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Author: ALU Editor

  • In Review: The Week of November 9th

    In Review: The Week of November 9th

    This week on the blog: crime fiction writer D.B. Carew, wearable art, our final Indie Reading Room feature, and more!

  • Under the Cover: Universal Disorder

    Under the Cover: Universal Disorder

    After Bernice Friesen underwent radiation under her arm to treat her cancer, her doctors told her that part of her body should never to be exposed to the sun. Her solution was to get crafty and fashion some badass “sun armour.” Below, Freehand Books Publisher Kelsey Attard who published Bernice’s new novel Universal Disorder, tells us…

  • Indie Reading Room: Sheung-King

    Indie Reading Room: Sheung-King

    Debut novelist Sheung-King joins us in our final Indie Reading Room of the season with You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked.  (Book*hug Press), an enchanting novel of ideas that follows young transnationals on their travels through culture, land, and food. Embracing the playful surrealism of Haruki Murakami and the atmospheric narratives of filmmaker Wong…

  • Character Study: The Krillian Key: Salamander Run

    Character Study: The Krillian Key: Salamander Run

    Set in the post-apocalyptic world of Neo-New York, The Krillian Key: Salamander Run (Kegedonce Press) is easy to imagine as an Indigenous-themed graphic novel-to-film adaptation, packed with intense action and moody future cityscapes. Novelist and poet Neal Shannacappo joins us for this edition of Character Study to dream up the all-star cast that would bring this movie…

  • Writer’s Block: D.B. Carew

    Writer’s Block: D.B. Carew

    Crime fiction writer D.B. Carew—whose most recent thrillers include The Killer Trail and The Weight of Blood (NeWest Press)—tells us about how he literally ran into the idea for his first novel, his favourite fictional character, unexpected writing inspiration, and more.

  • In Review: The Week of November 2nd

    In Review: The Week of November 2nd

    This week’s roundup includes new poetry, a performance edition of Indie Reading Room, book design, the healing power of art, and more!

  • Lead with your scars: Healing through visual art

    Lead with your scars: Healing through visual art

    Art is an amulet. It can be. Don’t be afraid to love just one painting. Don’t be embarrassed. There’s a conversation and the dead might be speaking to you across the centuries from the chemical disturbances that created the image. Aggravated, irritated, smitten, curious, love on a first date. There are patches to be made,…

  • Beautiful Books: Seeing Martin

    Beautiful Books: Seeing Martin

    Pedlar Press chats with book designer Emma Allain about her work on Su Croll’s Seeing Martin (Pedlar Press)—from choosing the right cover image, to finding just the right mix of typefaces and her previous work on designing books within the Pedlar portfolio.

  • Indie Reading Room: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

    Indie Reading Room: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

    Playwright and emcee Donna-Michelle St. Bernard joins us in the Indie Reading Room this week with her newly published play Sound of the Beast (Playwrights Canada Press), a mashup of spoken word, storytelling, and hip hop that illuminates racial discrimination, the suppression of expression, and the trials of activism. Read on for our Q&A with Donna-Michelle where…

  • Poetry in Motion: Jessica Moore

    Poetry in Motion: Jessica Moore

    When Jessica Moore finally put pen to paper to tell the true story of a boat builder who saw into the eye of a whale, she thought she had the whole story down—complete. Years later, a trip to San Francisco would reconnect her with that same boat builder who would reveal that this tale had…

  • Under the Cover: Jane Byers on adoption and family in Small Courage

    Under the Cover: Jane Byers on adoption and family in Small Courage

    In 2009, Jane Byers and her partner, Amy Bohigian adopted fifteen-month-old twins through British Columbia’s Ministry of Child and Family Development. As part of the adoption process, the couple had to live for two weeks with the foster parents of their twins, an Evangelical Christian family who believed homosexuality to be a sin. In her memoir Small…

  • In Review: The Week of October 26th

    In Review: The Week of October 26th

    This week we rounded up some spooky and strange books for Halloween reading, welcomed Stoop City author Kristyn Dunnion in the Indie Reading Room, saw one of our beloved publishers Kitty Lewis off to retirement, and more. 

  • Off/Kilter Halloween Edition: Spooky Reads Round-up

    Off/Kilter Halloween Edition: Spooky Reads Round-up

    We’re not going to let the current state of 2020 dampen our spooky spirits during the BEST holiday of the year. Sure, our Halloween costumes might only get play on ZOOM, and there may not be any of the usual hellish reveling in the streets or howling at the moon—but nothing is going to stop…

  • Indie Reading Room: Kristyn Dunnion

    Indie Reading Room: Kristyn Dunnion

    Kristyn Dunnion joins us in the Indie Reading Room with her latest Stoop City (Biblioasis), a collection of stories that’s at once dark and funny and wholly absorbing about a gentrifying west-Toronto neighbourhood and a cast of characters down on their luck. Read on for our Q&A with Kristyn about how the stories in her collection are rooted in…

  • Writer’s Block: Cathy Sosnowsky

    Writer’s Block: Cathy Sosnowsky

    Poet and author Cathy Sosnowsky joins us for this edition of Writer’s Block, sharing the life-changing moment that drove her to put pen to paper, the silver lining to launching her new memoir Finding Heartstone (Caitlin Press) amidst the pandemic, and her best advice on how to get your rear into writing gear.