Ray Evarts Staszko

Ray Evarts Staszko is a novelist and sculptor living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was born in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. At the age of 18 he immigrated to Canada in protest of the war in Vietnam even though he was never drafted. Earlier in his life he unwillingly entered the “army” of boys abused by the Catholic Church, an episode that plays a small part in his new novel, Judgment Day for the Cat Burglar. His first novel, Animal City, was published by Simon & Schuster and praised by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Thereafter he joined the ranks of the likes of Vincent Von Gogh by “cutting off his nose to spite his face” and refusing to conform to the writing styles and themes that the major commercial publishers were looking for. As a result his subsequent work has been “relegated” to smaller presses and self-publishing. However the upside is that he has been free to write what he wants exactly the way he wants, and this had garnered him some critical acclaim. To earn a living, he has written and published nonfiction, including textbooks for correspondence courses. If you got a GED in the past couple of decades you may have unknowingly benefited from his help.

His novel The First Book of Beaver, a dystopian fantasy about climate change, has been purchased and praised in various parts of the world and taught in university English and Environmental Science courses. He considers Cat Burglar to be his best and most important novel, and it may well be his last, as he is in poor health. It is not for everyone, but to paraphrase a Nova Scotia beer commercial, those who like it like it a lot. It has been said that there are few novelists in this era or any other who surpass him in imagination or innovation. He is definitely not in this for the money. He prices his books at the lowest level allowed in order to make them accessible to as many people as possible, and spends his own money to give free copies to fans.

If you like to read and think outside of the proverbial box, this might be an author to consider.