Co-authors Trevor Adams and Stephen Patrick Clare are on a mission to make sure you know about the best in Atlantic Canadian literature.

Over the last 18 months, the pair have read hundreds of books from authors in the four Atlantic provinces, and with the help of local experts, have created a new book titled Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books.  

“We were really touched by how much people cared about these books,” Clare, a Halifax freelance writer with over 120 publications to his credit, said this week. “One old lady sent us an email telling us that we had kept her up all night because she couldn’t decide what her favourite was. One guy sent in a top-60 because he refused to do a top-10 list.”

The two sent out over 700 lists to regional book experts looking for each person’s top-10 list. Each time a book was mentioned on someone’s list it was counted as a vote, and from there, a top-100 list was decided.

One Dartmouth man submitted his self-published book from 30 different Hotmail accounts. But that couldn’t match Alistair MacLeod’s No Great Mischief for top spot. L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables came a close second.

The pair were bursting with trivia earlier this week as they spoke to Metro. Clare explained Montgomery is bigger in Japan than Canada. Clare also discussed the revelation of reading The Birth House by Amy McKay, amazed by her emotional complexity and what powerful female writers have emerged from the Atlantic provinces.

“We are pretty passionate about Canadian literature and want to share that,” said Adams, the editor of Halifax Magazine.

“We wanted people to recognize the great things that are happening here. There is a really good representation from all four provinces. It’s a book for all of Atlantic Canada to be shared with the world.”

Wanna go?
The pair will host their official book launch today at Stayner’s Wharf in Halifax from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.