Books
Full Length:
This travel memoir is based on detailed journals Benjamin kept while hitchhiking and Greyhounding his way across Canada and the USA in 2001–before and after 9/11 happened–winding up in the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Boy With A Problem is a collection of 12 short stories about lovable outsiders struggling with the pain of disconnection and isolation.
Indian School Road is the story of the controversial and tragic history of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, its predecessors, and its lasting effects, giving voice to multiple perspectives for the first time.
Eco-Innovators profiles some of Atlantic Canada’s most innovative and forward-thinking sustainability entrepreneurs, educators, activists, agitators, farmers and fishers. Halifax filmmaker Kevin Moynihan teamed up with Chris to make several short documentaries based on the book.
Chris Benjamin masterfully, magically weaves together the seemingly disconnected worlds of Mark, a failed social-worker-turned-unhappy-grant-writer coming to the end of an even unhappier relationship, and Bumi, an Indonesian illegal immigrant on the run from his past and the obsessive-compulsive disorder that dogs his present. — Stephen Kimber, Author of Reparations
Shorter Works:
INSIDE is an anthology of writing collected during the Covid-19 pandemic on the theme of isolation, from writers on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, and beyond. It includes Chris Benjamin’s story “Filling Up My View” a.k.a. “Solitary Spider,” the story of a young woman locked into solitary confinement at the local women’s prison, where a giant spider helps her access the outside world she longs for. The collection also includes work from Carol Bruneau, George Elliott Clarke, Jan L. Coates, Christy Ann Conlin, Terry Fallis, and more.
In this no-holds barred look at the province, writers and personalities captivate and capture the true essence of Nova Scotia. It includes Chris Benjamin’s short story, “Home”, about Bayarmaa, an accountant from Mongolia working as a live-in nanny to make ends meet. But it is only one in a series of low-cost, less-than-ideal living arrangements as she tries to prepare for an important equivalency test. As Bayarmaa reflects, “There is everything and nothing to explain.” This collection also includes work from George Elliott Clarke, Sheldon Currie, Daniel Paul, Silver Donald Cameron, Lesley Choyce, Elaine Mccluskey, Tareq Hadhad, Jonathan Torrens, Carol Bruneau, Theresa Meuse, Ian Colford, Janet Barkhouse, Janice Landry, Alice Burdick, and more.
In Nova Scotia Love Stories, some of the province’s most beloved authors explore through fact and fiction the myriad ways in which a love story exists. The collection includes Chris Benjamin’s “Operation Niblet,” story about Gerry, who embarks on a daring and stupid animal rescue mission to prove his love for his roommate Zoëy, a vegan eco-feminist. The collection also features stories by Silver Donald Cameron, Marjorie Simmins, Budge Wilson, Bruce Graham, Maureen Hull, Jon Tattrie, Lindsay Ruck, Jim Lotz, Steven Laffoley, Sheldon Currie, Harold Horwood, Carol Bruneau, Michael Ungar, William Kowalski and Don Aker.
Becoming Fierce: Teen Stories IRL, a collection of creative non-fiction pieces written by Atlantic Canadian authors including Chris Benjamin, released on September 23. Twenty per cent of proceeds of sales go to Kids Help Phone, chosen by Canadian author Susin Nielsen, who contributed the foreword.
Chris Benjamin signed up for a volunteer work exchange program looking for an adventure. It wasn’t until he arrived in St. Lucia and began spending time with his counterpart’s family — in particular Uncle Dingo — that Chris woke up to the divisions of wealth and poverty, and experiences of love and loss that can unite us in spite of everything. Cuisvé is a short memoir of a formative three months Chris spent working in the Caribbean rainforest. A portion of proceeds support human rights for Nicaraguan street children.
A collection of twenty short stories, including Chris Benjamin’s “The Water Bottle Thief,” showing you can be political without being preachy. Lee Henderson wrote: “Brimming with wild imagination and stunning variety, this is one of those beautiful literary anthologies that comes along once a generation, that we’ll look back upon as the beginning of a whole new vision of Canadian fiction.”
An audio anthology of short fiction performed by professional actors. Literature never sounded better. Chris’ contribution, “Delia and Phil,” is performed brilliantly by Charlie Tomlinson.
Fourteen stories and three poems that breathe unexpected possibilities into the atmosphere that surrounds and fills us. Take flight with these tales and explore what is always elusive: microscopic particles, airwaves, wind, space, sound, and spirit. Chris Benjamin’s “Gifts From the North” features a young woman burdened by her ability to traverse the mindwaves of cruel men.
Forty of Nova Scotia’s best minds (and hearts) explore environment, technology, immigration, urban life, rural life, energy, politics, government, family, economics, and more. The writing is personal, provocative, reflective, and thoroughly captivating. In “The Futurology of Fatherhood,” Chris reflects on the opportunity and responsibility – his, society’s and the planet’s – of becoming a father.
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