Susanna Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush

Carol Shields was fascinated by the life and writing of Susanna Moodie. Moodie was a Romantic writer from a celebrated literary family whose life changed forever when she and her husband left England for the backwoods of Canada in 1832. The Moodies, utterly unprepared for their new life, soon found themselves starving in the hostile wilderness of Upper Canada. Susanna began publishing her writing to feed and clothe her growing family. The result was the novel Roughing It in the Bush―an aggravated and acerbic testament to settler life that was praised in England but turned Moodie into a controversial figure in Canada. Two centuries later, Moodie is honored by many as an early feminist and literary pioneer.

Shields' long fascination with Moodie led her to collaborate on a screenplay with Patrick Crowe, which has now found its way to the world as a graphic novel. A talented adaptation by Willow Dawson and emotionally complex illustrations by Selena Goulding bring the words of the controversial and fascinating Susanna Moodie to life through the insightful personality of Carol Shields. Includes a rousing introduction by Margaret Atwood.

Carol Shields was an American-born Canadian author. Her 1993 novel, The Stone Diaries, won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award in Canada, among others. Her next book, Larry's Party, won the Orange Prize and Le Prix de Lire. Her last novel, Unless, was published in 2002 before Carol's death in July 2003. Shields wrote her Master's thesis on Susanna Moodie and it was her first published work.

Patrick Crowe is a Toronto-based producer, writer, game designer, and filmmaker. He has worked for the National Film Board and the Ontario Media Development Corporation and as a producer for the CBC. He is the co-founder and president of Xenophile Media, a two-time Emmy Award-winning production company renowned for its work in content and technology, including the interactive documentary Inside Hana's Suitcase.

Selena Goulding is a Canadian illustrator and comic book artist from Vancouver Island currently living in Toronto. A graduate from the Sequential Arts Program at Toronto's Max the Mutt Animation School, she is best known for her work on young adult indie comics such as Cobble Hill, publishing with 215 Ink, as well as being a contributing illustrator for The Secret Loves of Geek Girls Anthology. This is her first full-length graphic novel.

Willow Dawson is an award winning graphic novelist and illustrator whose books include Ghost Limb, Hyena in Petticoats, Lila and Ecco's Do-It-Yourself Comics Club, No Girls Allowed with Susan Hughes, and The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea with Helaine Becker. Dawson teaches Creating Comics and Graphic Novels at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. She also teaches sequential art and scriptwriting to youth across Toronto.