An old woman
dressed in black, like Whistler’s mother, watched over us.
In the old house was such a place, a crawl space
behind the book case where one could hide,
look out through the books, spy on the living,
what a writer does from the beginning.
The house, the one in dreams, is never the same.
Sometimes it is abandoned, a disaster;
I pick my way through crumbling lathe and plaster,
up decrepit back stairs, seeking the upper room.
There is no getting there from here. If there were,
what would I find–the children grown old,
the old woman in black gone, my way barred?
All my life I will be returning, but where?
Published in Animals Of My Own Kind. Signal Editions, 2009.
Republished here with the author's permission.
in dreams to that first place¬–home,
a farmhouse on a hill above a river,
above the attic, to a secret room–in the air?
I first went there out of loneliness
(even then it seems), a room filled with children,
like me seeking solace. An old woman
dressed in black, like Whistler’s mother, watched over us.
In the old house was such a place, a crawl space
behind the book case where one could hide,
look out through the books, spy on the living,
what a writer does from the beginning.
The house, the one in dreams, is never the same.
Sometimes it is abandoned, a disaster;
I pick my way through crumbling lathe and plaster,
up decrepit back stairs, seeking the upper room.
There is no getting there from here. If there were,
what would I find–the children grown old,
the old woman in black gone, my way barred?
All my life I will be returning, but where?
Published in Animals Of My Own Kind. Signal Editions, 2009.
Republished here with the author's permission.
Critical Analysis
Danya Sullivan (Advanced Poetry 2021)
Harry Thurston’s poem “Returning” is a reflection on the first place he called home and the time he spent there as a child. This poem suggests that the place you remember is not the same as the one you return to/visit in your dreams and poses the question: Where then are you returning to? It also suggests that as children we see things in one way but as adults, we unlock new understandings.
“Returning” opens the first stanza with “All my life I have been returning there, / in dreams to that first place–home,” (Thurston 1-2), setting up the theme of dreams versus memory. The choice to use a first-person point of view in this poem ensures a very personal touch. In the final line of the first stanza, there’s a shift, though, from an adult reminiscence to child-like wonder. “above the attic to a secret room–in the air?” (4): this question adds a whimsical effect to the poem because as an adult it’s clear that there’s no room in the air, but a child might propose that there is, out of imagination.
These next lines are a good example of how the author’s perspective and understanding has changed as he’s reached adulthood. By exploring the meaning behind going to this place he called home:
I first went there out of loneliness
(even then it seems), a room filled with children,
like me seeking solace. (5-7)
Putting parentheses around the words “even then it seems” shows that he has reflected in his adult life on what he did as a child and that he has reevaluated why he came to this place. This is also evident in the next line because children don’t usually analyze and compare other children to themselves. However, as people age, they tend to reanalyze events and important moments in their past as shown in this poem.
The line “The house, the one in dreams, is never the same” brings back into focus how in dreams, places are never the same and suggest they differ not only from one dream to next, but from the reality of the place itself (13). He goes on to note“There is no getting there from here,” in direct contrast to the line above, making the suggestion that he can’t return to the place at all, the flowing lines help support this notion (17).
If there were,
what would I find–the children grown old,
the old woman in black gone, my way barred? (17-19)
These lines support the notion that, for the author, returning home is not possible. They also suggest that he doesn’t want to go home again because it wouldn’t be the same place he left all that time ago. Rather, it would be a sad imitation of a once wonderful place, decayed by time and the loss of childhood innocence. Still, he can’t deny that throughout the rest of his life he will keep returning to this place he once called home; he just doesn’t know what that place really is anymore: “All my life I will be returning, but where?” (20).
Work cited for analysis:
Thurston, Harry. “Returning.” Animals Of My Own Kind. Signal Editions, 2009. pp. 118.
Harry Thurston’s poem “Returning” is a reflection on the first place he called home and the time he spent there as a child. This poem suggests that the place you remember is not the same as the one you return to/visit in your dreams and poses the question: Where then are you returning to? It also suggests that as children we see things in one way but as adults, we unlock new understandings.
“Returning” opens the first stanza with “All my life I have been returning there, / in dreams to that first place–home,” (Thurston 1-2), setting up the theme of dreams versus memory. The choice to use a first-person point of view in this poem ensures a very personal touch. In the final line of the first stanza, there’s a shift, though, from an adult reminiscence to child-like wonder. “above the attic to a secret room–in the air?” (4): this question adds a whimsical effect to the poem because as an adult it’s clear that there’s no room in the air, but a child might propose that there is, out of imagination.
These next lines are a good example of how the author’s perspective and understanding has changed as he’s reached adulthood. By exploring the meaning behind going to this place he called home:
I first went there out of loneliness
(even then it seems), a room filled with children,
like me seeking solace. (5-7)
Putting parentheses around the words “even then it seems” shows that he has reflected in his adult life on what he did as a child and that he has reevaluated why he came to this place. This is also evident in the next line because children don’t usually analyze and compare other children to themselves. However, as people age, they tend to reanalyze events and important moments in their past as shown in this poem.
The line “The house, the one in dreams, is never the same” brings back into focus how in dreams, places are never the same and suggest they differ not only from one dream to next, but from the reality of the place itself (13). He goes on to note“There is no getting there from here,” in direct contrast to the line above, making the suggestion that he can’t return to the place at all, the flowing lines help support this notion (17).
If there were,
what would I find–the children grown old,
the old woman in black gone, my way barred? (17-19)
These lines support the notion that, for the author, returning home is not possible. They also suggest that he doesn’t want to go home again because it wouldn’t be the same place he left all that time ago. Rather, it would be a sad imitation of a once wonderful place, decayed by time and the loss of childhood innocence. Still, he can’t deny that throughout the rest of his life he will keep returning to this place he once called home; he just doesn’t know what that place really is anymore: “All my life I will be returning, but where?” (20).
Work cited for analysis:
Thurston, Harry. “Returning.” Animals Of My Own Kind. Signal Editions, 2009. pp. 118.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Barrett, Wayne and Thurston, Harry. Against Darkness and Storm: Lighthouses of the Northeast. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus, 1993.
---. The Atlantic Canada Nature Guide. Toronto, Key Porter Books, 1998.
Barrett, Wayne, MacKay, Ann, and Thurston, Harry. Building the Bridge to P.E.I. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus Pub. 1998.
Holownia, Thaddeus, and Thurston Harry. Ova Aves. Jolicure, New Brunswick, Anchorage Press, 2011.
---. Silver Ghost: Photography. Jolicure, New Brunswick, Anchorage Press, 2008.
Thurston, Harry. Animals Of My Own Kind: New and Selected Poems. Montreal, Quebec, Signal Editions, 2009.
---. The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History. Vancouver, Greystone Books, 2011.
---. Atlantic Outposts. Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 1990.
---. Barefaced Stone. Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1980.
---. Broken Vessel: Thirty-five Days in the Desert. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2007.
---. Clouds Flying Before the Eye. Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fiddlehead Poetry Books: Goose Lane Editions, 1985.
---. The Deer Yard: A Winter Cycle. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press Limited Printer & Publishers, 2013.
---.“The Earth Remembers, Auction, Pasture Rock Prodigy, Carpenter’s Love for Wood, The Circle of the Shroud, Reticence, and Fingerprint.” Chezzetcook : An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and Fiction from Atlantic Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1977.
---. “Fingerprint.” Easterly: 60 Atlantic Writers. Academic Press Canada, 1983.
---. “Fingerprint.” Till all the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children. Kids Can Press, 1989.
---. “Greenself.” Scroll. Wombat Press, 1980.
---. “The habits of bears.” Tributaries, an Anthology, Writer to Writer. Mosaic Press; Ottawa: Valley Editions, 1978.
---. If Men Lived on Earth. Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2000.
---. Keeping Watch at the End of the World. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2015.
---. “Lost River: The Water of Remembrance.” A Plague Year Reader: Being A Sampler of Books Issued by Gaspereau Press in the Complicated Year 2020. Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers, 2021.
---. Lost River: The Waters of Remembrance. Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2020.
---. The Nature of Shorebirds: Nomad of the Wetlands. Greystone Books, 1996.
---. A Place Between Tides: A Naturalist’s Reflections on Salt Marsh. Berkeley, Vancouver, Greystone Books, 2004.
---. Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Edited by Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross Leckie, Robin McGrath. Goose Lane Editions, 2002.
---. Poetic Voices of the Maritimes: A Selection of Contemporary Poetry. Lancelot Press, 1996.
---. Working in the Dark: Homage to John Thompson by Peter Sanger and Thaddeus Holownia. Anchorage Press, 2014.
---. The Sea Among the Rocks: Travels in Atlantic Canada. East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 2002.
---. The Sea’s Voice: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Nature Writing. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus Pub. 2005.
---. A Ship Portrait: A Novella-in-Verse. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2005.
---. Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy. Ontario, Camden House Pub. 1990.
Thurston, Harry, and Thaddeus, Holownia. Icarus: Falling of Birds: A Poem. Jolicure, New Brunswick, Anchorage Press, 2017.
Secondary Sources:
Adams, J. Trevor, and Clare, Patrick Stephen. “Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books.” Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus, 2009.
Armstrong, Tammy Lynn. “Atlantic Canada's Poetic Menagerie : Animal Presence in the Poetry of John Thompson, Don Domanski, John Steffler, and Harry Thurston.” Fredericton, New Brunswick, University of New Brunswick, 2014.
Campbell, Wanda. "Harry Thurston and 'the jigsaw of our blue geography.'" Acadiensis, 2018.
La Rocque, Lance. "Breathing Books, Deranged Bodies: Reading and Writing Landscapes in the Poetry of Harry Thurston." ISLE, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. Vol. 10, no. 1, Winter 2003, pp. 115-135.
Serrano, Leonor Maria Martinez. "The Multitudinous Sparseness of Space in Harry Thurston's Broken Vessel." Roczniki Humanistyczne. Vol. LXVIII, no. 11, 2020, pp. 161-179.
Szabo-Jones, Lisa. “Interview of Harry Thurston.” The Goose, vol. 9, Summer 2011, pp. 80–93
Barrett, Wayne and Thurston, Harry. Against Darkness and Storm: Lighthouses of the Northeast. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus, 1993.
---. The Atlantic Canada Nature Guide. Toronto, Key Porter Books, 1998.
Barrett, Wayne, MacKay, Ann, and Thurston, Harry. Building the Bridge to P.E.I. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus Pub. 1998.
Holownia, Thaddeus, and Thurston Harry. Ova Aves. Jolicure, New Brunswick, Anchorage Press, 2011.
---. Silver Ghost: Photography. Jolicure, New Brunswick, Anchorage Press, 2008.
Thurston, Harry. Animals Of My Own Kind: New and Selected Poems. Montreal, Quebec, Signal Editions, 2009.
---. The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History. Vancouver, Greystone Books, 2011.
---. Atlantic Outposts. Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 1990.
---. Barefaced Stone. Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1980.
---. Broken Vessel: Thirty-five Days in the Desert. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2007.
---. Clouds Flying Before the Eye. Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fiddlehead Poetry Books: Goose Lane Editions, 1985.
---. The Deer Yard: A Winter Cycle. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press Limited Printer & Publishers, 2013.
---.“The Earth Remembers, Auction, Pasture Rock Prodigy, Carpenter’s Love for Wood, The Circle of the Shroud, Reticence, and Fingerprint.” Chezzetcook : An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and Fiction from Atlantic Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1977.
---. “Fingerprint.” Easterly: 60 Atlantic Writers. Academic Press Canada, 1983.
---. “Fingerprint.” Till all the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children. Kids Can Press, 1989.
---. “Greenself.” Scroll. Wombat Press, 1980.
---. “The habits of bears.” Tributaries, an Anthology, Writer to Writer. Mosaic Press; Ottawa: Valley Editions, 1978.
---. If Men Lived on Earth. Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2000.
---. Keeping Watch at the End of the World. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2015.
---. “Lost River: The Water of Remembrance.” A Plague Year Reader: Being A Sampler of Books Issued by Gaspereau Press in the Complicated Year 2020. Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers, 2021.
---. Lost River: The Waters of Remembrance. Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2020.
---. The Nature of Shorebirds: Nomad of the Wetlands. Greystone Books, 1996.
---. A Place Between Tides: A Naturalist’s Reflections on Salt Marsh. Berkeley, Vancouver, Greystone Books, 2004.
---. Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Edited by Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross Leckie, Robin McGrath. Goose Lane Editions, 2002.
---. Poetic Voices of the Maritimes: A Selection of Contemporary Poetry. Lancelot Press, 1996.
---. Working in the Dark: Homage to John Thompson by Peter Sanger and Thaddeus Holownia. Anchorage Press, 2014.
---. The Sea Among the Rocks: Travels in Atlantic Canada. East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 2002.
---. The Sea’s Voice: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Nature Writing. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus Pub. 2005.
---. A Ship Portrait: A Novella-in-Verse. Kentville, Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press, 2005.
---. Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy. Ontario, Camden House Pub. 1990.
Thurston, Harry, and Thaddeus, Holownia. Icarus: Falling of Birds: A Poem. Jolicure, New Brunswick, Anchorage Press, 2017.
Secondary Sources:
Adams, J. Trevor, and Clare, Patrick Stephen. “Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books.” Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus, 2009.
Armstrong, Tammy Lynn. “Atlantic Canada's Poetic Menagerie : Animal Presence in the Poetry of John Thompson, Don Domanski, John Steffler, and Harry Thurston.” Fredericton, New Brunswick, University of New Brunswick, 2014.
Campbell, Wanda. "Harry Thurston and 'the jigsaw of our blue geography.'" Acadiensis, 2018.
La Rocque, Lance. "Breathing Books, Deranged Bodies: Reading and Writing Landscapes in the Poetry of Harry Thurston." ISLE, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. Vol. 10, no. 1, Winter 2003, pp. 115-135.
Serrano, Leonor Maria Martinez. "The Multitudinous Sparseness of Space in Harry Thurston's Broken Vessel." Roczniki Humanistyczne. Vol. LXVIII, no. 11, 2020, pp. 161-179.
Szabo-Jones, Lisa. “Interview of Harry Thurston.” The Goose, vol. 9, Summer 2011, pp. 80–93
