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Author: ALU Editor
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Beautiful Books: Flower Diary
Mary Hiester Reid was a prolific Canadian painter and teacher who was best known for her floral still lifes. But after her death in 1921, her legacy and art all but vanished from the public sphere. Discovering her work for the first time at the Art Gallery of Ontario, poet and biographer Molly Peacock began working…
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First Fiction Friday: Georgina Beaty’s The Party is Here
With explosive energy, Georgina Beaty enters the literary realm with her debut collection The Party is Here (Freehand Books), about the stories of young women as they go through various transformations in a five-minutes-ahead future where every decision is impacted by the intrusive threat of climate change.
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Beautiful Books: Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers
Described as “a promise to the community that all Black lives matter,” comes award-winning playwright Makambe K Simamba’s newest work Our Fathers, Son, Lovers and Little Brothers (Playwrights Canada Press). We chat with illustrator Chelsea Charles, responsible for the play’s captivating book cover design, for more on what contributes to her unique style.
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All Queued Up: Your Bookish Fall Lineup, Week 2
All Queued Up is a weekly roundup of new indie books for your fall TBR. Discover new titles, add them to your All Lit Up wishlist or buy them here, or find them at your local indie bookseller with our Shop Local* feature. Get ready to unplug with some bookish entertainment.*Click the Shop Local button, found on…
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Neurodiversity, Activism, and Uncommon Sense: An Interview with Adam Mardero
Adam Mardero’s Uncommon Sense (Latitude 46 Publishing) is a brave new book that delves into the labels and misunderstandings that arise from being on the autism spectrum. In this memoir, Adam untangles the myths and stigma of those on the spectrum and chronicles the life-long journey he’s faced since he was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the age of…
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First Fiction Friday: Nic Brewer’s Suture
Nic Brewer’s debut novel Suture (Book*hug Press) has been an eagerly anticipated fall read at All Lit Up. Checking all the right boxes for a fantastical page-turner, Suture is a visceral novel that blends body horror with meditations on the fractures within us and the cost of art-making. Below, Nic tells us more about her debut novel,…
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Off Kilter’s Most Anticipated Reads: Fall 2021
It’s the MOST wonderful time of the year—the classic, feel-good “beach reads” are put away for brighter days and we can comfortably get back under the covers of books that are a little darker, a little more magical, a little more surreal…The selections below make up some of my most anticipated and recommended Off/Kilter reads…
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All Queued Up: Your Bookish Fall Lineup
BEST OF THE BLOG 2021All Queued Up is a weekly roundup of new indie books for your fall TBR. Discover new titles, add them to your All Lit Up wishlist or buy them here, or find them at your local indie bookseller with our Shop Local* feature. Get ready to unplug with some screen-free entertainment.*Click the Shop…
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Beautiful Books: Coming to Canada
Starkie Mak’s beautifully illustrated new book Coming to Canada (At Bay Press) paints a picture of the immigrant experience—of being uprooted and leaving everything behind for a new way of life. In this edition of Beautiful Books, Starkie shares more about the artistic choices that went into creating this book and her hope that even…
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Two Poems from Where the Baedeker Leads
A poetic journey of departures and arrivals, James Yeku’s latest poetry collection Where the Baedeker Leads (Mawenzi House) travels through the spaces of personal transitions and experiences to the more physical journey of being pushed away from home—to new places that sometimes revive old and painful memories of all that has been left behind. Read…
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Waiting for the Red Giant by Peter Counter
BEST OF THE BLOG 2021 The coronavirus didn’t end the world, and I know that because I am driving to visit my parents at their home in the Rideau Lakes region of Ontario. It’s been nearly six-hundred days since I saw them last, and I’ve become a newly vaccinated road warrior because that’s what you…
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ALU Turns Seven
BEST OF THE BLOG 2021All Lit Up is officially seven-years-old today and we’re blowing out our birthday candles with a look back on seven Insta-faves and seven books we loved this year. Thanks to all our readers for your continued support of indie books, publishers, and authors!
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Test Kitchen: Little Red Bus
This edition of Test Kitchen pays homage to Amelia Earhart, whose love letters in Lindsay Zier-Vogel’s charming, big-hearted epistolary novel Letters to Amelia (Book*hug Press) propel the story’s protagonist to go on a pilgrimage of her own. Scroll down to get the recipe for The Little Red Bus, a refreshing tomato mocktail (with an option to add vodka or…
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Under the Cover: Everything Turns Away
Twenty years since the tragic events of 9/11, Michelle Berry’s haunting, domestic thriller Everything Turns Away (Wolsak & Wynn) weaves together the story of two couples whose lives are about to be upended by the murder of a neighbour, a babysitter that has gone missing and the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Centre.…
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Where in Canada: The Strange Scent of Saffron
Taking place in a mostly rural region of Québec known as Bas-Saint-Laurent, The Strange Scent of Saffron by Miléna Babin, translated by Oana Avasilichioaei (Guernica Editions) juxtaposes life in a small town setting with the vibrancy of India and the world of illegal saffron trafficking