Amanda Peters’s first novel, The Berry Pickers, now being translated into 15 languages, is about a Mi’kmaw family after their four-year-old daughter goes missing while blueberry picking in Maine. The national bestseller won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Crime Writers of Canada Best First Novel Award, and the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. As associate professor in the department of English and theatre at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., Peters is an equally accomplished academic with four masters degrees, including political science and creative writing. She just released her new book, a collection of short stories, Waiting for the Long Night Moon. Saltscapes spoke with her about international borders, the Boston Bruins, and whodunits.
How are you today?
Tired. Just got back from California to get the Andrew Carnegie Award. I took my best friend, and we did three days in San Diego, six in L.A., four in San Francisco, and three in Napa Valley. This is my first time, so I wanted to make the most of it.
Great reason to go. Were you surprised by the reception of The Berry Pickers?
Surprised is an understatement. I’m still in a pinch-me moment. I thought a few Nova Scotians, friends or family would read it, but it went nuclear in the U.S.
Why do you think that is?
My U.S. marketing manager thinks it was just the right time. People want to have conversations about issues addressed in the book — missing and murdered Indigenous women, violence against Indigenous people. They’re a little behind in acknowledgement of their colonial history. I’ve heard it called sparse prose, so people can easily read it.
Your style is deceptively straightforward.
I don’t think about my style. I sit down at my computer with my coffee, turn on my tunes, and see what comes out. I always wanted to be a great writer, but I just write what I want to write.
Do you come from an oral storytelling tradition?
I lived with my grandmother for a time. Sitting around after supper, I would ask her to tell me stories from when she was young.
You dedicate the book to your dad, saying it’s inspired by his stories.
Every summer in the 1960s and ’70s, my grandpa and grandma would load them up, there were 14, and go down to the berry fields in Maine. Even the kids worked, and the money would be put aside for new clothes and school supplies. My dad remembers hard work during the day and good times with family and friends from other First Nations communities at night with bonfires, singing, and grandfather playing the fiddle.
The book’s regional geography transcends the international border.
For Mi’kmaq, we’re part of the Wabanaki Confederacy that predates the border. The Mi’kmaq have always travelled down to Boston. A lot are born in Boston. My uncle joined the American military to fight in Vietnam. On a First Nations reserve, people cheer for the Boston Bruins. When you’re a history buff like I am, you can’t not be influenced by that.
There’s a mystery at the heart of the story, but it’s no whodunit. Were you surprised by the crime writing award?
Shocked. I never thought of it as a crime novel, but it is. There’s a few crimes in it, actually. It brought me new readers.
Your novel is also a family drama, and you have a large, influential family, so is your next project similar?
My short stories are very family centric, and there’s more humour in those than in The Berry Pickers. I’m working on a new novel. I don’t know if it’ll ever become a novel, but that’s the thing about writing. You just sit down and write.