In Review: The Week of May 1st

On the Blog

~ We just couldn’t quit poetry month, so we read recent Giller nominee Gary Barwin’s latest, No TV for Woodpeckers (Wolsak & Wynn), while sipping on a rummy Red-Headed Woody for this month’s Chappy Hour.~ But sunrise, sunset, right? We rang in the start of Short Story Month with a look at RATS NEST (BookThug), the first highlighted short story collection for this month’s celebration. You can read an excerpt and learn why Mat describes his collection with the words “blob”, “grandmother”, and “vape-creatures”.~ Freehand Books Managing Editor Kelsey taught us how to go super-meta with the book design of their weird and wonderful Searching for Petronius Totem in Under the Cover.~ Jodi Picoult and Anne Tyler are the literary parents of Shari Narine’s Oil Change at Rath’s Garage (Thistledown Press), our featured First Fiction Friday this week.

Around the Web

~ An independent press in the United States has started a podcast-based audiodrama about a novelist reality TV show – that’ll discuss their books in the process. ~ BuzzFeed did an amazing piece about the costume design behind our favourite screen post-apocalyptic heroines, including ones from The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale.~ Surprising no one, people don’t seem to like Ivanka Trump’s new book (but maybe that’s just because she totally LeanIn).

What Else We’re Reading

Lauren just finished Sarah Schulman’s Conflict is not Abuse (Arsenal Pulp Press), an incisive but accessible look at how humans can overstate harm and close down communication (especially when we need it most).