Celebrating Poet & Novelist Ian McCulloch & His Final Novel JOE PETE

AACB's was honoured to have Bruce McCulloch as a guest. Bruce is the late Ian Mcculloch’s brother and we discussed Ian’s beautiful and captivating final novel Joe Pete, which was published by Latitude 46 Publishing in October 2023.

Get To Know Author Ian McCulloch

IAN MCCULLOCH (1957-2019) was born in Comox, B.C. and raised in Northern Ontario. A member of the Chapleau Cree First Nation (Fox Lake), his writing was deeply influenced by family and his indigenous heritage.

He was the author of three books of poetry: The Moon of Hunger (Penumbra, 1982), The Efficiency of Killers (Penumbra, 1988) and Parables and Rain (Penumbra, 1993) and the chapbooks, A Balsam to Ease All Pains (Alburnum Press, 1998), Certain Humans and A Box of Light (both above/ground press, 2019). He was also the author of the novel Childforever (Mercury, 1996). He read twice at Toronto’s prestigious Harbourfront series. Two of his poems were included in the anthology Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century (LUMMOX Press, 2018). 

Watch our full interview. ​

What's Joe Pete about?

Sandy Mecowatch, a descendant of Missinabi Cree people, falls through the ice leaving behind his wife Louise and eleven-year-old daughter Alison “Joe Pete”. Joe Pete’s grief propels her to risk searching for her father in the same winter conditions that took him. Along with her obedient and protective cousin Simon, they embark on a journey where they will find more than they anticipated buried beneath the snow. Their journey will unlock the ancestors and spirits embedded in the present who call back to a past marked by war and kinship, by conflict and wisdom that continue to contour their trajectory towards the future.  

**My apologies to Laurie McCulloch, Ian's wife as I kept referring to her as Louisa one of the characters in Joe Pete.** 

Miigwech Bruce. Miigwech for watching.

I LOVE this book. 

BUY NOW!