The stories, songs, poems and wisdoms of some of Yarmouth’s brightest authors will be featured in TIDELINES.
The anthology books features 35 local authors, ranging in age from 14 to the late 80’s, all with ties to the Yarmouth community.
Editor Julian Mortimer Smith said so far the community response has been incredible.
“Ever since I’ve moved here I’ve been sort of surprised at how much creativity there is in a small town,” said Smith. “I feel like it punches way above its weight in terms of art and music and theatre, there’s always something going on.”
Smith went on to say despite the exceptional art galleries, exhibitions and other creative endeavours, there wasn’t really an organized outlet for local writers.
Smith and co-editor Laurie Guntzel decided to organize local meetups and founded the group Write Downtown, which quickly gained more traction than even they were expecting. Fairly soon the group had so many writers that they were forced to break off into smaller groups focused on specific interests and genres.
They say many of those writers submitted their work to be published in TIDELINES, but with more than 80 submissions, not all the work could be included.
“We ended up having to say no to some great pieces, which was hard, but also a nice problem to have as the editors,” said Smith. “It means we can pick and choose the stories that really speak to us and work well with the themes of the book as they emerge.”
Smith and Guntzel started the project in May of 2026, put the call out for submissions in July, and closed them on the first week of September.
“For me, this is very much an outgrowth of the writers group,” said Guntzel. “We get to highlight and platform the output of all these creative people. For me it’s been super rewarding, just finding out how excited people are to do this sort of thing.”
Writers who ended up published in TIDELINES were also paid for their contributions, something Guntzel said was important for emerging authors.
“It’s important for people to be compensated in some way and feel that their efforts have value, as artists, as people,” said Guntzel. “Sometimes we do stuff just because it’s our passion, but there’s more to it than that. That was something we felt strongly about was finding a way to make sure people were compensated.”
Guntzel said any money made on the project will go towards recouping the expenses of the project, but that profits will go back into their local writing group, and eventually help fund future projects.
She said that in a perfect world they’ll be able to put together events for guest speakers, workshops and even an event to connect publishers to local writers.
TIDELINES will be on sale online and in local book stores for $20. There will also be a launch event at the Izaak Walton Killam memorial Library in Yarmouth on Saturday Nov. 8 from 2 to 4 p.m..
