JAZZ

By (author): Elizabeth Copeland

“There is a shadow of a boy walking within me. His spirit is lightning fire. He will not be shackled. At birth, I was labeled a girl. My name is Jazz. Like the music, I am nature’s improvisation.”
When he is forced to leave his suburban home at age seventeen, Jazz – a transgender F2M – moves into the heart of Toronto’s LGBTQ community in hopes of finding the help he needs to begin his transition. A true hero’s journey, this narrative features a cast of colourful characters, including Martine, a dope-smoking drag queen; Kimmie, a hairdresser with a heart of gold; Sister Mary Francis, a sharp-talking ex-nun, and his counselor; Kendall, who must face his own demons in order to support Jazz in his journey. With comedy and pathos, Jazz wrestles with the realities of the courage it takes to be transgendered in today’s society.

AUTHOR

Elizabeth Copeland

Elizabeth Copeland is a writer, performing artist and arts educator. She writes poetry, short stories, articles and plays. Her work has appeared in Forge Journal, Aquill Relle, The Lorelei Signal and Bread ‘n Molasses. She lives in Atlantic Canada with her composer husband. Together they run KPH Productions, a theatre school dedicated to enriching the cultural life of their community. Jazz is her first novella.

Reviews

“”Spurway’s use of language is skilful, making the novel highly readable. Crow is ribald, blunt, accessible, and immediately likeable, tumours and all … You know how people say, “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry”? You will. And you will.””
Quill & Quire

“”Ridiculously good.””
Globe and Mail

“”Crow delighted me and amazed me the further I read, with its freshness, its daring, its refusal to conform (and the projectile vomiting).””
Pickle Me This

“”Angry, petty, disillusioned, sharp-tongued, battered and bruised by the years, prone to snap decisions and judgments, and yet not a little scared of dying at 40, she’s a complex and contradictory figure whose narrating tones relay very human traits — fallibility and indomitability, blindness and insight — via homespun, salty language.””
Toronto Star

“”How can you resolve the sharpness of tragedy into a fairy-tale ending? Somehow, Spurway manages it. But even if she lays the sentimentality on pretty thick, she also proves even a Crow’s laughter can be pretty infectious.””
Winnipeg Free Press

“”Tender, raw, and compassionate, Crow tackles the life-changing events thrown at her and muscles them down to her control, leaving readers breathless in the face of her honesty and hard-earned truths.””
“”Amy Spurway comes out swinging with this raw, unflinching, and emotionally urgent debut novel. Be forewarned, Crow is as empowering and comic as it is unsettling and disarming. I love it.””
“”I think Crow is great. It depicts a side of Cape Breton populated by characters that are flawed and achingly real. It’s poignant and funny.””
“”Amy Spurway catches perfectly the engine that is Cape Breton Island. Her cast of divine lunatics, pogey-scammers, gossips, and big-hearted rebels, revealed through Spurway’s lively and lucid prose, proves that Cape Breton is still the thought-control centre of Canada.””
“”There is dark desperation and there is the lightness of hope.””
Canadian Literature

“”Engaging, relentlessly entertaining and written with enormous passion and great wit. Crow is a notable debut, and Amy Spurway is a writer worth watching.””
The Fiddlehead

“”The most hilarious book I’ve ever read, a narrative voice that gets locked in your head, and a story full of twists and turns and surprises.””
All Lit Up

Awards

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Excerpts & Samples ×
“There is a shadow of a boy walking within me. His spirit is lightning fire. He will not be shackled. At birth, I was labeled a girl. My name is Jazz. Like the music, I am nature’s improvisation.”
When he is forced to leave his suburban home at age seventeen, Jazz – a transgender F2M – moves into the heart of Toronto’s LGBTQ community in hopes of finding the help he needs to begin his transition. A true hero’s journey, this narrative features a cast of colourful characters, including Martine, a dope-smoking drag queen; Kimmie, a hairdresser with a heart of gold; Sister Mary Francis, a sharp-talking ex-nun, and his counselor; Kendall, who must face his own demons in order to support Jazz in his journey. With comedy and pathos, Jazz wrestles with the realities of the courage it takes to be transgendered in today’s society.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

120 Pages
8.5in * 5.25in * 1in
1lb

Published:

October 15, 2014

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

Quattro Books

ISBN:

9781927443651

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Literary

Language:

eng

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