"When I couldn't see her," says Paul Dean of his mother, who has placed him as an infant in a berry patch near the outport of North Harbour, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, "I could always hear her as she chatted to Aunt Ann or Aunt Elsie as they picked their way through another summer of berries. When she wasn't talking, she sang; songs hymns, ditties. It didn't matter to me. I knew she was there and she knew I was safe and content. This was the whole world." Paul Dean is a geologist by training and a storyteller by avocation. Come on with the Punt collects the stories he wrote most years for the March Hare literary/musical festival that originated in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and has since spread across the island and to venues in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Ireland. Readers of this volume will quickly see why Paul Dean's stories were so fondly anticipated by March Hare audiences. Some are poignant, some are hilarious, some are both by turns. The stories are grounded in an earned but lightly worn wisdom about human people and their affairs. They are rooted where Paul grew up in the safekeeping of a loving family. They hearken back to an earlier Newfoundland way of life, but in full consciousness of the wider world in which Paul is now at home, as much as anyone ever can be whom education has severed from the ancestral place. Warmly nostalgic (from the Greek word nostos, meaning home), but never sentimental, these are sophisticated performances in an utterly distinctive, plainly Newfoundland voice.

Author Biography

Paul Dean was born, raised and studied in the geology and landscapes of Newfoundland and Labrador. As a professional geologist, Dean has had a diverse career in geological research, mineral exploration, public service and public education. He is the former Executive Director of the Johnson GEO CENTRE, a world class geological interpretation centre in St. John's, focusing on the geological wonders of Newfoundland and Labrador. Dean served as Assistant Deputy Minister of Mines and Deputy Minister of Environment and Conservation. Paul Dean is also a story writer, a story teller and an advocate for traditional music and dance of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has been a regular performer at the annual March Hare literary festival for the past fifteen years. Some of his stories have been published in the Newfoundland Quarterly and The March Hare Anthology. He has strong roots in rural Newfoundland and continues to spend good times in Placentia Bay, where he was born, as well as in Trinity Bight and Notre Dame Bay. Most of his stories are based in small communities in these parts of rural Newfoundland.