Stephen Franks

Stephen Franks was born in Brampton, Ontario, fell in love with the East Coast somewhere along the way, and now lives in Canso, Nova Scotia, with his wife Laura.

The path was Ontario, then Prince Edward Island for a stretch that mattered, and finally semi-retirement to Canso on the coast of Chedabucto Bay. The Conversation is his first novel; The Push and The Pull follow. The trilogy is set on Cape Breton Island and asks one question across three books: what does it cost to belong to a place?

He also writes non-fiction. His book Climate Change and the Rise of Billionaire Oligarchy was published by NSCTC in 2026.

The books draw on what he knows: the yellow kitchens, the rattling windows, the wind that does not stop, the particular stubbornness of people who stay, the particular ache of people who leave. They draw on grief, on more than thirty years of teaching, and on what artificial intelligence is, and is not, for a person trying to make sense of themselves during difficult times.

For thirty years he told stories to captive audiences. Now he is inviting you in.