The Light That Remains shortlisted for 2016 Danuta Gleed Award

The Writers' Union of Canada announced the short list for the 2016 Danuta Gleed Award on May 2, 2017.  The Award recognizes the best first collection of short fiction by a Canadian author in the English language.  The jury consisted of Caroline Adderson, Judy Fong Bates and David Bergen.

Jury comment for The Light That Remains

Through the brutal lens of war, the stories in The Light that Remains span the twentieth century and travel the globe. Readers are caught up in the lives of innocent people in Armenia, the Ukraine, Hong Kong, France, Cambodia, and Rwanda, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the harrowing cruelties of war. With clear, elegant prose and a compassionate voice, Lyse Champagne explores loss, love, kindness, hope, despair, the need to survive. In so doing, she forces into the reader’s heart a deeper understanding of the anguish and strength that resides in the human spirit when worlds are shattered beyond recognition.

Kingston Launch at Novel Idea

Novel Idea Bookstore
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Novel Idea will be hosting the Kingston launch of The Light That Remains on Tuesday, November 22, 2016, starting at 7 PM. Lyse will read excerpts from her stories and answer questions from the audience, before signing copies by request. Refreshments will be served.

In keeping with a tradition started with the Ottawa launch, Lyse will donate a portion of royalties from books sold at this event to a charity supporting refugees in the local community. We hope you will come out in great numbers to mingle with other book lovers and to support a worthwhile cause.

Music Inspired by The Light That Remains

Christine Donkin has composed six solo piano pieces inspired by each of the stories in The Light That Remains.  Three of the pieces will be played by Elaine Keillor at a concert put on by Amberwood Concerts on October 1, 2016 at 3 p.m.  97 Amberwood Avenue.  More details can be found on their FaceBook page. 

Elaine Keillor will also play these pieces at the Musical Arts Club of Ottawa Gala on October 22, at 7h30 p.m. at MacKay United Church.  More details can be found here

The Winnipeg Review

Amy Attas reflects on The Light That Remains in the Winnipeg Review:

A labyrinth, as I understand it, is a maze where every path leads to the prize; there are no dead ends. Walking a labyrinth is said to be illuminating, as the combination of forward movement and a simple route drops the participant into meditation. Place Canada, with all its faults, at the centre. Each path is a story that explains who we are. In high-school history, I walked the path of the Iroquois and Huron, the English and the French. But Canada is more than that. It is the Armenians in Montreal who were deported by the Ottomans during the First World War. It is the Ukrainians in Manitoba who were systematically starved out of the Soviet Union. The Chinese in Vancouver who escaped the Japanese army in World War II. Lyse Champagne’s collection of stories, The Light That Remains, is a diary of modern Canada, a labyrinth that guides readers to a deeper understanding of this country. As in walking a labyrinth, the reader can relax, trusting Champagne’s deft writing to guide us towards what it might mean to be Canadian.

Read the whole review.