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Kerouac & Presley takes you on the road, guitar slung over your shoulder. Beginning in the Montreal neighbourhood where a teenage girl was brutally murdered in 1975, the International Year of the Woman, to an Abbey in Connecticut where a former starlet and Elvis co-star fled Hollywood to become a nun. This is the story of a wanderer who sets out to rewrite “the blank and flawless page” that is America. Inspired by the history of Quebec and America, Kerouac & Presley is an American prayer in prose and paragraphs.
It is extraordinary that one can take the measure of how radically cultural sensibilities can change throughout a century by a careful reading of only two texts—in this case Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies, written in the midst of the First World War, and George Bowering’s brilliant response to Rilke’s call, the Kerrisdale Elegies, composed in the midst of the Cold War.
Rilke’s poem begins and ends with a modernist appeal to the transcendent. It opens with; “Who, if I were to scream, would then hear me, among the angelic orders … ,” and ends with a nostalgic evocation of the muse of grief attendant at the spectacle of the sacrifice of youth; “we who aspire to an ascendant fortune, are overcome by astonishment at the fortunate’s fall.” [Rilke’s italics]
Compare to Bowering’s opening; “If I did complain, who among my friends would hear?” and his closing; “The single events that raise our eyes and stop our time are saying goodbye, lover, goodbye.”
Bowering’s Kerrisdale Elegies are a profoundly compelling illustration of Pound’s instruction to all translators—to “make it new.” In the intertextuality of these two great masterworks is to be found the birth of a post-modern writing that is self-aware, where the other is discovered in the process of the writer writing, and is not a referent, neither secular nor divine, outside of the text itself, and therefore ultimately estranged from both the writer and the reader.
Williams’ dictum, too, that writers should write “no ideas but in things” so thoroughly infuses Bowering’s Kerrisdale Elegies, that while they are an exact equivalent to Rilke’s emblematic masterpiece—separated as they are by three generations of one of the most tumultuous centuries in human history—they are not a translation, but a living, vibrant transformation of the work.
Kid Rex is the story of one woman’s struggle to overcome anorexia. After knowing other friends with anorexia and being baffled by their behavior (often wondering, “Why doesn’t she just eat?!”) Moisin suddenly found herself prone to the same disease, not eating at all and going weeks at a time taking in nothing but water and the occasional black coffee. She learns how to deceive the therapists her worried family sends her to, giving them all of the symptoms of depression so they’ll misdiagnose her and let her continue to be anorexic.
When she recognizes that she has a serious problem, though, she finally owns up to a therapist working at her university. She tells him that she’s an anorexic who needs to go to some group meetings to work through her condition. He looks at her doubtfully and says, “No, I don’t think you’re an anorexic.” All that runs through her mind is that she must be fat. Shortly after this devastating therapy visit, the Twin Towers fall in the September 11th attacks, and Moisin watches it happen from her apartment window. Her ensuing depression quickens her already dangerous downward spiral.
Kid Rex is a book about hope, and looking to oneself and to those around you to help get out from under the hold of such a dreadful and powerful disease. This book is written for people who are also suffering from anorexia to let them know they’re not alone, but Moisin never takes on a know-it-all tone. Books on anorexia that are currently available are either preachy, or more commonly, clinical accounts written by doctors, not people suffering from the disease.
The book is also written for families and friends who find themselves unable to understand why their loved one won’t just eat. When Moisin goes to a clinic and they plop down a tray of food in front of her, even the most sceptical reader will gasp and realize what an unsympathetic thing they’ve done to her. Moisin actually puts the reader into the head of someone suffering from anorexia, in beautiful and moving prose. The result is a book that is truly unforgettable.
From the winner of the 2010 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award comes a remarkable debut poetry collection. In a culture that is at once desensitized by the media while it fetishizes fear and outrage, how can we talk about emergencies, both public and private in a way that still communicates their horrors, in a way that still matters? Kilby Smith-McGregor answers this question with a dizzying range of voices animated by desire, humour, pleasure and grief.
This is poetry that strikes a balance between baroque elegance and haunting understatement. In it we witness the horror of spontaneous human combustion, as well as the awkwardness of swimming lessons; the precision of code breaking, as well as the disorder of hard drinking. Effortlessly combining the languages of myth, medicine and metaphysics, Kids in Triage is rich in vivid language and arresting images, a multi-faceted feast for the imagination.
Alice Ernestine Prin became Kiki, the Queen of Montparnasse, during the height of the Crazy Years when creativity and unbridled passion had reached a fever pitch. Kiki performed in cabarets, made art, posed nude, was incarcerated, starred in avant-garde silent films, modelled for Man Ray, Gargallo, Foujita, Kisling, Sandy Calder and others. Kiki is an homage to an era where freedom, innovation, l’amour fou, creative risk and celebration of life were paramount. Journal entries, silent film play-by-plays, cut ups, boldfaced lies, gossip and whimsy provide readers with playful and provocative fodder for their imaginations in order to recreate the spirit of Montparnasse between the wars. The author urges you to grab a glass of champagne and dance.
Complex, fascinating, and fun … Kill All the Judges is a classic crime work, from an author heralded as one of Canada’s best, and with good reason.” — Shelf Life
Finalist for the Stephen Leacock Humour Prize
Is someone systematically killing the judges called to the British Columbian bar? At least one has been murdered and several have disappeared. Arthur Beauchamp returns from retirement once again to take on the case, this time defending his former nemesis, backwoods poet Cudworth Brown. He finds himself chasing all kinds of leads, including tracking down a mystery novel that Brown’s unreliable former lawyer has been writing, just as Beauchamp’s own wife, Margaret, has announced her candidacy for the Green Party.
Complex, madcap, and peopled with some of the most delightfully eccentric characters to be found between two covers, Kill All the Judges proves William Deverell’s mastery of the hilariously comedic crime novel.
“A bitingly funny whodunit.” — Maclean’s
Arthur P. Besterman, criminal lawyer and reformed alcoholic, was the first to go. Counsel to Vancouver’s assorted shifters and grifters, Besterman almost always lost his cases. But a recent victory defending a low-life client might be a clue as to why he was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Then when someone takes a pot shot at philandering lawyer Brian Pomeroy after he successfully defended a group of controversial eco- terrorists, people start to take notice. All of a sudden, lawyers whose clients are less than savoury start second- guessing the ethics of their profession, and going to court becomes a possible bloodsport.
WINNER OF THE 75th GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARD FOR POETRY
WINNER OF THE 25th TRILLIUM BOOK PRIZE
WINNER OF AN ALCUIN AWARD FOR DESIGN
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE
These are poems of critical thought that have been influenced by old fiddle tunes. These are essays that are not out to persuade so much as ruminate, invite, accrue.
Hall is a surruralist (rural & surreal), and a terroir-ist (township-specific regionalist). He offers memories of, and homages to — Margaret Laurence, Bronwen Wallace, Libby Scheier, and Daniel Jones, among others. He writes of the embarrassing process of becoming a poet, and of his push-pull relationship with the whole concept of home. His notorious 2004 chapbook essay The Bad Sequence is also included here, for a wider readership, at last. It has been revised. (It’s teeth have been sharpened.)
In this book, the line is the unit of composition; the reading is wide; the perspective personal: each take a give, and logic a drawback.
Language is not a smart-aleck; it’s a sacred tinkerer.
Readers are invited to watch awe become a we.
In Fred Wah’s phrase, what is offered here is “the music at the heart of thinking.”
When Vancouver psychiatric social worker Chris Ryder spots an abandoned cell phone during his afternoon jog, the innocent discovery drags him into the psychotic games of Ray Owens, a former patient at the centre of a high-profile kidnapping and murder case. Now, if Ryder is to survive, he must examine the darkness in his own soul as he walks the killer trail.
Shortlisted for the 2013 Debut Dagger Award by the Crime Writers Association, D.B. Carew’s first novel is a gripping thriller that approaches crime with a clinical precision.
Four travelers take refuge from a Huron County blizzard in the secluded farmhouse of Gerald Goldie, retired Latin teacher. All four of the strangers have some things in commonÑa working knowledge of Latin, a serious distaste for their host, and a growing animosity for each other. As ominous Latin phrases begin to appear on the walls, it becomes clear that someone has murder in mind. And as the body count rises, our stranded guests are forced to choose between certain death in the blizzardÑor tempting the Fates by remaining in a house of terror.
An unflinching reimagining of Legacy: Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing for young adultsWritten specifically for young adults, reluctant readers, and literacy learners, Killing the Wittigo explains the traumatic effects of colonization on Indigenous people and communities and how trauma alters an individual’s brain, body, and behavior. It explores how learned patterns of behavior — the ways people adapt to trauma to survive — are passed down within family systems, thereby affecting the functioning of entire communities. The book foregrounds Indigenous resilience through song lyrics and as-told-to stories by young people who have started their own journeys of decolonization, healing, and change. It also details the transformative work being done in urban and on-reserve communities through community-led projects and Indigenous-run institutions and community agencies. These stories offer concrete examples of the ways in which Indigenous peoples and communities are capable of healing in small and big ways — and they challenge readers to consider what the dominant society must do to create systemic change. Full of bold graphics and illustration, Killing the Wittigo is a much-needed resource for Indigenous kids and the people who love them and work with them.
In a Catholic high school in Scarborough, Ontario, amidst low-income housing, difficult race relations, and poverty, a young woman struggles to find her sexual identity. In this sincere portrayal of high-school kids pitting the voice of God and thousands of years of scripture against the voice of their own bodies, Kilt Pins cheekily asks “Is your kilt pin up or down?”
Kilworthy Tanner
Tessa, Damon, and Keegan share the same band class and the same passion: their pets. When Tessa loses her beloved dog Joey, the event challenges and transforms not only the three children, but the adults in their lives as well.
Heartwarming and humorous, Kindness sensitively captures the reality of children’s feelings as they navigate the small and large events in their world. From Hurricane Katrina to everyday encounters in the school hallway, the play offers an unforgettable lesson in compassion.