Author: ALU Editor
-
Beautiful Books: For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe
Designer Kilby Smith-McGregor takes us through the various iterations of cover art for Gary Barwin’s audacious and wise-cracking collection of poetry For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe (Wolsak & Wynn). We learn more about how Kilby’s final design for the book was borne – with one five-minute, breakthrough conversation and a deeper…
-
Two poems from Marlene Cookshaw’s Mowing
Marlene Cookshaw’s first collection of poetry in over ten years is a bounty: Mowing (Brick Books) meditates on death and grief, community, and connection to land that invites readers into a harvest filled with images of high grasses and farm animals. Below we share two poems from her collection, “Sideways” and “Convalescence.”
-
In Review: The Week of October 28th
This week we launched Off/Kilter, our new column devoted to books of the magical, surreal variety, shared some monster-approved books, got a behind-the-scenes of audiobook making, and much more!
-
On Leaving Home, and Writing: Interview with Phillip Ernest
Author Phillip Ernest fled his home of New Liskeard, Ontario at the age of fifteen to live in an impoverished life in Toronto until he was twenty-eight. Later in life, he learned Sanskrit from a book, earned his BA in South Asian Studies and moved to India where he now lives. Below his publisher Linda…
-
Four Monster-Approved Booook Picks for Halloween
In today’s Hallowe’en-perfect musing, we wondered: if literature’s classic monsters had a literary appetite, what would they read?
-
Off/Kilter: Dark literature through a Canadian lens
Welcome to Off/Kilter, a brand new blog column on All Lit Up devoted to books of a magical and surreal nature, featuring alternate realities, dystopian worlds, strange beasties and more. From the dark and fantastical to the joyfully absurd, we’ll explore how books within related genres create a space for us to dream bigger and encourage…
-
In House: ECW’s Bespeak Audio imprint
As the demand for audio content continues to gain popularity in Canada, the fine folks at ECW Press continue to deliver: dipping their headphones into audiobook production in 2009 with their first, they’ve since launched a new imprint, Bespeak Audio, which shares essential Canadian literature that needs to be heard as an audiobook. Below ECW’s…
-
In Review: The Week of October 21st
This week we talked grief and writing, land and poetry, King of the Hill, punk music, and more.
-
First Fiction Friday: Butterflies, Zebras, Moonbeams
Ceilidh Michelle’s debut novel Butterflies, Zebras, Moonbeams (Palimpsest Press) is a punk music, coming-of-age mashup about a young non-binary woman making music while contending with nepotism, friends with drug addiction, and her own personal growth. Below Palimpsest Press’ Abigail Roelens’ puts it well: “The novel has all the punk and circumstance to satisfy concert lovers, all…
-
On Land and Writing: Interview with Douglas Walbourne-Gough
Mixed/adopted Mi’kmaw and Newfoundland poet Douglas Walbourne-Gough took time to chat with us about his debut Crow Gulch (Goose Lane Editions), a poetry collection that attempts to honour and dispel the stigma surrounding the community of Crow Gulch in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Read on for our interview with Douglas on writing his collection, his major…
-
Writer’s Block: Fawn Parker
We talk with Montreal-based author of the new novel Set-Point (ARP Books) about writing rituals and her perfect writing day (both involve early starts and coffee), why Luanne Platter from King of the Hill is her favourite fictional character, and the novel she’s working on next.
-
Under the Cover: Writing grief in Dance Me to the End
When author Alison Acheson’s husband Marty was diagnosed with terminal ALS, Alison took to writing and reading as a way to cope. In her evocative memoir Dance Me to the End (Brindle & Glass Publishing) she describes the emotional toll of watching a loved one suffer from a terminal disease and eventually die, mixed with…
-
In Review: The Week of October 14th
This week we discovered what an ice pack can do to a book cover design, read some thoughtful words about home by former civil rights activist Douglas Gary Freeman, learned an off-grid living motto, and more.
-
On living and writing off the grid: Interview with Andrea Hejlskov
When author Andrea Hejlskov realized she wasn’t living her most authentic life and the life she’d pictured for herself, she took her family and moved closer to nature. Publisher Caitlin Press interviews Andrea about living off the grid, the rewilding movement, “toxic positivity,” and her memoir Escape to the Wild.
-
Quoted: Exile Blues
American-born civil rights activist Douglas Gary Freeman grew up in the segregated city of Washington, D.C. during the civil rights movement. Later, when he shot and wounded a Chicago police officer in self-defence, he fled to Canada to live a peaceful life. In his new novel Exile Blues (Baraka Books), Douglas tells the story of a young man…