Author: ALU Editor
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First Fiction Friday: Different Beasts
The short stories within J.R. McConvey’s first collection Different Beasts (Goose Lane Editions) might seemingly be full of ‘monsters’ – but don’t be mistaken. The real horror lies in finding that these beasts are not so different from ourselves as we might believe…
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Quoted: Odes & Laments
Inspired by Pablo Neruda’s Elemental Odes, Fiona Tinwei Lam’s poetry collection Odes & Laments (Caitlin Press) is a visual play with text and typography that uses humour, narrative, and lyricism to contemplate everyday existence. Below Fiona tells us about the Neruda quote that opens her collection and how poetry is “a way to acknowledge what…
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Field Trip: Interview with Ingrid Paulson
When the unique designs of the classic novels published by Gladstone Press caught our eye, we went Field Trippin’ to visit publisher/designer Ingrid Paulson to get the scoop on her work to encourage new readers through fresh design, distilling the essence of a book into a single message, and how she finds inspiration in bringing to…
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Mixtape: This Has Nothing to Do With You
This Mixtape pairs Lauren Carter’s This Has Nothing to Do With You (Freehand Books) — a gripping novel about a young woman coming to terms with a tragic reality about her family — with the ultimate ’90s playlist, featuring tracks from Nirvana, Def Leppard, The Cure, Bruce Springsteen, and more. Get your headphones ready and scroll…
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In Review: The Week of September 16th
This week we officially turned five and threw ourselves a week-long book party in celebration, took an armchair walking tour of the urban forest, tsked at some ill-advised bookmarks, and more.
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First Fiction Friday: The Somali Camel Boy
Nur Abdi’s debut novel The Somali Camel Boy (Mawenzi House) finds a young camel boy casting off the tethers of his life in the Sudi clan after a rival clan kills his father, leading him into a series of unfortunate events. Both tragic, and at times funny, this is a novel for fans of Rabindranath Maharaj’s Orbit…
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Writer’s Block: Trudy Morgan-Cole
Trudy Morgan-Cole, author of the forthcoming book, A Roll of the Bones (Breakwater Books), joins us on the ALU blog to chat about everything from writing her first book at age 6 and bookclub butterflies, to teleportation and time traveling through historical fiction.
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Under the Cover: Walking the urban forest in Treed
Ariel Gordon’s essay collection Treed (Wolsak & Wynn) is a walking tour of the urban forest: from the effects of climate change on the urban forest to foraging in the city, the essays explore our relationship with the natural world. Below Ariel shares about how trust was the starting point in bringing her book into the…
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Where in Canada: The Girl Who Stole Everything
Travel from contemporary Vancouver and Poland, to a New World city and an Old World countryside with Norman Ravvin’s The Girl Who Stole Everything (Linda Leith Publishing). Discover more about how Vancouver’s east-side streets set the backdrop for this novel, revealing the relationship between prewar Polish shtetl life and Jewish lives today.
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ALU turns five!
All Lit Up turns five today! With growing pains behind us, we’re blowing out our candles with a look back on five of our favourite features on the blog AND five + five books we loved this year.
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In Review: The Week of September 9th
This week we paired our PSLs with some cool fall book covers, played casting director, spooked ourselves out for six books for Friday the 13th, and more!
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Six spooky(ish) reads for Friday the 13th
Whether you buy into the bad-luck portents of Friday the 13th or look forward to getting a little spooked out in support of the bad-rap day, we’ve got a booklist of spooky(ish) reads to make the day decidedly more eerie.
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Beautiful Books: Agnes, Murderess
Author and illustrator Sarah Leavitt and publisher Freehand Books join us on the blog to share some of the inky inspo that lead to the writing and design of Agnes, Murderess, a totally hand-made book from thumbnail to font, based on the bloody legend of roadhouse baddie Agnes MacVee.
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Cover Collage: Cool Covers of Fall 2019
Whether “pumpkin spice and everything nice” is your fall motto, or if you’re just looking for reasons to get pumped for the season, check out our roundup of six awesome fall books with covers we be-leaf are stunning.
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Character Study: Claremont
With the red carpets rolling out for the Toronto International Film Festival this week, we’re adding another premier to the roster from All Lit Up Pictures: a film adaptation of the novel Claremontby Wiebke von Carolsfeld. When a young boy loses his parents to a murder-suicide, he finds healing amongst his fractured family, bringing them…