Homegrown 2.0: Even More Locally Produced Reads (September 26)

Find more Homegrown picks here.

Dear Haider by Lili Zeng (Baraka Books)

Montreal, QC

All Lit Up: Does your community feature in your book in some way? How?

Lili Zeng: The Department of Physics of McGill is featured prominently in my novel. The protagonist is an undergraduate student in the Joint Honours Maths and Physics program at McGill who, at the beginning of the novel, undertakes a summer internship in a lab Germany. After summer ends, she returns to McGill and continues her studies. The McGill physics community is omnipresent as a backdrop throughout the narrative, with her many friends being fellow students in the department, and the Rutherford building appearing in the story. 

Click here to learn more about Dear Haider + purchasing options.

The Genius Hour Project by Leanne Shirtliffe (Thistledown Press)

Calgary, AB

All Lit Up: Does your community feature in your book in some way? How?

Leanne Shirtliffe: The Genius Hour Project is set in Riverview, a fictional mid-size Canadian city. Riverview’s smaller population makes it seem very unlike my hometown of Calgary (nearly 1.7 million). However, I stole a lot from my community. Though I changed the names, many of the places that are important to the main character Frazzy are based on actual Calgary venues.

1. The Hillhurst-Sunnyside Flea Market: what is a city without a flea market? In The Genius Hour Project, Frazzy’s dad sets up weekly at the Riverview Flea Market. I unapologetically based this locale on Calgary’s Hillhurst-Sunnyside Flea Market, where my husband sets up every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Flea markets are filled with interesting stuff, interesting people, and interesting interactions: perfect for visiting and perfect for fictionalizing. Come to the flea market, mention The Genius Hour Project to my husband and you’ll get a 10% discount; mind you, if you have a pulse, he’ll also give you a 10% discount.
   
2. Pho Huong Viet Restaurant: this Vietnamese noodle-house on 17 Ave SW is where Frazzy hatches her plan for setting up at the upcoming music collectors show. She orders #1, which is indeed “Huong Viet’s Special Sate Beef Noodle Soup – Pho Sate” at this scrumptious restaurant.
   
3. The Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge: billed in 2018 as the largest YMCA in the world, this Calgary multiplex inspired the grand opening of one in the fictional Riverview. Like this YMCA in Calgary, Riverview’s Multiplex has ice rinks, climbing walls, pools, and a public library. It’s at this ice rink where Frazzy first sees her nemesis Jake in a different light.
   
4. The Calgary Music Collectors Show: this semi-annual show is held at the Acadia Recreational Complex and is Alberta’s oldest music show. In The Genius Hour Project, Frazzy sets up at the Riverview Record Show to sell vinyl and CDs. This is arguably the most important scene in the novel. It’s here where Frazzy’s interactions with like-minded music lovers and collectors encourage her to own who she is: an interesting, quirky, vinyl-loving tween. If you love music and/or music paraphernalia, go to the Calgary Music Collectors Show (upcoming dates are October 20, 2024, and April 27, 2025)!

As I learned when I moved to Calgary nearly 20 years ago, this ever-changing city is far more than what it’s famous for: the Stampede. And, like in most places—including the fictional Riverview—it’s the off-the-grid locales that allow for the most genuine (and potentially humourous and memorable) interactions.

Click here to learn more about The Genius Hour Project + purchasing options.

White World by Saad T. Farooqi (Cormorant Books)

London, ON

All Lit Up: Do you have a favourite spot to visit in your hometown/where you live?

Saad T. Farooqi: I know this isn’t the answer some might expect, but my favorite spot in town is the gym down the street from where I live. Some of my best ideas, my biggest inspirations, have come at the gym. There’s something about being focused on the exercise at hand and pushing yourself to your limits that brings forth a certain clarity. This clarity sets your mind on fire. Whether it’s discovering inventive ways to propagate a story arc, navigating plot holes, or gaining an insight into a character’s POV, it’s often intense workouts that allow me to break past hurdles that hours of sitting before a blank screen could not.

It helps to always have a way of jotting down whatever flashes of inspiration I come upon. I usually use the notes app on my phone to record my ideas. Or I use voice recording.

Click here to learn more about White World + purchasing options.

Post-Mortem of the Event by Klara du Plessis (Palimpsest Press)

Montreal, QC

All Lit Up: Does your community feature in your book in some way? How?

Klara du Plessis: My fourth poetry collection, Post-Mortem of the Event (Palimpsest Press, 2024), is dedicated to SpokenWeb. SpokenWeb is a scholarly network founded at Concordia University in Montreal that archives and studies literary audio, that is, recordings of poetry readings and literary performance imbued with sound. I’ve been affiliated with SpokenWeb in one way or another since 2018 and have learned a lot from that affiliation. My thinking has been hugely influenced by the wonderful creative minds that collaborate on this project. The poetry in this collection is thus thematically infused with reflections on archival sound, but it was also composed with experimental methods gleaned and rerouted from more scholarly contexts. In this sense, the SpokenWeb community is cited constantly, not by name, but in their imbricated presence in the very making of this body of work. That said, Post-Mortem of the Event reaches beyond its origins. Reading poetry out loud, and congregating to launch and celebrate literature, is a core part of the ritual of bringing a new book into the world. My hope is that this poetry will resonate across various communities of practice and bring people together to see their attention echoed back at them in verse.

Click here to learn more about Post-Mortem of the Event + purchasing options.

Meota, SK

All Lit Up: Does your community feature in your book in some way? How?

Betty Ternier Daniels: My rural community plays an important role in my novel. Much of the action takes place on what is essentially my farm. Other scenes are set on neighbouring farms and in the resort village of Bunchgrass (based on my hometown of Cochin). The plot centres on conflict over the protagonist’s farm: she doesn’t want to sell, but someone wants her land so badly that they are willing to kill for it.

Click here to learn more about Grounds for Murder + purchasing options.