First Snow, Last Light
Award-winning author Wayne Johnston was born in the small town of Goulds, Newfoundland. Like so many from Atlantic Canada - has tracked his heritage to both Scotland and Ireland. “I have traced myself back to the people sent from Scotland to Ireland after the clearances,” explains the mild-mannered writer over the phone. “We were then sent to County Antrim. So, my people would have started out Scottish and then intermingled with the Northern Irish.” Although, today, Johnson is household name in Canadian literature, writing was not always on his agenda. “I started out - as was suggested to me by both my parents and our parish priest where I grew up - on the path of priesthood,” he scoffs. “In high school I realized that was not what I wanted, so I cooked up the idea of being a doctor instead. “Then it became time to start medical school, and I realized I didn’t want to do that either. I had to break the news to my parents that it wasn’t going to be in the priesth...