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Black and Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community
Nova Scotia is the cradle of the Canadian Black community. The last ten years have seen dramatic events in the lives of Black Nova Scotians and Charles Saunders has documented these joys and sorrows, setbacks and triumphs. From the enduring legacy of Africville to the continuing battles to end racism, Saunders examines the lives and circumstances. The book is one man's view of the recent events in a long journey of a community that is small in size but large in spirit.
Charles Saunders is the much-talked-about columnist of the Halifax Daily News who has brought reason and insight to complex public concerns for over a decade.
Charles Saunders is the much-talked-about columnist of the Halifax Daily News who has brought reason and insight to complex public concerns for over a decade.
223 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
12 people want to read
About the author
Charles R. Saunders
62 books188 followersSaunders was born in 1946 in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania and emigrated to Canada in 1970. He has published science fiction and screenplays, two of which have become feature films. Saunders has also written a radio play, as well as other non-fiction works. He later worked as a journalist in Halifax, Nova Scotia and is the author of two recent works of historical non-fiction: Share and Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children and Black and Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community.
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June 24, 2025
𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑵𝒐𝒘! 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑱𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 $𝟓𝟎 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝑭𝑵𝑺’𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑹. 𝑺𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒆. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓, 𝒘𝒆’𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝟏𝟐 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.
Black and Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community.
I recently wrote an introduction for a new edition of Black and Bluenose, which Pottersfield Press will publish this fall. In it, I note that after spending the 1970s and 1980s producing an enormous amount of fiction, Charles published not a single word of fantasy between 1990 and 1999. “Fantasy fans in the United States concluded Charles R. Saunders was dead,” I wrote. “What was Charles doing during that ‘lost’ decade? You’re holding the answer in your hands.”
Charles had landed a job at the Halifax Daily News and soon became one of the most pugnacious pundits our city has ever seen. As I re-read the columns in this book, I was struck by how skilled Charles was at laying out the local problem and connecting it to the deeper issue. I suspect if you read the columns of his peers, you would cringe at their outdated ideas, or plain wonder what they heck they were talking about. That never happens here. The deep-seeing vision that guided his fantasy quest guided his nonfiction writing, too. He has been fully vindicated on some fronts, like Africville, so that what he writes now seems obvious to us. On other issues, like education, we are still far behind Charles. Another thing happened to Charles during this time: he fell in love. He met and married an African Nova Scotian woman in 1986 and their bond brought him into the heart of Africadia. He felt a powerful duty to use his elite writing talent to put forth the case for the people who had adopted him.
From our Nova Scotia perspective, the mysterious disappearance actually followed this book: Charles stopped writing his column in 2000. He stopped writing nonfiction books about Africadia. His marriage ended. He withdrew into private life. He still had to work, though, and that’s how I met him when I became a copy editor on the Daily News in 2006. I knew him from his legendary column and was delighted to start working the night shift with him. He was kind, funny, and very good at editing. I don’t think I ever got one of my edited pages past his keen eye without a few red marks. When the paper shut down in 2008, it shocked us all and bonded us for a lifetime.
Earlier this year, the British publisher Gollancz brought Imaro back to life in a beautiful new edition. They plan to publish the full series – including book five. And Pottersfield Press will publish this wonderful new edition of his classic nonfiction book, Black and Bluenose. Whether you are a fantasy fan discovering his nonfiction, or a fan of his nonfiction first hearing about his fantasy, know this: his words change lives.
Black and Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community.
I recently wrote an introduction for a new edition of Black and Bluenose, which Pottersfield Press will publish this fall. In it, I note that after spending the 1970s and 1980s producing an enormous amount of fiction, Charles published not a single word of fantasy between 1990 and 1999. “Fantasy fans in the United States concluded Charles R. Saunders was dead,” I wrote. “What was Charles doing during that ‘lost’ decade? You’re holding the answer in your hands.”
Charles had landed a job at the Halifax Daily News and soon became one of the most pugnacious pundits our city has ever seen. As I re-read the columns in this book, I was struck by how skilled Charles was at laying out the local problem and connecting it to the deeper issue. I suspect if you read the columns of his peers, you would cringe at their outdated ideas, or plain wonder what they heck they were talking about. That never happens here. The deep-seeing vision that guided his fantasy quest guided his nonfiction writing, too. He has been fully vindicated on some fronts, like Africville, so that what he writes now seems obvious to us. On other issues, like education, we are still far behind Charles. Another thing happened to Charles during this time: he fell in love. He met and married an African Nova Scotian woman in 1986 and their bond brought him into the heart of Africadia. He felt a powerful duty to use his elite writing talent to put forth the case for the people who had adopted him.
From our Nova Scotia perspective, the mysterious disappearance actually followed this book: Charles stopped writing his column in 2000. He stopped writing nonfiction books about Africadia. His marriage ended. He withdrew into private life. He still had to work, though, and that’s how I met him when I became a copy editor on the Daily News in 2006. I knew him from his legendary column and was delighted to start working the night shift with him. He was kind, funny, and very good at editing. I don’t think I ever got one of my edited pages past his keen eye without a few red marks. When the paper shut down in 2008, it shocked us all and bonded us for a lifetime.
Earlier this year, the British publisher Gollancz brought Imaro back to life in a beautiful new edition. They plan to publish the full series – including book five. And Pottersfield Press will publish this wonderful new edition of his classic nonfiction book, Black and Bluenose. Whether you are a fantasy fan discovering his nonfiction, or a fan of his nonfiction first hearing about his fantasy, know this: his words change lives.
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