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Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold
This is a story inspired by my own family and my great-Aunt Bernice. She was like a grandmother to me. It was a joy to imagine their lives on the island (a mile from where my parents have a home today). The story is fiction. It’s a way for people of all ages to learn more about a Métis family in Ontario before they hid their identity for protection and to stay together.
“A treasure map sparks a coastal Canadian Métis eight-year-old’s search for gold in an exuberant, richly detailed novel from a Métis author sharing her family’s fictionalized history…. A sweet historical fiction pick for fans of well-intentioned young protagonists with enlightening Indigenous representation.” Booklist
“This is a novel for young teens, featuring historical fiction depicting life on this part of Georgian Bay in the early 1900s, and a history of the Indigenous people, the voyageurs and the settlers who came later to these islands. It is also a compelling novel about an adventurous girl who finds that the real gold on Georgian Bay is right where she lives.” Charlotte Stein, ParrySound.com
“Author Jessica Outram has given us a story with a difference: a book that incorporates many phrases in the Métis language, Michif.” Helen Norrie, Winnipeg Free Press
“An excellent complementary read for indigenous or Canadian history studies. It is a worthwhile and thoughtful read and an admirable way of paying tribute to past generations. Highly Recommended.” Canadian Review of Materials
“As a story, it will interest readers of all ages, moving deftly between the warm family scenes, industries across the water, and the dangerous storms of Georgian Bay.” Historical Novel Society
“Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold is an amusing and informative story that serves both to entertain and educate the reader. It would be a positive addition to any home or school library.” Anishinabek News
Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold is now available in hardcover as a Junior Library Guild selection.
Follow me on social media to learn more about some of the people and places who inspired the book.
Winner of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, 2024.
Brave Bernice is ready for an adventure!
It’s the summer of 1914. Eight-year-old Bernice lives with her family in a lighthouse on Georgian Bay. One day Bernice wakes up to find a stranger named Tom Thomson sleeping in their living room. When she overhears him talk about gold on a nearby island, Bernice is determined to find it. Inspired by her beloved Mémère’s stories of their Métis family’s adventures and hardships, Bernice takes the treasure map the stranger left behind and sets out in a rowboat with nothing more than her two dogs for company and the dream of changing her family’s fortunes forever.
Product Information: Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold
- Release: May 16, 2023
- Second Story Press
- $12.95 Paperback
- 190 Pages
- 5.25″ x 7.5″
- Children’s Fiction
- Ages 9-12 / Grades 4-7
- ISBN: 9781772603187
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The Thing with Feathers
The Thing With Feathers by Jessica Outram
A collection of poetry available to purchase from the publisher or on Amazon.
Books are also available from Let’s Talk Books in Cobourg and Caversham Booksellers in Toronto.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soulEmily Dickinson
This is a story of becoming whole by reassembling broken pieces of self, holding onto hope in the darkest moments, and seeing everything in a new light.
The Thing With Feathers takes you on an intimate journey of truth, transformation, and healing of spirit. From cherry blossom tree trunks to the shores of Georgian Bay, these poems evoke reverence, recalling past lives and ancestral Metis blood memory passed down from grandmothers.
~ Sarah Lewis, Poet Laureate, Peterborough ONPoetry that’s both affective and effective in recognizing the power of expression as a means of revealing the human spirit. There is clarity of language in these poems, and in that clarity the reader finds what it means to feel alive.
~ Antony Di Nardo, PoetClick here to read Anthony Di Nardo’s full-length review of The Thing with Feathers.
Here are poems that show a way to build belonging. With clarity and sharp imagery, Outram’s poetry aches with the will to transform. They swirl beyond the whirlpool of rules because it’s all possible. Slowly, a new self emerges by breaking down threads / pulled by uncertainty. Through the deliberate act of seeing, facing, and confronting, a knowing, more integrated self comes to light. A fresh, vivid and heartfelt debut.
~”Catherine Graham, Poet, Aether: An Out-of-Body Lyric and The Celery ForestClick here to read Kate Rogers’ review of The Thing with Feathers.
April 16th 2022 Launch: Art Gallery of Northumberland 
April 16th, 2022 Launch: Art Gallery of Northumberland -
The Story of Water
We continue the tradition for a third year of publishing an eChapbook to celebrate Earth Day. First, we published Light in My Eyes in 2020. Then we published Lessons from the Earth in 2021.
Water is life. This year for our Earth Day eChapbook, I wanted to invite poets to reflect on the story of water. Poetry helps us to see in different ways. As you read this collection, consider the story of water in your life. How can we protect it? Respect it? What does water have to teach us?
I’m overwhelmed by the number of poems and the diversity of stories. As you read through this collection, pay attention to the ways water changes form, its relationship to people and other elements in nature, and how it travels.
Find a quiet spot, maybe even outside, by the water to read a poem or two as a gift for the water. Let us thank the water for all it has given us.
With this project, we also celebrate National Poetry Month.
“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.†— Kahlil GibranÂ
The eChapbook was sent out via the Poetry Present subscriber list on Earth Day, Friday April 22, 2022. -
Sunsets in Britt: A Georgian Bay Tradition
Jessica Outram is a Métis writer and educator with roots in the Georgian Bay Métis Community. She is the 4th Poet Laureate of Cobourg, Ontario. For decades she has captured Georgian Bay summer sunsets with her camera. This project is for family and friends who share her love of sunsets. Anyone is welcome to purchase a book.
- Primary Category: Arts & Photography Books
- Project Option: Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
# of Pages: 24 - ISBN
- Hardcover, Dust Jacket: 9781006416453
- Published by Sunshine in a Jar Press
- Using a print on demand service: Blurb. Since hundreds of copies were not printed, the cost per book is higher than hoped.
- Limited Edition.
- $55.00 plus tax and delivery
If you know Jessica or live nearby, you can also purchase books directly from Jessica to avoid shipping costs (paying by cash or etransfer: $55 plus GST/HST $7.15 = $62.15).
Sunsets in Britt is also available at Let’s Talk Books in Cobourg.
To order online now with delivery click here.
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Southeastern Georgian Bay Landscape Photos
Every summer I spend hours in the boat taking photographs of the landscape I love so much. It still amazes me how every day is different out on the bay.
South Shore, July 2018 
August 2016 
Northern sky. 
Georgian Bay Sunset with Rainbow, 2015 
Georgian Bay Sunset, 2015 
Clouds, August 2015 
South Shore, August, 2016.
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The Writing Spiral by Jessica Outram
Available at Let’s Talk Books in Cobourg, Ontario. Nearly sold out!
About the Book
In The Writing Spiral, Jessica Outram, an educator and writer, shares eight thematic spirals that explore how we can cultivate a writing life that guarantees growth and development.
This book offers a theory about how writers learn. Using the contributions from 30 emerging and experienced writers, The Writing Spiral demonstrates the way learning about creativity, courage, solitude, community, ambition, perseverance, curiosity, and love develop mastery to make an expressive, inspired writer.
A comprehensive learning program designed to call writers to action, this book utilizes research-based learning strategies, humour, metaphor, and interactive exercises to awaken the learner in you. To become a better writer, you need to become a better learner.
A diverse collection of poems, stories, memoirs, and essays take you on a journey around layers of experience, knowledge, and inquiry to awaken your writing core.
The Writing Spiral offers a new vision that encourages us to define our writing spirals: to embrace reflection and analysis, to love learning, and to courageously write our truths and share our stories.
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Letter to a Poet
A monthly column in Cobourg Now: A Local News Magazine.
Each month features a poem by a local poet and a letter to the poet about poetry and life. My hope is that we can connect more readers to our wonderful poets and that we can encourage people to write poetry.
Each month a link to the column will be added here:
- Poetry is About Discovery (Jenni Burke)
- Poetry is About Connection (Marion Fuessel)
- Reading Poetry Can Connect Us (Doug Langille)
- Story is at the Heart of Poetry (Gwynn Scheltema)
- The Gifts of Poetry in Community (James Pickersgill)
- Poetry Inspired by Geese (Marie-Lynn Hammond)
- Talking to Cats, Birds & Myself (Linda Hutsell-Manning)
- April is National Poetry Month (Antony Di Nardo)
- Poetry is Summertime (Katie Hoogendam)
