Adam Pottle

Author, Teacher, and Advocate.

Adam Pottle's work spans multiple genres, from fiction and poetry to drama and creative nonfiction. His books include the novel Mantis Dreams, the novella The Bus, the memoir Voice, and the poetry collection Beautiful Mutants.

His writing has won or been shortlisted for numerous awards, including National Magazine Awards, Saskatchewan Book Awards, the ReLit Prize, and the Acorn-Plantos Award. His groundbreaking play The Black Drum is the world's first all-Deaf musical and was performed to raves in Toronto and France in 2019. He was the 2021-22 Writer in Residence at Sheridan College and is a 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery Access screenwriting fellow.

His latest book, the prairie gothic horror novel Apparitions, was released Fall 2023. He lives in Saskatoon, where he can be spotted walking his goldendoodle, Valkyrie.

 

Adam Pottle
Apparitions by Adam Pottle

Apparitions


VIOLENCE WAS HIS FIRST LANGUAGE.

A nameless Deaf teen escapes his father's basement after years of imprisonment. Bloody, alone, and without language, he stumbles through the Saskatchewan prairies and lands in a psychiatric facility, where he meets Felix, another Deaf teen. Felix—cunning and ambitious—teaches the nameless narrator Sign Language and begins to mould the abused teen's mind. But mould into what?

 

“Horrifying and also deeply human. A heartbreaking look at the way society fails people and the monstrousness that grows in the dark places that we turn away from and refuse to see. A highly addictive read.”
— A. C. Wise, author of The Ghost Sequences

“A young deaf man escapes years of cruelty and abuse—deprived of love, language, even a name—into the arms of a troubled savior who gives him all three at a terrible cost. Apparitions is a gripping, pulse-pounding thriller about desire and terror, faith and revenge, suffused with ever-escalating dread as it hurtles towards its devastating conclusion. Adam Pottle evokes Cormac McCarthy and Jack Ketchum with his taut muscular prose and his wrenching insights into the lonely violent lives of those who are forced into society’s margins. An intensely unsettling read that wound its way into my nightmares.”
—David Demchuk, author of The Bone Mother and RED X

Apparitions by Adam Pottle
— goodreads Community Reviews

 

Press

It’s a brilliant work that should not be overlooked.
- Quill & Quire

'A beautiful sledgehammer': Author Adam Pottle pens new perspectives on Canadian horror
- Star Phoenix

Q&A: Deaf Saskatoon writer finds art in his disability
- CBC News

 

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