Sharon Berg 🇨🇦 🇸🇪
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sharonberg.bsky.social
Sharon Berg 🇨🇦 🇸🇪
@sharonberg.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.2K following 110 posts
Poetry: 3 books/ 4 chapbooks; Short Fiction: 1; CNF: 1 FN history
2020 IPPY Nonfiction Award/ Finalist: 2022 International Book Awards
Resident Interviewer at The tEmz Review (London, ON, Canada)
https://sharonbergauthor.wixsite.com/my-site #fiction #poet
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sharonberg.bsky.social
I invite you to check out my substack, which is free. sharonbergauthor.substack.com
A screenshot of Sharon Berg's substack posts.
November 17, 2025 at 5:38 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Meet Jasper, my 18 week old, copper-coated, Cockapoo. When I lost my last dog, I thought I'd never take another, but I'd wake in tears I was that lonely. This boy is calm yet so comic, the perfect companion AND he gets me out walking to keep me healthy. (Photos by Erica Penney of his 1st grooming.)
Jasper is copper-coloured with chocolate-coloured eyes and wears a black colour with two reflective stripes on it. He has his head cocked toward the photographer. In this photo, Jasper is rising up on his hind legs to run toward the photographer.
October 24, 2025 at 6:35 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Big Pond Rumours is back as a chapbook press for Canadians only
www.facebook.com/share/p/1CfB...
Big Pond Rumours Press • chapbook publishers producing quality books • all are designed with stunning visual appeal • creating a fresh line-up of Canadian authors for 2026 Guidelines: Send 20-24 pages of poetry or up to 2,500 words of prose. Every poem should start on a separate page. Manuscripts are your work (no AI please) and unpublished as a whole. Individual poems published in journals should be accredited. Send an email with a cover letter providing name, address, & phone #. Please attach bio note or CV recording important publications. OPEN for submissions: October 1st, 2025. DEADLINE: December 31st, 2025 (NL time!) sharonberg.author@gmail.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:29 AM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Have to say I'm proud to share this poem at Suburban Witchcraft in Siberia! Check it out!
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Photo of Sharon Berg seated with papers in her lap.
September 16, 2025 at 10:12 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Here's something to contemplate...
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Photo of Sharon Berg in 1978 with her 2 1/2 year old daughter, Ila. They are both chewing on a long stem of grass.
July 15, 2025 at 1:29 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Here is a recording of 4 poems read aloud that I performed in the 1980s. This was at an Art Gallery in Ottawa.

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Photo of Sharon Berg from the 1980s.
July 11, 2025 at 4:58 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
I've got lots of books for sale. $20 each includes postage. Message me.
soundcloud.com/g101ottawa/t...
Photos of Sharon Berg and two of her book covers.
July 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Reminicse...
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Photo of 21 year old woman holding her new baby in her arms as she stands shaded beneath the down-sweeping branches of a pine tree on a bright sunny day.
July 8, 2025 at 7:28 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
This is short story month.
May is Short Story Month! Photo of cover for 'Naming the Shadows / Stories' by Sharon Berg These tales by Sharon Berg are touched with humour and outrage, mystery and shadow. She offers stories of loss and learning. Conflict and memory run through generations, innocence gives way to experience, and all must learn to redefine themselves and the way they see the world. Curious preteens receive an unexpected education at a mall-side carnival show. A lonely dairy farmer develops a special bond with his neighbours’ children, then suffers unexpected consequences. An ageing author manages to get one up on her adversarial interviewer, while another woman’s unsettling way of remembering past lovers confirms her emotional freedom. If you enjoy stories with many facets and carefully considered details, you’ll love Naming the Shadows (Porcupine’s Quill, 2019). Available from the press, from author Sharon Berg (contact with Messager), through your local bookstore, or online at Amazon or Indigo. Or ask your local library to order the book.
May 11, 2025 at 12:29 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
When you're poor, old enough to think of your end, but still writing, with umpteen manuscripts finished but not getting published fast enough... you think 'how can I speed this up?' I'm hiring help despite being stubborn about doing things on my own for decades. Oh, how I miss my workshop days!
Photo showing the table & hands of various people jotting notes around a table - representing a workshop experience.
April 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Tidbit is my greatest writing support. He really likes Naming the Shadows (short fiction, Porcupines Quill, 2019) and Stars in the Junkyard (poetry, Cyberwit, 2020). I've got copies of both so you don't have to buy them from Amazon!
Photo of Tidbit, a piebald b/w Shipoo dog, laying on a red corduroy couch beside two books by Sharon Berg. One is Naming the Shadows (short fiction, Porcupine's Quill, 2019) and the other is Stars in the Junkyard (poetry, Cyberwit, 2020).
March 29, 2025 at 2:24 AM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Are you up for the challenge? Read my interview with Dr. Blair Stonechild about his latest book in the latest tEmz Review.
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-stonech...
“Civilization, especially as traced through developments in the Middle East then Europe, positioned humanity as the central purpose of creation. This manifested as the domination of nature, accumulation of wealth, and exercise of power to compete for resources. So civilization was the repudiation of eons of Indigenous wisdom. It was a fundamental spiritual shift, one that has laid the template for the human systems that dominate the world today. The recovery of a healthy relationship with the environment and amongst one another will not be possible until the mainstream recognizes the truth about what has happened to the Indigenous world, and takes actions to reconcile with that past.” Blaire Stonechild from an interview in The tEmz Review
March 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
I never saw myself doing this... before Trump dismantled all that's humane & decent below the border. So many people are blind to the damage done when you don't 'hear' another person, burying them under your personal bias. We all need to stand up for what's good & right in every corner of our lives!
2025-03-19 2:33 pm Dear [blocked] - I've been sitting with a certain degree of shock and horror after the recent Zoom meeting held with the jurors for the category of books I read. I still cannot believe that [blocked] spoke so openly about her 'moral' indignation, which she directed at [blocked]'s book. For one thing, it is a well-researched academic book that condenses what First Nations have been saying for centuries and places emphasis on the need to establish kinder interactions with the planet we all share. However, when she continued and claimed that the book was filled with 'lies' and 'mistruths' that really shook me hard. [blocked] brought a level of judgement to that book that I believe displays her personal position in opposition to anything said by First Nations. I am speaking about censoring, a position no Juror of a book contest should ever bring to the table when discussing the books they are judging. Yes, I feel it lies in the same arena as book banning. I really feel very strongly about this. So strongly, in fact, that though I've tossed and turned over what I should do about it, I’m compelled to take this course of action. To complain about a fellow Juror is not something I'd ever seen myself doing before that Zoom meeting. I’m still shaking with horror that I feel compelled to do this. However, as I said at the time, 'I'd like to see her take that attitude into a [blocked]'. I was being sarcastic, of course, meaning exactly the opposite. I believe [blocked] should be barred from being asked to fulfill the position of 'Juror' ever again. During that Zoom meeting, she tried to dominate the conversation with a loud voice. When she didn't succeed, she immediately pulled down her image for a few minutes. Coming back on she argued for cutting the meeting short or rescheduling, claiming she had medical issues to address that were at no time evident before she lost her argument. My argument that [blocked] should be barred from acting as a J…
March 19, 2025 at 6:42 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Check out my interview with Hollay Ghadrey here:
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-ghadery...
Photo shows Sharon Berg on the left, the cover for 'Widow Fantasies' by Hollay Ghadrey in the middle, and a photo of Hollay Ghadrey on the right. Beneath is the following excerpt fro Hollay's interview: "I was overwhelmed and my husband wasn’t lifting his share ... I felt I had a dependent, not a partner, and I was desperate to alleviate that burden ... I didn’t want to kill him, I just wanted him not to be draining me. I was also so disturbed by these thoughts that I talked to a therapist. When I learned of the term, widow fantasies, I was delighted. What a wonderfully oxymoronic term! I didn’t know it was going to be the title of a collection or even a story then, but it stuck with me: the way it pulls at itself. That tension between the words! It was perfect for a book that looks at how women use fantasy to subvert the often-oppressive confines of their world. ”
March 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
I'm resident Interviewer for The tEmz Review (London, ON, Canada). It's getting close to release date for the next issue. I interview Dr. Blair Stonechild, Carolyn Parsons, Hollay Ghadrey, and Marlis Wesseler about their books in the next issue. Watch here for an update after March 10, 2025.
photo of books taken from above: they stand in a circle, pages fanned
March 6, 2025 at 11:57 AM
sharonberg.bsky.social
This is a painting that demonstrates the flexibility and nuance of colour when using egg tempera... something that I deal with in my debut novel ms. Beautiful work, it's a self portrait done in 1940 by Andrew Wyeth.
Self Portrait of Andrew Wyeth (1940)
February 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Outside of several one-off, handmade books and perhaps an anthology, this is my publication covers. (BPR Press is Big Pond Rumours Press). It looks something like a quilt, which feels right.
An arrangement of 16 covers for publications by Sharon Berg: 3 poetry books, 3 poetry chapbooks, 1 short fiction collection, 1 narrative history of Wandering Spirit Survival School, 1 collection of writing by Phoenix: a Poet's Workshop (editor), 1 selected poetry by Robert Billings (editor), 1 contribution to an academic collection of essays on student engagement in alternative schools' 2 contributions to poetry anthologies, 2 audio cassettes of performance poetry. 1 CD of performance poetry.
January 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
I finished my quasi-memoir (age 4-22). I've been told it has too many awful events to believe 1 girl experienced them. I sent it to 2 beta readers & will be on tenter hooks until I hear back. This is the book I envisioned myself writing as a prepubescent girl. I hope I've done my story justice.
Picture of a flat, round, black stone engraved with 'Home is where your story begins'.
January 12, 2025 at 12:33 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Find this interview in The /temz/ Review Issue 29
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-peacock...
Photo of Sharon Berg on the left with book cover for The Widow's Crayon Box in the center and Molly Peacock on the right. Beneath is a quote by Molly from the interview Sharon did with Molly. “Colour has always spoken to me as pure feeling, probably from the first time I held a crayon. When I started the sonnet sequence “The Widow’s Crayon Box,” the title poem of the book, I was distraught. My husband of twenty-eight years had died about a month earlier. We had known each other since we were teenagers, though we didn’t get married till we were forty-five. I was fragmented and wobbly, experiencing so many contradictory emotions at once: from relief, to fury, to bleak loneliness, to gratitude and joy. It was a fully adult experience of mourning, emotions overlapping—not the basic eight-colour pack of crayons, but the entire 152. That became a metaphor for the entire sequence, and then, as other poems accumulated, the entire book.”
December 31, 2024 at 3:03 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Find this interview in The /temz/ Review Issue 29
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-fahner....
Photo of Sharon Berg on the left, then the cover of Kim Fahner's book The Donoghue Girl, then a photo of Kim Fahner on the right. Below is a quote from the interview Sharon did with Kim: “Regardless of which genre I’ve written in over the last thirty years, I’m exploring the notion of ‘surfaces and underneaths,’ as I like to call them. Here, in Sudbury, I know that much of what happens in life is underground. My family history, on both maternal and paternal sides, is tied to INCO’s history, and both my father and paternal grandfather worked in the mine and at the copper refinery in Copper Cliff when I was growing up. Here, there are ‘bumps’ all the time, when the earth and rock move without warning and those can have fatal consequences. I suppose, to people from other places, these might feel like earthquakes, but they’re common to those of us who live here. The bumps continually remind me that there’s a maze of shafts and tunnels underneath this whole area. There’s always something on the surface, and something hidden underneath, and those are the themes that I find cross over into my writing, regardless of genre.”
December 31, 2024 at 2:57 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Find this interview in The /temz/ Review Issue 29
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-zorn.html
Photos of Sharon Berg on the left and Alice Zorn on the right. The cover of Alice's book is in the middle. Underneath is a quote from the interview Sharon did with Alice about her book. "[T]here is no novel in English about a middle-aged person who has Down Syndrome. There are novels about parenting a child with Down Syndrome, but they're about the parents. Occasionally I've come across a cameo appearance of a character with Down Syndrome, but it's brief. I wanted Mina's presence in the novel to be front stage centre, even if the novel wasn't going to be all about her. I also wanted to write about an older adult where the question of continued autonomy arises."
December 31, 2024 at 3:19 AM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Here is my interview with Kim Fahner about her debut novel, The Donoghue Girl, set in northern Ontario.
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-fahner....
Book cover for The Donoghue Girl photo of Kim Fahner
December 18, 2024 at 3:46 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Here is my interview with Alice Zorn about her latest novel, Colours in Her Hands.
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-zorn.html
Book cover for Colours in Her Hands photo of Alice Zorn
December 18, 2024 at 3:43 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
Here is my interview with Molly Peacock about her insightful look at grieving through poetry in her book The Widow's Crayon Box.
www.thetemzreview.com/berg-peacock...
Book cover for The Widow's Crayon Box photo of Molly Peacock
December 18, 2024 at 3:33 PM
sharonberg.bsky.social
In 1975 I was a drug addict & alcoholic. Boyfriend had a contact. Then I was pregnant a 3rd time & quit cold turkey. I had to save my child. Boyfriend deserted as I 'forced fatherhood' on him. My 1st was adopted. My 2nd was a miscarriage. All by age 20. I couldn't give up my 3rd. She saved my life.
Text: Celebrating 50 years of sobriety
December 13, 2024 at 2:10 AM