Over his lifetime, P.E.I. native Kent Stetson has achieved many things.
As a playwright, he has won a Governor General’s Award for his work.
He’s also a member of the Order of Canada.
He is an essayist, teacher, script analyst, editor and dramaturge.
But instead of revelling in past victories, five years ago Stetson stepped off the stage and into the trenches to learn a new discipline — fiction writing.
At the time, his award-winning play, The Harps of God, had just been taken over by a new publishing company, McArthur & Company of Toronto.
Soon afterwards, the publisher asked if he was interested in writing a novel.
“Kim (McArthur) told me my writing had an epic kind of quality to it, and she was sure that I could do it. I told her that I had a play (New Arcadia) that I was passionate about and sent it off to her. She said, ‘Write it. Here’s an advance,’” recalls Stetson.
“So I took the advance and started writing. I thought it might take me 18 months to two years. Well, four years later I was finished,” says the author who was home on P.E.I. over the holidays.
The World Above the Sky is the tale of 17-year-old Eugainia St. Clare Delacroix who is transported from certain death at the hands of her enemies to the safety of the New World.
Set in 1398, fleet commander Prince Henry Sinclair, Eugainia’s protector and champion, clings to the dying Templar dream of establishing a New Arcadia with the princess enthroned at its beating heart.
When the ship arrives on Canada’s Atlantic coast, Eugainia, in ill health, goes ashore.
There she meets the handsome and recently widowed Mimktawo’qu’sk, chief-in-waiting of a peaceful clan of East Coast Mi’Kmaq.
In time, the young people fall in love and start an exciting new life together.
The new book has received a variety of reactions.
“I found it a fascinating read because I’ve been studying Mi’Kmaq history,” says artist Susanna Rutherford.
