Nora lives at the edge of the forest in Cumberland, BC. Growing up on Quadra Island, she perfected the art of reading and walking at the same time, and now balances her appetite for books with roaming the woods and beaches of islands, big and small. Nora is a lover of the written word in almost all its forms, and has a particular fondness for dictionaries.
Full disclosure: I am a Traci Skuce fangirl, but because one of the things I love so much about the way she writes is her precision and economy of language, I will do my best to avoid gushing hyperbole. Her first book, Hunger Moon, was published during this strange spring, and I want you to go […]
I grew up in a house where bookshelves reached the ceilings, with cascading spider plants tucked in among the books. Somewhere near the cobwebbed top shelf, a battered copy of M. Wylie Blanchet’s book, The Curve of Time, held court over the other dusty paperbacks. I occasionally read the description on the back, but I […]
Words by Nora BinghamCover painting by Harry Heine
It’s two in the morning. I just turned the last page of Kim Bannerman’s book, Bucket of Blood. I flip through the last few blank pages, hoping for a shred more. Why do those torturous back pages exist?! I re-read the back cover, avoid looking at the clock, and settle into the bittersweet heartache of […]
Escape. Run away. Get lost. Get free. Last winter, when the long stretch of darkness was at its most oppressive, a perfect storm of opportunity provided the light I needed. Cheap flights, an available travel companion, and a soft place to land put me on the path to summer sun on the north island of […]
I have always loved reading, but fell hard for books when I was eight. We were living in an amateur’s converted barn with questionable heat and electricity, and no TV. A friend of my mother’s gave me a dusty cardboard box full of golden-spined classics. It was a bonanza, an embarrassment of riches. Crammed into […]
When I arrived at Material Creative’s studio in Cumberland, an unseasonable rain was falling and the air was cool. Lush gardens led to a building reminiscent of all the hippie shelters of my youth, and I was in love before they opened the rustic double doors. Inside, low tech and high tech were tucked in […]
The first time I ate an heirloom tomato I had my doubts. I was never a tomato lover. I’d seen too many sandwiches go down in the rough seas of a soggy slice, but the heirloom intrigued me. It was mottled pink and green, and was round but unruly. It looked unlike any bloated grocery […]