In Review: The Week of June 17th

On the Blog

~ We kicked off our annual #ALUbookclub with two summer-ready reads from NeWest Press and ECW Press: Echolocation by Karen Hofmann and Bad Ideas by Missy Marston.~ For Pride Month, we chatted with debut novelist Susie Taylor on writing queer characters and her novel Even Weirder Than Before (Breakwater Books): “This novel is fictional, but Daisy’s voice tries to pay homage to the miserable, queer and confused kid […]”~ Our interview with poet Ben Ladouceur, author of Mad Long Emotion (Coach House Books) included his fave fictional characters, writing  life, and the magic of re-reading novels. “I used to think it was a strange use of time, but now I see that some novels basically tell you to come back again in ten years when you’re different.”~ Suzanne Methot, author of Legacy (ECW Press) shared her thoughts on intergenerational trauma in Indigenous communities, what ending colonial control really means, and National Indigenous Peoples Day: “It took a long time and a lot of unlearning to realize that instead of being helped, Indigenous peoples are criminalized for experiencing the everyday impacts of intergenerational trauma.”

Around the Web

~ Proving that no one is safe from rejection, here is a roundup of rejection letters sent to famous writers.~ Leonard Cohen’s love letters to his muse Marianne Ihlen sold at an auction for over $800,000.~ If you didn’t think grammar was controversial, here are 19 times linguistic spats turned personal and political. 

via GIPHY

What Else We’re Reading

Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being by Amy Fung (Book*hug Press)