Author: ALU Editor
-
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
-
Under the Cover: Imagining new worlds in Mirror’s Edge
Alex Passey’s novel Mirror’s Edge (At Bay Press) is a philosophical trip through two polarized worlds — a hyper-capitalist, burgeoning transhumanist society and a community-minded, woodland paradise — and the fallout when those ways of living collide. Below, Alex tells us about the politics explored in his novel and what good speculative fiction is for him.
-
In Review: The Week of October 19th
This week we went punk rock, reflected on Frankfurt Book Fair 2020, welcomed an author in the Indie Reading Room, and more!
-
Where in Canada: Walpole Island First Nation, Ontario, Canada
This edition of Where in Canada takes us to Ontario’s Walpole Island—home to 150 residential school survivors, 13 of whom share their stories within author Theresa Turmel’s new book Mnidoo Bemaasing Bemaadiziwin: Reclaiming, Reconnecting, and Demystifying Resiliency as Life Force Energy for Residential School Survivors (ARP). Through Turmel’s deep listening studies, the life experiences of these survivors are…
-
Indie Reading Room: P.C. Vandall
This week in the Indie Reading Room is B.C.-based poet P.C. Vandall whose fourth collection of poetry The Blue Moth of Morning (The Porcupine’s Quill) shines a light on female relationships: embracing and subverting clichés of female connection, the poems in this collection expose the inner tumult women often try to conceal under a thin veneer of…
-
Field Trip: A Novice’s Ode to the Frankfurt Book Fair
It’s easy to believe—from their perch on your bookshelves and on bedside tables – that books live a quiet little life, keeping time and company with the sunbeams, shadows, and dust motes. The truth is they have a very full life before they make it into your hands and your home—not least of which is…
-
Mixtape: Fake It So Real
Guest DJ-ing this edition of Mixtape is author Susan Sanford Blades who made us a bangin’ playlist to pair with her debut novel Fake it so Real (Nightwood Editions), about the fallout from a punk-rock lifestyle and its effect on the subsequent generations of one family. Scroll on for Susan’s rad soundtrack — “a musical tour of the novel” — and…
-
In Review: The Week of October 12th
This week’s roundup includes a spooky Read Harder Challenge, a look at poetry and collage, a tasty vegan recipe, and more.