In Review: The Week of September 28th

On the Blog

~ Book designer Ingrid Paulson talked to us about her recent design of Jason Guriel’s cli-fi novel Forgotten Work (Biblioasis): “I think it’s most satisfying when I figure out a design that I didn’t know was in me to create, as if born out of the wind.”~ We collaborated with Jonathan Ball to dream up a Guy Maddin adaptation of Jonathan’s collection of short fiction The Lightning of Possible Storms (Book*hug Press), a mashup of humour, horror, and sci-fi that’s ripe for a wonderfully weird trip on the big screen. ~ Orphans of Empire (Brindle & Glass), a deftly crafted trio of narratives that spans half a century and converges in a hotel in historic New Brighton, BC. ~ This week in the Indie Reading Room: Heidi Wicks tells us about her debut novel Melt (Breakwater Books) and what she learned from her characters: “I think as we age and grow, we become increasingly familiar with, and forgiving of, our younger selves and that’s what I learned from these women.” Plus, she reads from her collection on our  ALU IGTV.~ Hana Shafi talks compassion and changing bodies during the pandemic: “I’ve never been okay with our society’s obsession with diet culture and using thinness as a marker for health, and I feel especially not okay with it during a medical disaster […] I am less concerned with emerging triumphantly, and more concerned with finding ways to be gentler and more empathetic to this struggling cocooned body.”

Around the Web 

~ The finalists of the 2020 Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction were announced, which included authors Lorna Crozier, Steven Heighton, and more. ~ When space is limited, don’t store your books in a greenhouse and other things to avoid via The Washington Post.~ With the supernatural thriller series Trickster—adapted from Eden Robinson’s Son of a Trickster—coming out next week, CBC introduces us to the stars of the show.

ICYMI (last week)

Indie Reading Room: Mark Sampson

Mark Sampson tells us about his satirical post-apocalyptic novel All the Animals on Earth (Wolsak and Wynn) inspirations, and a good book to read (other than his own). Catch our Q&A + a reading from Mark at the link.