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Author Roger Bell

“It’s a book about Port Elgin as much as a book about me,” said Bell, "because it's a setting that played an important part in my early life."

“Candy Cigarettes” takes a fond look back at a happy childhood. The book grew from his realization a couple of years ago, “I should be writing about this.” Even in the summer that he was kept indoors by red measles, he found something to be ‘glad all over’ about: the discovery of new music, ‘She Loves You’. Though his dad wanted him to “play something else for a change,” Bell was too immersed in “Yeah, yeah, yeah” and writes, “... the music was in me like some happy disease.”

Stories in the book recall the days of innocence when no one locked their doors and the 'Market Street Tricycle Gang' could roam their neighbourhood. Readers will find romance at the summer carnival, the competitiveness of trading American baseball cards and the economic gaps in the pre-BNPD (Bruce Nuclear Power) era.

A graduate of the University of Western Ontario on the dean’s list, Bell taught English in Midland and Penetanguishene secondary schools. Since the 1990s, his poetry has appeared in print and in the honours' lists of prestigious competitions. A three-time finalist for the CBC Literary Awards, he won the inaugural Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award in 1997. In 2009, he won the Cyclamens and Swords competition in Israel. This year, his work reached the finals for the Winston Collins/Descant Canadian Poem of the Year.

With four books of poetry in print, he has read in Canada, the USA, and France in venues as diverse as monasteries, coffee houses, and jails. “Candy Cigarettes” is his first book of prose. With student editors at the University of Windsor and publisher Marty Gervais of Black Moss Press, the book that Bell thought of two years ago is now a reality.

With support from the Canada Council for the Arts through The Writers' Union of Canada, Port Elgin Friends of the Library were able to host the hometown launch of “Candy Cigarettes” as part of the Library Live! series of evenings for adults.

Bell talked about, read from, and autographed copies of his books. A portion of the sales  support the Friends’ activities in enhancing the Library’s programs and services. Membership in the charitable group is open to anyone wishing to befriend the 102-year-old Carnegie Library and Bell's book is available at Brucedale Press on Goderich St. in Port Elgin.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011