Author: ALU Editor
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ALU Summer Book Club: Follow-up Reads after Humane
If the thought of finishing our July book club pick Humane by Anna Marie Sewell (Stonehouse Publishing) has you yelling, “oh, the humanity!” – don’t fret. We’ve rounded up four follow-up reads to this gripping Indigenous crime novel.
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Where in Canada: Ghost Towns of Ontario’s Cottage Country
Former railway point turned ghost town, Swords, Ontario is the haunting focal point of this Where in Canada. Author Andrew Hind gives us a tour into the once-lively and now abandoned town, one of the many vanished villages featured in his new book Ghost Towns of Ontario’s Cottage Country (Dundurn Press).
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Under the Cover: Learning how not to drown in Mason’s Jar
Bearing witness to near-daily drug withdrawals in his Northern Ontario community, John Jantunen began writing his latest novel Mason’s Jar (ECW Press), a western, sci-fi, horror cross-genre novel that centres on questions of social justice—housing, mental health, opioid crises. Below, John shares how his experiences in North Bay, Ontario became the foundation of his latest…
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First Fiction Friday: Bernini’s Elephant
Reading a book set in Italy is just as good as being in Italy, right? Our top pick this weekend is Jane Callen’s debut novel Bernini’s Elephant (Guernica Editions), a literary murder mystery about love, art, and deception that ponders whether we can ever truly escape our past choices.
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Beautiful Books: Sara Angelucci: Undergrowth / Broussailles
In stunning, complex botanical compositions that blend native and invasive plants, photo artist Sara Angelucci comments on ongoing settler colonialism and current global trade routes, and their impacts on our ecology. Below, Sara shares four such compositions from her new book of photos and essays: Undergrowth / Broussailles (ECW Press, in partnership with the Art Gallery of…
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ALU Summer Book Club: Humane Staff Discussion
The ALU team met to delve deeper into the world of Amiskwaciy and its residents – Hazel, Missy, Maengan, Spider the dog, Devin, and many more – the folks who made our July book club pick Humane by Anna Marie Sewell (Stonehouse Publishing) feel so alive. Read on to catch some of the highlights of our…
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Poetry in Motion: Alice Major + Knife on Snow
Founder of Edmonton Poetry Festival (and Edmonton’s first-ever poet laureate) Alice Major returns with her twelfth collection, Knife on Snow (Turnstone Press). She reads “The Dream Opens” from the collection and tells us how anger is everywhere – in the world and throughout this collection – how can it be used to bend people’s wills,…
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World Emoji Day – Guess that Book!
Celebrate World Emoji Day (July 17) with us in a fun new way! We’re diving into the fascinating world of emojis and their ability to tell stories. From the classic smileys to a vast array of symbols, animals, and objects, emojis have changed the way we express ourselves in the digital age. Try guessing these…
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First Fiction Friday: And the Walls Came Down
The 1990s, in many ways, were a simpler time: stirrup pants, Fido Dido, McPizza. And yet, they were also the time of the teenage years of Delia Ellis, the protagonist of today’s First Fiction Friday feature, novel And the Walls Came Down by Denise Da Costa (Dundurn Press). Read more about this dual-timeline debut novel set…
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Where in Canada: The Donkey Cutter
Gregory Koop’s The Donkey Cutter (Guernica Editions) is an evocative debut novel about a young woman coming of age during the tumultuous early days of 20th century Canada. Set in a Mennonite community in the Prairies, this is a story that firmly roots us into a time and place during Canada’s infancy when many endeavours, like…
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ALU Summer Book Club: Interview with Anna Marie Sewell
We met with the author of our July ALU Book Club pick Humane (Stonehouse Publishing), Anna Marie Sewell, to discuss (among other things) conversation as community-building, so-called “magical realism” as a true lens by which to view the world, and empathy as the ultimate driver to do good.
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Writer’s Block: Karin Martel
Karin Martel, a former 911 call-centre operator and currently the SPS ViCLAS Coordinator documenting sexual assaults in Saskatoon, wrote of her own experience of assault in her memoir, Shop Class Hall Pass (Signature Editions). Today, Karin answers our Proust questionnaire on writing rituals, her favourite book to recommend, and what a perfect writing day would be like.
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Character Study: Wait Softly Brother
Writer Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer had an extra challenge when donning our patented Character Study casting director’s cap: her novel Wait Softly Brother (Wolsak & Wynn) is autofictional, featuring a Kathryn character – herself – in the story. Read on to see the film royal (two times over!) she chose to play the silver-screen version of herself, as well…
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ALU Summer Book Club: Intro to Humane
Meet our July book club pick: Humane by Anna Marie Sewell! We serve up an excerpt of this hybrid Indigenous/crime novel and interview Stonehouse Publishing publisher Netta Johnson about how after reading the first 30 pages of this book, she was “blown away” (we suspect you will be, too!).
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Celebrate Pride with Lockheed Martin, from Prototype to Launch
In this piece, poet Jake Byrne walks us through the writing process of their new collection Celebrate Pride with Lockheed Martin (Wolsak & Wynn). As any writer likely knows, and readers are soon to discover: writing a book is a much longer (and indeed, more painstaking) process in life than on paper.