Brighten The Corner Where You Are has been Longlisted for 2022
Dublin Literary Awards, and was the winner of the 2021 Miramichi
Reader's "The Very Best!" Book Awards.
A brilliant novel reimagining the life of internationally renowned
folk artist Maud Lewis by an award-winning author.
But I had known since forever that it's colours that keep the world
turning,
that keep a person going.
One glimpse of the tiny painted house that folk art legend Maud Lewis
shared with her husband, Everett, in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, during
the mid-twentieth century and the startling contrast between her joyful
artwork and her life's deprivations is evident. One glimpse at her photo
and you realize, for all her smile's shyness, she must've been one tough
cookie. But, beneath her iconic resilience, who was Maud, really? How
did she manage, holed up in that one-room house with no running water,
married to a miserly man known for his drinking? Was she happy, or was
she miserable? Did painting save or make her Everett's meal ticket? And
then there are the darker secrets that haunt her story: the loss of her
parents, her child, her first love.
Against all odds, Maud Lewis rose above these constraints--and this is
where you'll find the Maud of Brighten the Corner Where You Are
speaking her mind from beyond the grave, freed of the stigmas of gender,
poverty, and disability that marked her life and shaped her art.
Unfettered and feisty as can be, she tells her story her way,
illuminating the darkest corners of her life. In possession of a voice
all her own, Maud demonstrates the agency that hovers within us all.
