Bone Bird

by Darlene Barry Quaife

Bone Bird (1989) received a Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Set in the rain-drenched, dying logging town of Tanis Bay on Vancouver Island, it is the story of a young woman, Aislinn Cleary, struggling to find hope for the future while burdened with the responsibility of a dying mother and a family store.

234 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2011

About the author

Bio: Darlene Barry Quaife

Darlene Barry Quaife’s novel Bone Bird won a Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her novel Days & Nights on the Amazon was voted A Book for Everybody by the Canadian Booksellers Association. Death Writes: A Curious Notebook, a book of popular culture on a ubiquitous theme, has been called “An insightful avant-Goth perspective – the world according to Death.” Quaife’s first genre novel, Polar Circus, is a thriller and appears under the name D. A. Barry. Polar Circus was short-listed for the Writers Guild of Alberta, Georges Bugnet Novel Award. As a freelance writer, she has contributed to newspapers, magazines and journals.

Quaife's long list of published short stories includes contributions to such magazines as AlbertaViews, Border Crossings, Descant, Grain, Prairie Fire and to The Banff Centre Press anthology: Intersections: Fiction and Poetry from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Since participating in the Radio Drama Program at the Banff Centre, Quaife has had a radio play produced by CKUA. As well, she was selected a PetroCanada Stage One playwright by LunchBox Theatre.

In addition, Darlene Quaife is a founding director of WordFest: The Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival, and a Past Vice-President and President of the Writers Guild of Alberta.

Ms. Quaife has many years of experience as a writer, editor, mentor and writing instructor at The University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, Drumheller Penitentiary and as an Electronic Writer In Residence to Canadian High Schools.

Darlene Quaife has a B.A.(Honours) in English and a M.A. in English, specializing in Creative Writing


Reviews

[Luce Cronin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what it is about this novel. The prose is lovely and often very lyrical. But the train of thought/theme/story just did not hang together for me. I also found that I could not believe the characters as real, and found them all too juvenile and predictable. This novel won first prize for best first novel in the Canadian region. I really don't understand how that happened.