We've rebooted Joan Lane's story collection You Call This Home with cover art by noted Saskatchewan painter Dorothy Knowles. A native of Unity, Saskatchewan, Dorothy Knowles attended the University of Saskatchewan, where she studied painting under Eli Bornstein and Nicholas Bjelejac, before leaving Canada to continue her studies at the Goldsmith School in London. Upon her return to Canada, she participated in Saskatchewan’s Emma Lake Artists’ workshop, including a season with renowned critic Clement Greenberg, and soon was showing in galleries across North America. Her works are now included in dozens of major collections, museums and galleries. She received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1987 and was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2004. And in one of the highest forms of national recognition, two of her paintings were issued as stamps by Canada Post in 2006.

Continuing with the all-Saskatchewan theme of this new edition, we've also included excerpts from letters sent to the young author by her writing instructor at the University of Saskatchewan, Edward McCourt. McCourt is a somewhat neglected figure now, but his novel Music at the Close was long in print with the New Canadian Library; in Unnamed Country: The Struggle for Canadian Prairie Fiction (1977), Dick Harrison suggests that McCourt's novels are the equals of those produced by Frederick Philip Grove and Sinclair Ross. (For more on McCourt, see this excellent survey by Dr. Winnifred Bogaards in Studies in Canadian Literature.) Writing to Lane, McCourt stated that: "Of all the students I have had in English 65 you still rank number one in terms of promise. Keep on writing; your day will come. I hate to think of all that talent going to waste." It gives us satisfaction to have affirmed McCourt's prediction, if at a much later date than he would have anticipated.

We would like to thank Dorothy Knowles for permission to use her painting "Setting Sun" on this edition, and Art Placement Gallery in Saskatoon for providing images of the work. For more of Dorothy Knowles' vibrant work, visit the Dorothy Knowles pages at art placement's website.

Dorothy Knowles is represented by:

art placement - Saskatoon
Assiniboia Gallery - Regina
Winchester Galleries - Victoria
Han Gallery - Montreal