Talking Location With … Donna Jones Alward: NORTH AMERICA

24th February 2026

#TalkingLocationWith… with Donna Jones Alward, author of Ship of Dreams: North America

The backdrop to most of my latest novel, Ship of Dreams, is aboard Titanic. There’s an endless fascination with this fated ship, from the grandeur of first class to the desperate hope of those in steerage, searching for a new life. My main characters, Hannah and Louisa, are in first class, and they mingle with the rich and famous on board. As a writer, it was incredibly fun to research not only the immensity of the ship but the fashion, food, and society of the day.

Beyond the immediate allure of Titanic, I found interesting dynamics to play with on a different level. The ship, for the better part of a week, becomes a microcosm of society and really illuminates the classism of the era. Those in the lower classes had to “stay in their place” and their designated areas of the ship. They ate differently. They socialized differently. Each class was its own setting within a greater whole.

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One of my favourite parts to examine was how despite the location — on the grandest ship in the world and in the middle of the North Atlantic — people (characters) still had real problems, particularly the women. Troubled marriages. Societal pressures. Lack of choices and autonomy. And yet, when the ship went down, all the money in the world couldn’t buy the safety of the men on board. Very few made it off the ship. There were so many opportunities to juxtapose wealth and privilege with restriction and hardship, and that really added to the writing (and hopefully reading!) experience.

Sailing through Halifax Harbour

I always knew that while there would be parts of the story set on Carpathia and in New York City, I would finish the novel in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Halifax was the setting of my first historical fiction, When the World Fell Silent, set during the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and researching it showed me many points of intersection between the two events. Many people are unaware that the bodies recovered from Titanic were brought to Halifax (with a small number buried at sea). A few were held at Snow’s Mortuary (now the Five Fishermen restaurant, rumoured to be haunted) and the majority at the Mayflower Curling Club. The method of cataloging personal effects and the state of the bodies was devised by a local Halifax registrar, J.H. Barnstead, and was used only five years later during the explosion. The Barnstead Method is still used today.

Titanic Gravesite – Fairview Lawn Cemetery

Some of the bodies were claimed by family members and repatriated, such as J.J. Astor, whose son, Vincent, came to Halifax for that purpose. Most of the bodies, however, are buried here in Halifax at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, with Catholic victims buried at the Mount Olivet cemetery and Jewish victims at the Baron de Hirsch cemetery.

When families came to Halifax to claim the remains of their family members, they discovered a city in mourning — for people they never knew. There was black draping over shop windows and flags were at half mast. And when the Mackay-Bennett made its way into the harbor, a sombre line of horse-drawn hearses was waiting to transport the 190 bodies to the mortuaries while church bells tolled.

Halifax was touched by the disaster in a more direct way, as well: Hilda Slayter, originally from Halifax, was in second class and managed to survive the sinking. Wealthy property developer George Wright, however, was not so lucky. He had recently updated his will, and in it he left his house on Young Avenue to the Local Council of Women, a fact that plays a key role in the final chapters of the story. The building is still used for that purpose today.

Halifax, and by extension Nova Scotia and the maritime provinces, is known for its warmth and hospitality. Because of this, we also respond to disasters through a lens of care and community. It happened in 1912, it happened to its own in 1917, and even as recently as during the Swiss Air crash off Peggy’s Cove in 1998 and 9/11. Using this remarkable, resilient city as the location for the party of Ship of Dreams allows me to show the rest of the world how amazing Canada and Canadians really are.

Ship of Dreams releases in paperback in the US on March 31, with the eBook and audiobook already available.

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About the Author

Since 2006, New York Times bestselling author Donna Jones Alward has enchanted readers with stories of happy endings and homecomings that have won several awards and been translated into over a dozen languages. She’s worked as an administrative assistant, teaching assistant, in retail and as a stay-at-home-mom, but always knew her degree in English Literature would pay off, as she is now happy to be a full-time writer, blending her love of history with characters who step beyond their biggest fears to claim the lives they desire.

Photos © the author

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