Joan Baxter

Joan Baxter is a Nova Scotian author, journalist and anthropologist who now divides her time between Canada and West Africa. Her 2001 book, A Serious Pair of Shoes: An African Journal, won the Evelyn Richardson Award for non-fiction at the 2001 Atlantic Writing Awards. The late Peter Gzowski included her letters to CBC Morningside in his series of Morningside Letters books, and described Joan’s first non-fiction work, Graveyard for Dreamers: One Woman’s Odyssey in Africa, as “a magical book”. In addition to hundreds of news reports and features for BBC World Service, her short fiction has also been aired on this worldwide radio service in several languages. She has lived and worked in Mexico, Guatemala, Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Sierra Leone, and travelled extensively on four continents. She is married and the mother of two.

For more than two decades Joan lived with her family in Africa, reporting for the BBC World Service, CBC Radio, Associated Press, Toronto Star, The Chronicle Herald and a host of other media. She also worked as a Senior Science Writer at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2006 and 2007, she served as Executive Director for the international non-governmental organization, the Nova Scotia – Gambia Association, working in both The Gambia and Sierra Leone on development education for youth and marginalized groups. While there, she produced two films showing positive images and messages from West Africa.

Over the years she has met, interviewed and profiled a host of African presidents, dignitaries, writers, intellectuals, and musical celebrities, including the great Miriam Makeba of South Africa, the late Ali Farka Toure of Mali, the sensational Malian duo Amadu & Mariam, the late Francis Bebey of Cameroon, and many more. She is a frequent public speaker on African issues and does consultant and volunteer work in African development.

Selected Publications

Dust From Our Eyes: An Unblinkered Look At Africa. Forthcoming (Fall 2008), Wolsak & Wynn.

The Hermit of Gully Lake:The Life and Times of Willard Kitchener MacDonald. Pottersfield Press, 2005. ISBN 1-895900-70-0.

Short-listed for the Booksellers’ Choice Award at the 2006 Atlantic Book Awards

A Serious Pair of Shoes: An African Journal. Pottersfield Press, 2000.
ISBN 1-895900-30-1.
     Winner of the 2001 Evelyn Richardson Award

     "required reading for anyone who cares for Africa".
          - Toronto Star

Strangers Are Like Children: Stories of Africa. Short fiction collection. Pottersfield Press, 1996. ISBN 0-919001-98-X.

"In Strangers Are Like Children, Joan Baxter reveals herself to be a new writer of immense talent and promise. The book deserves the highest praise.”
     - The Globe and Mail

Graveyard for Dreamers: One Woman's Odyssey in Africa. Pottersfield Press, 1994. ISBN 0-919001-88-2.

". . . a richly inviting book."
     - The Globe and Mail

"Act of God". Atlantica: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. 2001. Lesley Choyce, Editor. Goose Lane Editions. ISBN 0-8692-309-0.

Benin, The Congo, Burkina Faso: Politics, Economics and Society. Contributing Author.Pinter Publishers, London, 1989. ISBN 0-86187-481-1

"Everything by God." Something To Write Home About:Reflections From the Heart of History. Edited by Claude Colart and Sahm Venter; foreward by Desmond Tutu. Johannesberg, South Africa:Jacana Media, 2004. All royalties to Miguel Fil Moreno Foundation and Kerem Lawton Fund. ISBN 1919931953.

Fourth Morningside Papers (1991), The Latest Morningside Papers (1989) and The New Morningside Papers (1987), by Peter Gzowski, McClelland & Stewart (contributions to CBC Morningside from Africa by Joan Baxter in Togo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya).

Selected Productions

Timbuktu - Centre of the World ( 45-minute radio documentary for BBC Radio 3 Sunday Feature, produced by Louise Yeoman, presented by Joan Baxter ).

A Journey on the River Niger (30-minute radio documentary for BBC World Learning series, Four Rivers). 2003.

The Changing Mood of Mali's Muslims (30-minute radio documentary for BBC African Perspective). 2001.

Food and Medicine From the Forest (30-minute radio documentary on how scientists and farmers are bringing valuable trees from the vanishing forests to cultivate on their farms in Cameroon) BBC One Planet. 1998.

Field of Trees (30-minute video on agroforestry filmed in Uganda, Zambia, Indonesia and Peru), ICRAF, 1996.

You can send mail to Joan Baxter
c/o Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia