Goosey’s

Goose Writers’ BIO – Bruce McCallum
Bruce McCallum grew up in Ear Falls in northwest Ontario. He moved to Winnipeg at fourteen to attend high school and later university. In 1973, he moved to Ottawa and spent four years working for a future studies group which was part of Environment Canada. He was involved in the early days of the development of renewable energy technologies in Canada. His report, Environmentally Appropriate Technology (1977) was somewhat surprisingly, a best-seller, with over 14,000 copies printed and distributed.
Bruce, and his wife Anne, moved to Prince Edward Island in 1977 and began a Back to the Land adventure in rural PEI, something which continues to this day. He worked for four years for Energy, Mines and Resources, mainly in the bioenergy field.
Bruce then became a bioenergy and forestry consultant, starting in the late 1980s. He conducted a wide range of research studies and wrote many reports and technical handbooks. An example is Equipping the Farm Tractor for Forest Operations (1992). He also worked for ten years as a forestry journalist, writing for forestry magazines in Canada, Scotland and Finland.
Bruce retired in 2011 and turned his hand to creative writing. Since then he has written: a history book, Memories of the Chukuni Lumber Company (2013); a novel, Revenge on the Chukuni, as yet unpublished; Death in the Doach Woods (2015) a novella set in Scotland, published by Selkirk Stories.
Bruce has also written more than 100 short stories. Some of them have been published in anthologies from The Writers in Group (TWiG) in Charlottetown. His rural hockey story, Just Like Frank Mahovlich, won the 2019 North Western Ontario Short Story Contest in the creative non-fiction category and it was featured in their Spring 2019 magazine.
Bruce McCallum’s current writing projects include: an anthology of Crazy Winter Driving Stories which he hopes to publish in 2026, and a collection of short stories which will constitute his memoir.

I was so fortunate to take the Senior’s College writing class with Dianne Morrow Hicks. Unfortunately it was 2021 and COVID was ever changing and despite a desire for the group to continue independently, Omicron brought that to a hault. In the spring of 2023 one of the members reached out to see if anyone would be interested in seeing at the library once a week. Five members of the group were keen. In September of that year, Ken floated the idea of Kate and I joining him in a different group. Two members had departed our already small group, leaving just the three of us. Kate and I were terrified! It was weekly, not monthly and we were sure we were in way over our heads. Ken suggested we just give it a try. Kate and I went for lunch and decided that if we did this, we did it together!! The rest became history.

Shelley’s debut book, On a Dusty Old Road somewhere between Tweed and Flinton, was a lifetime in the making. A former teacher, she has always loved reading and writing and is grateful to finally have the time to write every day. Encouraged by early successes of short stories published in newspapers, e-magazines and websites, and two recent poems selected for an anthology, Shelley is eager to expand her audience. She credits her writing group, The Gooseys, for being a constant source of inspiration and encouragement along the way.

Shelley is working on a second collection centred on how food connects generations of family, and a book about her personal experience navigating the world of Post Concussion Syndrome.

Shelley lives in Prince Edward Island with her husband and two dogs, Quincy and Bella. She loves time spent outdoors walking down the red dirt road near her home, walking on the beach, or just puttering in her garden. She credits this love of nature to her paternal grandfather.

This delightful collection of short stories will touch the hearts of readers of all ages. It is a thank you to her family, especially her grandparents, for giving her and her brother and cousins, the opportunity to grow up with the freedom to just be kids. She hopes her stories will be enjoyed for generations to come.

How I Became a Goosey

It was an unusual situation, but don’t regret it for one moment. I was at the UPEI swimming pool standing on the deck in my bathing suit and a lady, also in her bathing suit, whom I did not know, approached me and asked: “Are you Ken Williams?” This caught me by surprise. How did she know me, I asked myself. Apparently she heard me read some poetry at the Prince Edward Island Writers Guild’s monthly get together and thought I would be interested in her writer’s group known as the Gooseys. Solicitation at a swimming pool was new for me and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I told her I would think about it. I’m glad I didn’t waver too long because after my first meeting I was sold. I’ve been a Goosey for two years and hope to be a member for many years to come. I thank Kathy Stewart for the invitation.

Ken Williams Short Bio

Ken Williams, published his first book in 2024 and won the International Impact Award for his children’s book We Were All Together. His motto Helping Children Feel Important will be carried through to the next editions of We Were All Together to be published in 2026. Ken has also written or co-written several plays in which he has directed and acted. He received his Batchelor of Arts degree at the University of Alberta when he was forty-six. In his early life, (he is now eighty-five) he was a broadcaster. He also taught pubic speaking to Four-H members and prior to that to prisoners in a maximum security penitentiary. Ken believes that all days will not be good. You’ll have setbacks, make mistakes, and feel lost sometimes. Things won’t always fall into place the way you hoped. You just have to keep going.

How I Became a Goosey

I heard from Kathy Stuart that a few members from her Writing From Life class, which I’d facilitated, had continued to meet, at the Blue Goose Restaurant. A couple of years later, Kathy told me at a CBC Retirees Christmas party that the group was growing and now met in town. To my surprise, she assured me that she only allowed new members if they had previously taken my class. Then she invited me to come along. I did. And learned some of her recruitment occurred at the UPEI swimming pool! Of all the groups that have carried on meeting independently, Gooseys is the only one that meets weekly—such dedication!

Dianne Hicks Morrow Short Bio

Dianne is an award-winning poet, including the Milton Acorn poetry Prize, as well as an Atlantic Poetry Prize. In 2008 she received the Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts on Prince Edward Island. Her first poetry collection is Long Reach Home. Her second, What Really Happened Was This: A Poetry Memoir, won the 2012 PEI Book Award for poetry. Her other books include the non-fiction Kindred Spirits: Relationships that Spark the Soul and the memoir Fixing Up the Farmhouse: Forty Years of Living, Loving, and Lamenting.

Dianne was PEI Poet Laureate from 2013-2016. She has facilitated her popular Writing from Life course at PEI Seniors College for over 20 years. She keeps going thanks to the enthusiastic writing groups, such as The Gooseys, who carry on independently for years afterward. She enjoys giving writing workshops—across PEI and from NL to BC, as well as in Mexico and Australia, so far.

How I became a Goosey
Harry Manx performed a concert at Charlottetown’s Trailside Music Hall in Winter 2024. I was in the audience and so was Bruce McCallum. Hopeful to find a writing group, I asked Bruce if he knew of a group that might take a new member, and he suggested Gooseys. He also cautioned that he’d have to ask Gooseys first. As luck would have it, I was extended an invitation.

My short bio
Margot Maddison-MacFadyen moved to Prince Edward Island in 2008. Several of her poems, short stories, and books have been published, and she has won writing awards and prizes. Most notably, she won the 2017 Alfred G. Bailey Award for Poetry Manuscript for From Hollyburn Mountain: A Memoir of My Family, Places, and Ghosts and the 2017 Harry Buller Prize for Best Independently Published Book for Mary: A Story of Young Mary Prince. As well, she and her good friend Susan Buchanan, who has passed, edited the poetry anthology A Gathering of Twigs that won the 2014 Prince Edward Island Book Award for Poetry. Maddison-MacFadyen graduated with a PhD from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2017 at age 62. She also writes academic articles, book chapters and, with co-author Dr. Clarence Maxwell she has researched and written, “Set Us Free”: Mary Prince and the Making of History. She and Maxwell are currently looking for a suitable publisher for “Set Us Free.”

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