Nova Scotia author, poet presented honorary doctorate
Thurston uses analogy of hitchhiking to show life is not a straightforward journey
Call him Dr. Harry Thurston.
The renowned Nova Scotia poet, author, journalist and environmental activist was honoured by St. Thomas University in Fredericton with an honorary doctorate of letters during its recent spring convocation.
“It’s very gratifying to have your life’s work acknowledged in that way,” Thurston said from his Tidnish Bridge home on May 20. “I think it’s recognition of a body of work because I’ve worked in many genres, journalism, as a poet and a non-fiction environmental writer. It’s very satisfying at this point in my life.”
Thurston, who has been writing full time for five decades, said he was first approached by the university last year about accepting an honorary degree but things were put on hold because of COVID- 19 that shut down classes in March 2020 and limited convocation ceremonies.
A year into the pandemic, amid continued restrictions on travel and gatherings, the 71-year-old Thurston accepted his doctorate virtually from his home near Amherst.
A film crew visited his home some time ago to record his speech. He said it was fitting to have his convocation address filmed in his backyard considering its proximity to the Tidnish River and how that river, and other natural environments across the region, have played a prominent part in his writing.
“It worked out pretty good,” Thurston said. “I felt very comfortable and very much at home.”
He used the analogy of hitchhiking to show that life, including his own, is not a straightforward journey. Like hitchhiking, Thurston said, it’s important to get on the road early in life, have patience and perseverance and a little luck while seizing the opportunities that present themselves.
He remembers hitchhiking to Montreal with his wife, Cathy, soon after they were married. On the return trip, they ended up in Fredericton in the middle of the evening. He called upon the one person his knew in the city: Canadian poet Alden Nowlan.
“We knocked on the door and they were very generous. Alden and I stayed up the whole night talking,” he said. “Cathy and I had gotten on the road quite early in Montreal the morning before and I got to see the sunrise again with Alden Nowlan the next morning. I went to bed, had a couple of hours sleep, and when I woke up Alden was already in his office. It was a great lesson for me as a young man wanting to become a writer.”
From that experience, Thurston learned writing is a job that requires discipline. He said his writing career didn’t happen overnight and it was eight long years before his first slim volume of poetry was published by The Fiddlehead.
In his message to the Class of 2021, he urged students to pay attention to what’s happening around them and take advantage of opportunities.
“It seems to me that a traditional freelance writing career, like the one I had, with its constantly shifting opportunities and uncertainties, is very much like the work environment that many of you are entering today,” Thurston said in his address. “You will need to pay attention and to exercise discipline to thrive in it. But you will also need to do something else — be true to yourself.”
Kim Fenwick, the university’s vice-president academic and research, said honorary degrees are presented to individuals who have distinguished themselves in academic or cultural circles, or in service to society.
“His life’s work represents the ideals and the opportunity for accomplishment that we seek to instil in our students through a liberal arts education,” Fenwick said.
Born in Yarmouth, Thurston has written more than two dozen books of poetry and non-fiction and has contributed to numerous magazines including National Geographic, Audobon, Equinox Harrowsmith and Canadian Geographic.
His articles have earned him numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award for Science and Technology and the Canadian Science Writers’ Association Science and Society Awards, while his work to increase environmental awareness led to the presentation of the Visionary Award of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment.
As a poet, he’s a four-time winner of the Evelyn Richardson Prize and he has also won the Dartmouth Book Award, Atlantic Booksellers’ Choice Award, the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award in the United States and the Lane Anderson Award for Best Science Writing in Canada.
The doctorate comes on the heels of the release of his 27th book earlier this year. Lost River is best described by Thurston as an “elegiac meditation” recognizing his commitment to the area’s natural beauty and his work — and that of others — to protect Nova Scotia’s landscapes for future generations.
Thurston is presently working on another collection of poetry that he hopes to complete during the summer. He is also collecting a number of environmental writings that haven’t appeared in book form as of yet.
He will also continue his long-distance mentoring through the University of King’s College in Halifax.