Ethel Whitty was born and raised in Cape Breton and emigrated from there to the West Coast in her early twenties. She wrote The Light a Body Radiates in stolen moments and occasional weeks of solitude while working for twelve years as the Director of the Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A graduate of the Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio, she currently lives in Vancouver.

“…Written with much lyricism and heart, the Cape Breton of the past comes alive on the page, with its close-knit culture, spectacular wind-swept vistas and grinding poverty. […] All told, The Light a Body Radiates is a standout debut. A sign of good things to come.” —The Vancouver Sun

“Whitty is a masterful storyteller. The Light A Body Radiates is a touching multi-generational story that is rooted in the isolation and safety of Cape Breton Island. With great insight and beautiful detail, Whitty reveals that it’s only through the lost and departed that we truly understand the meaning of home.” —Gurjinder Basran, author of Someone You Love Is Gone

“The Light a Body Radiates has all the gorgeous melancholy and raw yet dignified edge of the most beautifully played Cape Breton strathspey. With pitch-perfect detail this coming-of-age novel lays bare the blood memories of family and place that link generations through life’s hard joys and sorrows and the exigencies of individuals making their way in the world. A haunting story whose powerful, lilting notes rise and echo far beyond its pages.” —Carol Bruneau, author of A Bird on Every Tree

“… There’s a lot of these multi-generational sagas but I thought this was a very fresh take on it and I loved the female characters at its centre.” —Kerry Clare, on CBC Ontario Morning