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Don Aker
"Having taught high school students for over 20 years," Don says, "I have been privileged to be always around young people." It is not surprising, then, that young people are the focus of much of his writing. What subjects does he choose to write about? "Things that bother me that don't go away," he says. Don wrote his first novel, Of Things Not Seen, after a student shared with him in her journal that she was being physically abused by her father. "I was horrified and, of course, morally and professionally obligated to report her abuse, but betraying a student's confidence was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do." Of Things Not Seen tells the story of sixteen-year-old Ben Corbett who, along with his mother, is physically abused by his domineering stepfather.The idea for his second novel, Stranger at Bay, also grew out of his experience with students. "Every June at my school's closing ceremony, I see people come up to the stage to accept academic awards, and some of the winners look embarassed, almost ashamed of having done well. That reaction has always bothered me because, as a teacher, I want students to be proud of their academic achievement. I began wondering why a person might react that way to winning such an award, and this, in turn, made me want to explore how it might feel to be a gifted student." That gifted student became Randy Forsythe, the main character in Stranger at Bay. Don holds a Master of Education from Acadia University and, besides working as a classroom teacher, has worked as a freelance reviewer and consultant for various educational publishers, including Nelson Thomson Learning, Pembroke Publishers, and Pearson Education. He has written several books for schools—among them Hitting the Mark: Assessment Tools for Teachers (Pembroke, 1995) and a series of language arts texts for grades 8 to 11 (ITP Nelson)—and he has had articles and fiction published in The International Journal of Reading, Quill & Quire, Books in Canada, Canadian Living Magazine, Our Family Magazine, The Pottersfield Portfolio, Dandelion Magazine, The Chronicle Herald/Mail Star, and various anthologies. Don is the 2006-07 Literacy Teacher Mentor for the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board and he is currently completing his fifth novel, The Space Between, to be published by HarperCollins in 2007. Don lives in Middleton, Nova Scotia, with his wife and two daughters. Selected List of PublicationsBooks
One on One. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0006395317. The First Stone. HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. ISBN
0-006392857. "The First Stone is rich in characterization, not just in terms of the major characters but also the secondary ones, and Aker even provides readers with closure for these secondary characters as well in the novel's final section. . . . Highly Recommended." - Dave Jenkinson, CM Magazine. Winging It (expository text). New York: Pearson Education, 2003. New Language, New Friends (expository text). New York: Pearson Education, 2003. Nelson Language and Writing series. Co-authored by Dave Hodgkinson.
Scarborough, Ontario: ITP Nelson. "Each book focuses on particular writing forms and takes students through the process of writing each by examining models that are taken from current publications. I'm very proud to have my name on these books." Stranger at Bay, Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1997. ISBN
0-7736-7468-3. Hitting the Mark: Assessment Tools for Teachers. Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishers, 1995. ISBN 1-55138-062-5.
"Aker is particularly strong at characterization, and he renders the dynamics which allow abuse to continue within a family with great credidbility." Short Fiction/ Short Non-fiction“Pull.” The Horrors: Terrifying Tales Book One, Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2005. “Everything Gets Dead.” The Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario, July 28, 2002. “Do Like My Old Man.” The Gaspereau Review, Wolfville, Nova Scotia: Gaspereau Press, December, 1998. “Takes: Stories for Young Adults” (review). Books in Canada, Toronto: The Canadian Review of Books Ltd., February, 1997. “A Mountain Alphabet” (review). Books in Canada. Toronto: The Canadian Review of Books Ltd., 1997. “Looking Eastward” (feature). The Chronicle-Herald/Mail Star, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 27, 1995. "The Invitation," “The Ruler.” The Pottersfield Portfolio. Fredericton: Wild East Publishing, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1993. “Scars.” The Landmarks Story Anthology. Scarborough, ON: ITP Nelson, 1996. (Also published in Dandelion Magazine, Calgary, Alberta, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1992. - Third-place winner of Dandelion Magazine's 1991 Fiction Competition.) “From Runned to Ran: One Journey Toward a Critical Literacy” (essay). International Journal of Reading. Newark, Delaware, Vol. 36, No. 2, October, 1992. “A Lesson in Listening” (essay). Our Family Magazine. Battleford, Saskatchewan, May, 1992. “Underwear and Elevator Games” (essay). The Essay Connection. 3rd edition. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company, 1991. “Do You Remember Sex?” (essay). The Essay Connection. 3rd edition. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company, 1991. “The Test.” Canadian Living Magazine. Toronto:
December, 1990. Awards
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A junior high school teacher, Don Aker fell into
writing in 1988 after attending the Martha's Vineyard Summer Writing
Workshops, where instructors encouraged participants to write with their
students. Encouraged by winning the short fiction and nonfiction categories
of the 1989 and 1990 WFNS Atlantic Writing Competitions as well as Canadian
Living Magazine's 1990 National Literary Competition, Don went on to publish
numerous stories and articles and has written twelve books.
Of Things Not Seen. Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1995.
ISBN 0-7736-7435-7.