Happy 3rd Birthday, All Lit Up!

And September 15th Makes Three:

When we opened up shop on September 15th, 2014, we knew we had a great bunch of publishers and books at our back, and a ton of enthusiasm. What we didn’t know was how much that enthusiasm would be matched (and often, exceeded!) by the amazing community of authors, booksellers, and – above all – readers that have kindly stopped by to buy books, read the blog, and chat with us on social media. From our second annual summer book club to touting our very-bookish moms on Mother’s Day to making hyper-specific holiday recommendations, you’ve been there with loads of excitement, which gets us excited.This past year has been no different on the enthusiasm front, but there’s something more. The incredible voices of the authors we’re privileged to work with have been a bastion against the painful reckoning of Canada’s colonial legacy and the simultaneous disintegration of public civility south of the border. We heard Black voices, immigrant voices (pieces 1, 2, 3, and 4), and celebrated the Indigenization of CanLit. We talked about reading as a resistance act (in fact, we based our whole poetry month and bot around it). We made mistakes, and learned a lot from authors generous to share their lived experiences on how to fix them. This year reminded us why we’re in this business: that we love and are entertained by books, sure, but moreover that books help us to survive.Thanks for sticking it out with us; we definitely couldn’t have done it without you.Happy reading!The Editors at All Lit Up

How We’re Celebrating:

Do you follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram? You may have seen the #ALUturns3 posts hanging around this month: 20 books that left a mark on us these past three years, with a sweet 15% sale price on them, to match! Better still: if you’re the first to buy these featured titles, you get not only the book but an All Lit Up birthday box featuring our favourite swag (including the Poets Resist iron-on patch and our much-beloved tote bags). Here are the books we’ve featured so far…and there may be some birthday boxes still available, just saying!

• Disappearing Moon Cafe by SKY Lee, NeWest Press
• For as Long as it Rains by Zvaine, Pow Pow Press
• Accordeon by Kaie Kellough, ARP Books
• The Afterlife of Birds by Elizabeth Philips, Freehand Books
• Corvus by Harold Johnson, Thistledown Press
• The Company of Crows by Karen Molson, Linda Leith Publishing
• Disturbing the Buddha by Barry Dempster, Brick Books
• Portraits of Canadian Writers by Bruce Meyer, Porcupine’s Quill
• Sabotage by Priscila Uppal, Mansfield Press

Stay tuned to Twitter and Instagram for the rest of our featured Birthday books: we drop a new one each weekday at 3pm EST.

What’s In Store (and in store):

Because we’re now the three-year-old big kid on the block, we decided it was time for a new look! Our beloved columns (which you’ve helped make so great) will have a new identity going forward. Tell us your fave!

Yours in love and reading, The ALU crew