Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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First Fiction Fridays: A Matter of Will
Veteran actor, director, and playwright Rod Carley gives novel-writing a try, and succeeds with the hilarious A Matter of Will (Latitude 46). The book follows main character Will Croswell through the ups and (many) downs of his life, culminating in divinity education in the middle of frozen Newfoundland nowhere, and is written with all of the excellent…
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Do-Lit-Yourself: Literary #notd Giller Edition, 2017
This is our THIRD time painting the Giller shortlist onto our digits (see 2015 and 2016 here) – we can’t stop, won’t stop our excitement for this year’s deserving nominees. Of course, we’re most excited for Michelle Winter’s I Am a Truck (Invisible Publishing)…there may have been a bit of a tiff at ALU HQ on who…
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Character Study: What Is To Be Done?
You probably know Mavis Gallant – the Montrealer-turned-Parisian expat – from her unbelievably evocative short story collections…but did you know she was a playwright too? We teamed up with Linda Leith Publishing to cast her only play What Is To Be Done? (and we already know it’s Oscar-worthy, because MERYL).
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Where in Canada: Travelling by Paintbrush through the Reserves in British Columbia
The latest instalment of Mother Tongue Publishing’s The Unheralded Artists of BC series is The Life and Art of Arthur Pitts by Kerry Mason, a chronicle of his iconic watercolours painted all over British Columbia. While successful commercially as an illustrator and art teacher, Arthur Pitts’ passion is most clearly seen in his paintings of Indigenous…
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This Week in Lit Events: November 13-19th
Our literary events are truly coast-to-coast this week: we’re holding out for when airlines get season tickets.Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included in our listings.
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In Review: The Week of November 6th
Our exploits this week including literary recluses, war books, and more. Read on to check out top 10s, interviews, and book recommendations.
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Top 10: Emotional War Books for Remembrance Day
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, where we reflect on the sacrifices past and present Armed Forces members make, and the horrors of war inflicted on soldiers and civilians alike. For your Remembrance Day reading, we’ve rounded up 10 war books that will make you feel things.
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If You Liked x, Read y: Literary Recluse Edition
Today’s recommendation is for readers who love laconic curmudgeonly hermits (and who doesn’t?). If you like J.D. Salinger’s short story collection Nine Stories, you should read Norman Levine’s collection, I Don’t Want to Know Anyone Too Well (Biblioasis). Though largely unknown in Canada, Levine influenced some of the country’s best including André Alexis and Cynthia…
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Writer’s Block: Claude Lalumière
The multi-talented, genre-bending Claude Lalumière joins us to talk a little about his projects and a lot about his influences: from comics legend Jack Kirby to Ursula K. Le Guin to Scheherazade in One Thousand and One Nights. He tells us how they inform his latest novel, Venera Dreams: A Weird Entertainment and imparts a good deal of…
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Under the Cover: Fire Observers on Mockingbird HIll
When Mary Theresa Kelly met Daniel, a fire lookout observer she soon found herself part of a group of people earning a living by watching for smoke and fire in the mountain foothills of Alberta. In her memoir, On Mockingbird Hill: Memories of Dharma Bums, Madcaps, and Fire Lookouts (Caitlin Press) Mary takes the romanticized…
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This Week in Lit Events: November 6-12th
Got a need for readings this week? We’ve got you covered.Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included in our listings.
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In Review: The Week of October 30th
It’s one of our favourite times of the year: the GGLAs were announced, Halloween candy is 50% off, and our schedules are packed with reading events. Read on to see which authors and books we featured on the blog, and what the internet has given us this week.
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First Fiction Friday: Rage
John Mavin’s debut short story collection Rage (Thistledown Press) is about forms of rage, its power and presence, how it rears itself. These linked short stories see a priest facing a moral dilemma when he takes a Colombian refugee into sanctuary; a teenage homecoming in a strip club that takes a hostile turn; two children…
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Poetry in Motion: Strength and Repair in Beth Goobie’s breathing at dusk
Beth Goobie’s breathing at dusk is a response to her 1994 collection Scars of Light – both collections address the author’s harrowing abuse at the hands of her parents, but breathing at dusk reveals the poet in recovery, not anguish. Beth shares her journey to healing and writing this collection, below, and we feature two video readings…
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Beautiful Books: Has the World Ended Yet?
What happens to superheroes when they retire? Peter Darbyshire’s short story collection Has the World Ended Yet? (Wolsak and Wynn) begins with that question in an unremarkable suburbia, home to ex-superheroes, where everyone gets lost making their way home. In a series of linked short stories with a fantastical, Twilight Zone-esque bent, we’re introduced to…
Got any book recommendations?