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Author: ALU Editor
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What’s in it for ME?: An interview with LS Stone
During National Volunteer Week, we chatted with author LS Stone about her recent middle-grade novel What’s in it for ME? (Rebel Mountain Press), which is a perfect fit for entertaining young readers while introducing them to important themes of global activism and volunteering, female empowerment, animal rights, and the controversial topic of elephant captivity.
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Books on Mental Health
May might be Mental Health Awareness month, but self care doesn’t recognize a calendar. For those who struggle, and even for those just looking to better understand the challenges of those who do, we’ve put together a roundup of titles that tackle mental health from a range of lived experiences and perspectives to help you…
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The price of breaking our silence
BEST OF THE BLOG 2021Content warning: references to sexual assaultI’ve been oversharing all my life. My father worked in IT long before it was cool so I had internet access at home as early as 1995. By 1997, I was a 12-year-old writer for a feminist website of fellow tween and teenage girls. We luved…
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Under the Cover: Writing in Place with Kayt Burgess
Set in post-war Northern Ontario, Kayt Burgess’s new novel Connection at Newcombe (Latitude 46 Publishing) follows the resourceful campaign of the residents of Newcombe as they push back against the government to establish a railway station in their “too-small” town to ensure the survival of their community.Kayt joins us in this edition of Under the…
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Poetry Express: Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer
Renowned writer Louise Bernice Halfe, also known by the Cree name Sky Dancer, was named Canada’s new Parliamentary Poet Laureate earlier this year. For National Poetry Month, we’re thrilled to celebrate Louise and her newly published books from two independent Canadian publishers. awâsis – kinky and dishevelled (Brick Books) features a mischievous, unapologetic alter ego. awâsis (which means illuminated child)…
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Poetry Express: Susan Alexander + Nothing You Can Carry
With a balanced mix of humour and emotion, Susan Alexander’s Nothing You Can Carry (Thistledown Press) expresses the holiness of place, obscured by the dark cloud that is the future, looming over every aspect of the human life as a result of the climate crisis we are facing.Susan Alexander joins us for another Poetry Express Q&A,…
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Poetry Express: David Stones + sfumato
In sfumato (Blue Moon Publishers), poet and performer David Stones collects new and previously published poems that explore the human experience. In bold, striking pieces that are at turns playful and pensive, life, love, and loss are keenly observed and interpreted. This is an artful collection of poems that invite the reader to see themselves…
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Poetry Express: Aaron Tucker + Catalogue d’oiseaux
Recounting a year in the life of poet Aaron Tucker, Catalogue d’oiseaux (Book*hug Press) captures the time, space and love between a couple separated by geographical distance.In this Poetry Express Q&A, Aaron tells us more about how the collection grew out of daily emails to his partner in Germany, how the shared experience of art seen…
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Poetry Express: All the People Are Pregnant + Andrew DuBois
In his debut poetry collection All the People Are Pregnant (Goose Lane Editions) writer Andrew DuBois collects what he considers are poems worth preserving, written and occasionally published since he was 20. Leading readers through a fractured past and present, he defamiliarizes, critiques, and satirizes a wide range of conversational forms in the style of Wallace Stevens and…
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Field Trip: Happenstance Books & Yarns
The day before the latest pandemic stay-at-home order hit Ontario, I popped into Happenstance Books & Yarns in Lakefield, which is in cottage country, about 150 km northeast of Toronto. The space is warm and cozy, with painted wainscoting, a sky-blue ceiling, and a collection of books to suit all tastes. A table by the…
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Poetry Express: Adele Graf + buckled into the sky
Written over a period of twenty years, Adele Graf’sbuckled into the sky (Guernica Editions) could not be more timely, with its focus on the essential nature of “home”—wherever that might be. In our Q&A, Adele discusses more of the central themes that tie this collection together, including our connection to the past, a doll that has served as…
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Poetry Express: Jen Sookfong Lee + The Shadow List
Vancouver-based writer Jen Sookfong Lee embraces personal lyric in her poetry debut with The Shadow List (Wolsak & Wynn), an intoxicating collection vivid and frank, that calls us to question the politics of who gets to choose and who doesn’t. In language that is gripping and urgent, the reader is invited to follow the experiences of…
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Poetry Express: James Scoles + The Trailer
In his collection The Trailer (Signature Editions), James Scoles takes us to the city’s outskirts—where everything moves just a little slower than the rest of the world, and where all the beauty, joy and humour of life can be found within four tin trailer walls. In our Q&A below, James discusses the very meta way…
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Poetry Express: Jacob Scheier + Is This Scary?
Content warning: the following interview includes a discussion of the author’s experience with mental illness and hospitalization In his newest collection Is This Scary? (ECW Press) Jacob Scheier articulates experiences of psychiatric institutionalization, and the internal landscapes of depression and anxiety, and chronic illness. In these poems, he challenges our collective desire for stories of triumph over mental…
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Poetry Express: Dennis Cooley + cold press moon
Inspired by the fairy tales of his childhood and the stories that his own children have grown up to love, Dennis Cooley’s Cold Moon Press (Turnstone Press) captures a playful and profound magic.Joining us in this edition of ALU Poetry Express, Cooley explains how his fascination with the sciences and biology in particular have been…