“A treasure-box of Newfoundland lore, collected by the great-granddaughter of not one, but two, shipwreck-braving poets, The Bosun Chair’s seamless movement between memoir, poetry, interview and historical document echoes Ondaatje’s early genre-blending lyric prose. Deslisle tenderly imagines a family history of the ancestral Newfoundland she never knew.”
~ Sonnet L'Abbé, author of A Strange Relief and Killarnoe

“[T]he author’s delicate language will have you feeling comfortable as you swing from moment to moment and piece together her myriad stories.”
~ WHERE Edmonton

“Poetic linking throughout the book ... reminds us of the gaps in our own identity. In the end, Delisle helps us realize that construction of identity is an ongoing, slippery and deliberate journey.”
~ Elizabeth Johnston, Atlantic Books Today

“The Bosun Chair, with its transparency of process and its artful blend of reportage, poetry, and prose, shines a light on migration’s dark sea.”
~ Susan Olding, The Malahat Review

“[The Bosun Chair] resonates with a subtle charm and quiet beauty, and the small outports of Newfoundland indeed become our imagined place, as well as Delisle’s.”
~ Suzanne James, Canadian Literature