Author: ALU Editor
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If You Liked x, Read y: Merging Plotlines Edition
If you were charmed how two plotlines come together in Jojo Moyes’ The Girl You Left Behind, you won’t want to miss Taslim Burkowicz’s Ruby Red Skies (Fernwood Publishing), where the rich history of the Mughal Empire converges with modern day life for an Indo-Canadian woman from the Vancouver suburbs.
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An Interview with Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch
Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings (Kegedonce Press) continues the Ojibwe History series that Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch started with The Trail of Nenaboozhoo in 2019. We interview Issac about the role Serpents has to play in preserving Anishinaabe language and culture, turning oral storytelling into the written word, and how the lessons in the book show that kindness is…
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Writer’s Block: Mike Steeves
Anyone dubbed “a literary Larry David” is someone we want to know more about, which is why we’re thrilled novelist Mike Steeves – most recently of Bystander (Book*hug Press) – answered our Writer’s Block questionnaire. Read on to find out what first inspired Mike to start writing, the weighty book he’s read most, and which…
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Meet the Christensens – the Mother-Daughter Duo Behind Stealing John Hancock
Alie and Hejsa Christensen are a mother-daughter writing team that have taken their screenwriting chops to the printed page with this Fall’s blockbuster thriller novel Stealing John Hancock (Turnstone Press). We talk to H&A (their combined nom de plume) about their collaborative process, how writing about real estate fraud is different than other crimes, and how…
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Writer’s Block: Meg Todd
Meg Todd, ReLit Award shortlisted author for her short story collection Exit Strategies (Signature Editions), answers our questions on the book that started her on writing (eventually), how a perfect writing day might not look like there’s any writing at all, and her next book – a novel – in the works.
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In House: For the Love of Everything Speculative at ECW
ECW Press acquisitions editor Jen Albert talks about parlaying her passion for SFF and speculative fiction into a robust program at the publishing house – and gives us a sneak-peek of the exciting SFF titles to come for 2023.
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Poetry in Motion: Justene Dion-Glowa + Trailer Park Shakes
Sachiko Murakami says of queer Métis poet Justene Dion-Glowa’s collection Trailer Park Shakes (Brick Books) that their “voice crackles with frank, startling insight.” You’ll find the same with their video reading of “Ruts” from the collection, below.
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First Fiction Friday: Sombrio
Set on the outer coast of Vancouver Island, Rhonda Waterfall’s “vivid, hallucinatory” novel Sombrio (Gordon Hill Press) pits three men – and their wild ambitions – against what a lifetime of self-aggrandizing decisions have wrought for their children. See why this book needs to be added to your TBR below.
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Character Study: The Love Olympics
Claire Wilkshire’s writing chops are on full display in her short story collection The Love Olympics (Breakwater Books), a finalist for both the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Fiction and the BMO Winterset Award. Together with Claire, we cast two of the stories in the book, “House” and “The Dinner,” for a Character Study double-feature worthy of a…
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Top 10: Super-Sleuths for Mystery Week
It’s officially Mystery Series Week, and this edition of Top 10 is all about saluting the super sleuths among our mystery collection: read on to learn more about 10 gumshoes with gumption.
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Where in Canada: Junie
A vibrant, predominantly Black community in Vancouver called Hogan’s Alley was razed to make room for the Georgia Viaduct in the late 1960s. In her new novel, Junie (Book*hug Press), Chelene Knight plants her main character firmly into the heart of Hogan’s Alley, to breathe new life into the neighbourhood that was lost. She tells…
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Two Poems from The Oysters I Bring to Banquets
Prolific award-winning poet, writer, playwright, and editor Gary Geddes returns with a new collection, The Oysters I Bring to Banquets (Guernica Editions). We read two elegiac poems from the collection below, with introductions from the poet himself.
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T’seku Dawedah (Woman Sitting Up There)
We’re very fortunate to publish this excerpt from Antoine Bear Rock Mountain’s From Bear Rock Mountain: The Life and Times of a Residential School Survivor (Brindle & Glass/Touchwood), this Truth and Reconciliation Day. In the excerpt, he talks about visiting T’seku Dawedah, a sacred site where he went as a youth to reconnect with his Dene culture.
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Under the Cover: Five Stories of My Tics
Celebrated Ukrainian writer Ivan Baidak’s newest novel, (In)visible (Guernica Editions), hits particularly close to home: it chronicles the protagonist Adam’s tentative steps into public life after years of self-inflicted “invisibility.” Diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a teen, Adam’s story mirrors Baidak’s own experiences with Tourette’s: ones he shares in this essay below.
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Character Study: This House Is Not a Home
A clarion call for land back, Dene author Katłįà’s unapologetic novel This House Is Not a Home (Roseway Publishing) follows a Dene family who’ve returned home only to find that their home is no longer there. Katłįà has likewise created an unapologetically awesome dream cast list for the novel’s movie adaptation – read on to see who she…