THE MUSIC GAME: Rave Reviews from the Toronto Star and more!

IN THE NEWS

THE MUSIC GAME

The Music Game (Feb. 8, 2022) by Stéfanie Clermont, trans. by JC Sutcliffe, has been reviewed in the Toronto Star! The review was published online on February 18, 2022. Read the full review here.

In his review, Steven Beattie writes:

“In her debut fiction, Montreal writer Stéfanie Clermont locates a 21st Century equivalent to the 1920s’ “lost generation” in a group of young people trying to find meaning and connection in a world of dead-end jobs, unaffordable housing, and romantic disappointments … The Music Game inhabits a liminal space between different bodies, psyches and geographies. Its characters can display the worst hipster traits — turning up their noses at Bruno Mars on a café stereo while genuflecting at the altar of Godspeed You! Black Emperor — and genuine insights into their inner selves and the nature of the world around them. If they share undeniable commonalities with lost generations before them, they are nonetheless, in Clermont’s hands, rendered specific and unique.”

Stéfanie Clermont was interviewed by Kenn at Shelf Life Books for their podcast, Book StormThe episode was published online on February 11, 2022. You can listen to the full interview here.

The Music Game was included on Boswell Book Company’s blog as a staff recommendation. Read the list of recommendations here.

Bookseller Kay Wosewick writes:

The Music Game is a delicious sneak peek into a generation (Millennials, of course) that acknowledges few boundaries, alternates between excess and emptiness, repeatedly taste-tests and spits out adulthood, and ebbs and flows within the cacophony that surrounds them. Yeah, a bit scary. But also exciting.”

The Music Game was also reviewed in the McGill Tribune and Apt613. Both reviews were published online on February 15, 2022.

In their review for the McGill Tribune, Louis Lussier-Piette writes:

The Music Game’s structure is what sets it apart. Each chapter tells a self-contained story from the point of view of someone within Sabrina’s inner circle, be it a long-lost friend or a neighbour … Clermont’s reflection on activism is skillfully nuanced, exploring both the hopefulness and cynicism that often come with political engagement.”

Read the full review here.

In their review for Apt613, Emmanuelle Gingras writes:

“[An} audacious, honest, and liberating masterpiece … The Music Game sends us on a journey through this contemporary reality. It enumerates all the ways that we love and destroy one another … The Music Game is about relationships, yet also about all the ways we desperately try to escape reality … anyone who’s ever experienced depression or anxiety will find healing through Stéfanie’s loyal and beautiful ways of describing the inexplicable. She allows for contradiction; depth and lightness meet in a disturbing but cathartic way.”

Read the full review here.

Order your copy of The Music Game from Biblioasis here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY, THE MUSIC GAME, SAY THIS, THE DAY-BREAKERS, HAIL THE INVISIBLE WATCHMAN: Rave Reviews!

IN THE NEWS!

THE MUSIC GAME

The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont (February 8, 2022) is now available in stores! The Music Game was listed by NYLON as ‘one of the best books coming out in February’ in a list published online on January 26, 2022. You can read the full article here.
Sophia June writes,
“Let’s hear it for an indie sleaze-era novel … class issues, deep friendship, betrayal, a gender transition and anti-globalization protests. You know, just ~Millennial~ stuff!”

The Music Game has been reviewed by Stacey May Fowles in Open Book. The review was posted online on February 3, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Stacey May Fowles writes,

The Music Game seems to ask us to return to those vital conversations about the way we have been hurt and about wanting to make things better, even if the room to do that may feel so out of reach. It’s a book that allows us to escape our reality while also somehow facing it head-on. It’s a reminder of our fundamental interconnectedness, of the loss that still cuts through us every day, and, more than anything else, of the necessity of hope.”

The Music Game was also featured as a bookseller pick on 49th Shelf! The recommendation was posted on February 8, 2022. See the full list of recommendations here.

Susan Chamberlain (The Book Keeper) writes,

“Stéfanie Clermont’s award-winning debut novel is impressive and makes me look forward to her future writings. The novel is told in short glimpses or snapshots of time in the lives of the main characters and their satellite friends. It is the story of three young women growing into themselves and finding their way in the 2010s. Sabrina, Celine, and Julie begin as idealistic, anti-capitalist protesters, working low-level jobs and struggling to pay rent. They come together and move apart as they form friendships and experience jealousy, rivalry, and grief. They discuss big-picture issues and the minutia of everyday life while they pursue sex, find love, fall into the pits of depression and deal with the death by suicide of Vincent, a young man in their friend circle. Clermont masterfully navigates the blurry devastation of grief with gritty realism blanketed in the writing skills of a poet. This novel contains many passages that made me stop and savour the author’s deft manipulation of language and her ability to bring deep emotion to the surface. This is a book that I can highly recommend to readers who enjoy discovering new, talented, contemporary writers.”

Stéfanie Clermont was interviewed on CBC Breakaway yesterday, on February 9, 2022. You can listen to the full interview here.

Order your copy of The Music Game here!

SAY THIS

The first chapter of Elise Levine’s forthcoming book, Say This (March 1, 2022), has been published as an excerpt on Open Book. The excerpt was published online on February 8, 2022. You can read the full excerpt here.

Of the book, Open Book writes,

“Two linked novellas function as one powerful storytelling magic trick. Formally ambitious but grounded in deep, unflinching, and complex emotional truth … Devastating, beautifully and intentionally fragmented, and arresting, Say This peels back the layers of power, violence, trauma, and guilt that surround its central crime.”

Preorder Say This from Biblioasis here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley cover

Chemical Valley by David Huebert (October 19, 2021), was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada! The review has been published online, and will appear in print in their March 2022 issue. You can read it here.

Reviewer André Forget writes,

“First in his 2017 collection Peninsula Sinking and now in Chemical Valley, Huebert’s uncanny facility for spinning densely poetic fiction out of the tawdry horror of twenty-first-century life has made him one of the most captivating authors of the past decade.”

Get your copy of Chemical Valley here!

THE DAY-BREAKERS & HAIL, THE INVISIBLE WATCHMAN

Hail, the Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver (April 5, 2022) and The Day-Breakers by Michael Fraser (April 5, 2022) were both listed by CBC Books as ‘Canadian poetry collections to watch for in spring 2022’! The list was published online on February 3, 2022. You can check out the full list here.

Preorder Hail, the Invisible Watchman here!

Preorder the Day-Breakers here!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT a finalist for the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS

Biblioasis Title A Ghost in the Throat named a finalist by the National Book Critics Circle

WINDSOR, Ont.— On the evening of Thursday, January 20th, the National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for the 2021 publishing year. Among them is A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa.

“We’re so very happy to receive this news, and thrilled for Doireann and hope that this will help to bring even more readers to her exceptional A Ghost in the Throat,” says Dan Wells, owner and publisher of Biblioasis. “We want to thank the NBCC jury, and offer congratulations to all of the other nominees, their publishers and editors.”

A Ghost in the Throat has received wide acclaim since its publication; winner of the 2020 Nonfiction Book of the Year from the An Post Irish Book Awards, winner of the 2020 Foyles Nonfiction Book of the Year, winner of the James Tait Black Biography Prize, shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, shortlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize, longlisted for the 2021 Gordon Burn Prize, a Guardian Best Book of 2020, a 2021 Indie Next Pick, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2021, a Book Riot Best Book of 2021, a New York Times Notable Book of 2021, a Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2021, an NPR Best Book of 2021, a Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2021, a Globe and Mail Book of the Year, a Winnipeg Free Press Top Read of 2021, an Entropy Magazine Best of the Year, a LitHub Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2021.

Doireann Ní Ghríofa is also the author of six critically acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship (USA), the Ostana Prize (Italy), a Seamus Heaney Fellowship (Queen’s University), and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, among others. This is her first work of prose.

Biblioasis is a literary press based in Windsor, Ontario. Since 2004 we have published the best in contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and literature in translation. For more information please visit our website, biblioasis.com

The National Book Critics Circle Awards, founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel and considered among the most prestigious in American letters, are the sole prizes bestowed by a jury of working critics and book review editors. The awards will be presented on March 17, 2022, in a virtual ceremony that will be free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact:

Erika Sanborn
Marketing & Publicity, Biblioasis
esanborn@biblioasis.com
519-915-3930

AS YOU WERE, CHEMICAL VALLEY, A GHOST IN THE THROAT, ON TIME AND WATER, ROMANTIC : New York Times, interviews, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

AS YOU WERE

As You Were by Elaine Feeney (October 5, 2021) has been reviewed by the New York Times in a list titled, ‘Hope Gained and Lost, in New Fiction From Around the World.’ The review was published online on January 14, 2022, and in the print edition on January 16, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Antonia Hitchens writes,

“The novel is intensely confessional … [As You Were] reads almost like a humorous screen adaptation of an illness memoir, its gaze trained more on the lived experience inside a hospital than on looming death. Feeney’s prose is intentionally not morbid; there is more levity than self-pity or wallowing in the remorselessness of fate.”

Get your copy of As You Were here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley cover

David Huebert, author of Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021), was interviewed in The Farside Review! The article was published on January 7, 2022. You can read the full interview here.

Lara Boyle writes,

“Thought-provoking, smart, and frighteningly surreal, David Huebert’s Chemical Valley is a brilliantly crafted collection of short stories that confront the violence of human nature in the natural world.”

Get your copy of Chemical Valley here!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (June 1, 2021) was reviewed in a critical essay in Ploughshares. The article was posted on January 13, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Holly M. Wendt writes,

A Ghost in the Throat is not historical fiction, and not a novelization of Eibhlín’s life, either. The refusal to give in to sensationalism becomes a tender intimacy between writer and subject—subject who is not simply a subject, but a companion of many years by the project’s close—and this infuses the very act of art-making.”

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

ON TIME AND WATER

On Time and Water cover

On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason (March 30, 2021) received a touching review in Yale Climate Connections. The review was posted on January 14, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Donald Wright wrote,

“Across 300-plus beautifully written pages, Magnason visits both his past and our future, at times struggling to find the words to convey the enormity of the climate system’s collapse, of what is already here and what is coming down the pipe.”

Get your copy of On Time and Water here!

ROMANTIC

Romantic (October 19, 2021) author Mark Callanan was interviewed in the Newfoundland Herald! The interview was posted online on January 17, 2021. You can read the full interview here.

Get your copy of Romantic here!

THE SINGING FOREST, THE MUSIC GAME, POGUEMAHONE, CHEMICAL VALLEY, ROMANTIC, THE DEBT: Latest Reviews!

IN THE NEWS

THE SINGING FOREST

Judith McCormack, author of The Singing Forest, was interviewed for The Globe and Mail! The article was published online on December 30, 2021. You can read the full article here.

Marsha Lederman writes,

“These separate but not unrelated elements of the story come together in ways that may seem obvious in this summary, but are masterfully explored and interwoven in the novel. They also allow for levity—The Singing Forest is not an endless grind of horrors. But it is a serious examination, including one key question at its core: What drives people to commit such horrible crimes?”

Get your copy of The Singing Forest here!

THE MUSIC GAME

The Music Game (February 8, 2022) by Stéfanie Clermont was mentioned on CBC Ontario Morning with Wei Chan! The episode aired on January 5, 2022. You can listen to the segment here (Jan 5 part 2, at approx 42:35).

Pre-order your copy of The Music Game here!

POGUEMAHONE

Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe (May 3, 2022) has been listed by The Guardian as ‘Fiction to look out for in 2022.’ The list was published online on December 30, 2021. You can read the full article here.

Alex Preston writes,

“If you’re looking for this century’s Ulysses, look no further than Patrick McCabe’s Poguemahone, a stunningly lyrical novel in free verse that takes place in Margate and in the mind and memories of Dan and Una Fogarty. It may look like a chore at more than 600 pages, but it’s a blast.”

Pre-order your copy of Poguemahone here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021) by David Huebert was included on the Mirachimi Reader‘s list of ‘Best Fiction Titles of 2021’! The list was posted on December 19, 2021. Check out the full list here.

Ian Colford wrote,

“In Chemical Valley, as in his previous volume of stories, Peninsula Sinking, David Huebert’s knack for creating engaging characters and finding interesting things for them to say, do and think is on abundant, boisterous display.”

David Huebert was also interviewed on CBC What on Earth! The episode on climate fiction aired on December 26, 2021. You can listen to it here (beginning at 19:00).

Host Laura Lynch says,

“David Huebert’s short stories explore environmental dread and creeping climate chaos, but also the power of love and community in a damaged world.”

Pick up your copy of Chemical Valley here!

ROMANTIC & THE DEBT

Romantic (October 12, 2021) by Mark Callanan and The Debt (April 6, 2021) by Andreae Callanan were both included by Joan Sullivan on SaltWire‘s list of ‘Top 10 Books of 2021’! The list was posted on January 1, 2022. You can check out the full list here.

Get your copy of Romantic here!

Get your copy of The Debt here!

 

Spotlight On: WHEREVER WE MEAN TO BE by ROBYN SARAH

Ring in the new year with another fantastic title from Biblioasis’ Spotlight series! For January, we’re featuring a collection of poetry from Robyn Sarah, the arresting and beautifully sensory Wherever We Mean to Be: Selected Poems 1975–2015 (November 14, 2017).

This month we’re also including a special reading of several poems from this collection by Robyn herself! Listen in below.

 

WHEREVER WE MEAN TO BE

A four-decade retrospective from the winner of the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry.

Spanning forty years and ten previously published collections, Wherever We Mean to Be is the first substantial selection of Robyn Sarah’s poems since 1992. Chosen by the author, the 97 poems in this new volume highlight the versatility of a poet who moves easily between free verse, traditional forms, and prose poems. Familiar favourites are here, along with lesser-known poems that collectively round out a retrospective of the themes and concerns that have characterized this poet’s work from the start.

Warm, direct, and intimate, accessible even at their most enigmatic, seemingly effortless in their musicality, the poems are a meditation on the passage of time, transience, and mortality. Natural and seasonal cycles are a backdrop to human hopes and longings, to the mystery and grace to be found in ordinary moments, and the pleasures, sorrows, and puzzlements of being human in the world.

Robyn Sarah is the author of eleven collections of poems, two collections of short stories, a book of essays on poetry, and a memoir, Music, Late and Soon. Her tenth poetry collection, My Shoes Are Killing Me, won the Governor General’s Award in 2015. From 2011 until 2020 she served as poetry editor for Cormorant Books. She has lived for most of her life in Montréal.

 

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

Special Reading of Seven Poems

Wherever We Mean to Be is the first selection of my poems since The Touchstone in 1992. A forty-year retrospective of my work as a poet, it is again my own selection, a new winnowing of my first five collections and of four published since. I chose the title because, in revisiting where I’ve been, it struck me that this phrase—the last line of a poem called “Station”—seems to embody something that runs through all of my poetry.

In “Station”, a couple—”two travellers, refugees/ of our own pasts”—contemplate a space ship on the lawn of the science museum. They have not come to visit the museum; they are just passing, here for the day on business. They don’t know why they feel compelled to stop; something inarticulate attends this moment as, hand in hand, they gaze blankly at the “mute ship poised for flight/ it will not take.” The poem ends:

… The thought
that beats, propeller-like
above our heads
is that we’re here—
wherever we were before,
wherever we mean to be.

We’re here.

“Here” is where we are now—a moment in time, a position on the globe. But the present moment is nearly always infused with some awareness of past and future: memory and imagination are part of it. I think this is how humans live: with one foot in the past and one directed towards a future or an elsewhere made of promise and intention. Unlike animals, we live in a present that embodies consciousness of where we’ve been, and hopes/fears/schemes/dreams of where we one day may be.

We are where we are, and it isn’t necessarily where we mean to be. It’s this ambivalence, integral to the human moment, that fascinates me as a poet: the tug between immediate particulars and a mind that can project backward or forward in time. Those same particulars can make time stand still if we’re paying close attention to where we are now. Yet stresses that thwart or divert intention can give a moment its aliveness.

A walk along a beach at dusk leads to a scramble up a cliff face to escape the incoming tide. The search for “something perfect” comes up against the demands of domesticity. A man on a scaffold and a woman below give up trying to have a conversation that way. A woman at the top of a staircase contemplates stairs that “end in mid-air, halfway down” after the man at the bottom has cut off a section he wants to reconfigure. In the mirror on a bureau that once belonged to the father she lost in childhood, a woman sees how her own face has come to resemble his mother’s as she remembers it from when she was a child…

“We are where we are”—for now. In the accompanying sampler of poems I’ve recorded as audio, these are a few living moments caught on the fly.

 

Get your copy of Wherever We Mean to Be here!

Order her latest work Music, Late and Soon here!

Have a look at Robyn Sarah’s other fantastic titles here!

 

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, CHEMICAL VALLEY, HOUSEHOLDERS, A GHOST IN THE THROAT: Rave Reviews!

IN THE NEWS!

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) received a glowing review in Cemetery Dance! The review was published on December 15. You can check it out here.

Reviewer Blu Gilliand said,

“As good as the story selection is, the design of each book is the star. Seth’s evocative covers and black-and-white interior illustrations provide the perfect accompaniment to the stories. His clean style elicits a ton of atmosphere without being hyper-detailed. In his work I see the brilliant use of shadow a la’ Mike Mignola, combined with the dark whimsey of Tim Burton … Highly recommended for the horror lovers looking for something special in this post-Halloween season.”

Christmas Ghost Stories were recommended by book columnist Anne Logan on CBC Calgary News! The segment aired on December 20. You can watch it here, beginning at 15:20.

Anne Logan said,

“They look really beautiful, they’re a cheap little stocking stuffer, and they’re a creative way of celebrating Christmas.”

Order all three 2021 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

 

CHEMICAL VALLEY

David Huebert, author of Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021), was interviewed by Brad Roach for Fiction Writers Review! The interview was posted on December 16. You can read the full interview here.

David Huebert was also interviewed by Trevor Corkum for 49th Shelf! Their chat was posted on December 17. You can check out the full interview here.

Get your copy of Chemical Valley here!

Householders cover

 

HOUSEHOLDERS

Householders by Kate Cayley (September 14, 2021) received a rave review in Plenitude! The review was published on December 21. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Brett Josef Grubisic said,

“Kate Cayley showcases virtuosic writing and captivating settings alongside intriguing plots that are handled with marked assurance from beginning to end … More than reflecting sheer invention or technical mastery, the stories are anchored by multi-faceted characters reacting to or navigating unique practical and ethical dilemmas, which Cayley investigates with a thoughtful thoroughness.”

Pick up your copy of Householders here!

A Ghost in the Throat cover

 

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

Doireann Ni Ghriofa’s A Ghost in the Throat was included in the Chicago Review of Books ‘7 Works of Criticism You May Have Missed in 2021’! The list was posted on December 20. You can check out the full list here.

Reviewer Clancy D’Isa said,

“Confident, poetic, artful and analytical, A Ghost in the Throat considered much to forward an exploration of past and present, discovery and poetry, homage and truth.”

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US, A GHOST IN THE THROAT, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, ROMANTIC, VILLA NEGATIVA: Media Hits!

IN THE NEWS!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann’s Things Are Against Us has been named a ‘Best Book of the 2021’ by The Independent! The list was published online on December 13. You can see the whole list here.

Martin Chilton says,

“Stimulating, entertaining and spiky. Some of her targets are dreary sexist men but she skewers them with real humour. Ellmann is fond of puns, alliteration and long lists of sharp adjectives, and her put-downs are like a literary version of watching popcorn kernels sizzle and suddenly pop in the pan.”

Get your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

 

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat cover

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa was included in the New York Times Critics’ Top Books of 2021! The list was posted on December 15. You can read the whole list here.

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

 

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) were featured along with an interview with Seth in Zoomer! The feature was published on December 10. You can read the full article here.

Reviewer Nathalie Atkinson said,

“The Biblioasis editions are handsome objects with embossed covers, double-page spreads that act like a cinematic establishing shot, and the artist’s thematic spot illustrations … The Seth editions are harbingers of a Christmas ghost story revival.”

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories were also mentioned in the Washington Post‘s books newsletter! The newsletter went out on December 10.

Ron Charles said,

“Each of these tiny books—20 volumes now—is cleverly illustrated by the cartoonist known as Seth. Even smaller than a Christmas card, they make fun literary stocking stuffers.”

Seth was interviewed for the Proust Questionnaire on CBC The Next Chapter! The interview was posted on December 11, and re-aired on December 13. You can listen to the segment here.

Get all three 2021 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

 

ROMANTIC

Romantic by Mark Callanan was listed in CBC Books’ Best Canadian Poetry of 2021! The list was posted on December 14. Check out the whole list here.

Get your copy of Romantic here!

 

VILLA NEGATIVA

Villa Negativa was reviewed in The Malahat Review! The review was published in their Autumn 2021 print edition.

Reviewer Jay Ruzesky said,

Villa Negativa is a collection of three intensely personal reflections rendered in precise language and spanning an emotional range so wide that readers should do some mental stretching before reading the books. While examining anorexia, a failed or failing relationship, and a sister’s long, agonizing illness, McCartney manages to expose humour, so that the reader is compelled forward even as we are anxious about how things are going to come out in the end.”

Get your copy of Villa Negativa here!

THE SINGING FOREST, DRIVEN, ON PROPERTY, ON DECLINE, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, A GHOST IN THE THROAT: Best of the Year and Gift Picks!

IN THE NEWS!

THE SINGING FOREST

The Singing Forest by Judith McCormack (September 21, 2021) has been named a ‘Best Historical Fiction Novel of 2021’ by the New York Times Book Review! The list was published online on December 9. You can check out the full list here.

Alida Becker said in her review:

“Blends thought-provoking reflections on the moral reckoning of war crimes with a warm, wry, almost Anne Tyler-esque depiction of a young woman’s attempts to decode her eccentric professional and personal families … Leah’s losses, her questions about her parents, are subtly contrasted with larger questions about truth and responsibility, especially when she flies off to conduct interviews in Minsk, “where facts had been malleable for so long, where they had become saleable commodities.”

Get your copy of The Singing Forest here!

DRIVEN

Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers by Marcello Di Cintio (May 4, 2021) was included on the CBC Books “Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2021′ list! The list was published online on December 9. You can see the full list here.

Get your copy of Driven here!

ON PROPERTY

On Property by Rinaldo Walcott (February 2, 2021) was also included on the CBC Books “Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2021′ list! The list was published online on December 9. You can see the full list here.

Get your copy of On Property here!

Check out our Field Notes bundle here!

ON DECLINE

On Decline cover

Andrew Potter, author of On Decline (August 17, 2021) was interviewed by Sean Speer in The Hub! The interview was posted today, on December 10. You can read the full interview here.

Get your copy of On Decline here!

Check out our Field Notes bundle here!

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES 2021

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) received a glowing review in The Charlatan! The review was posted online on December 7. You can read it here.

Reviewer Isabel Harder said,

“Seth’s books—petite and illustrated with gorgeous minimalist designs—feel somehow like a more mature version of my childhood traditions. In reality, Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories are a tradition everyone, young and old, can make a part of their holidays. With these beautifully illustrated books, it seems in this case one really can judge a book by its cover.”

Christmas Ghost Stories were mentioned on CBC The Homestretch as part of book columnist Anne Logan’s Christmas picks! The segment aired on November 30. You can listen to it here.

Christmas Ghost Stories were also featured in Hermine Annual’s ‘2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Book Lovers’! The gift guide was posted on December 6. You can view it on their website here.

The Doll’s Ghost by F. Marion Crawford from Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories was chosen as an Ampersand Review holiday staff pick by managing editor Robyn Read! The pick was posted on twitter on December 7. You can check it out here.

Get all three 2021 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

Check out the rest of the series here!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat cover

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa was included in Entropy magazine’s ‘Best of 2020-2021 Nonfiction Books’! The list was posted on December 9. Check out the full list here.

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

THE SINGING FOREST, CHEMICAL VALLEY, A GHOST IN THE THROAT, DANTE’S INDIANA, ON DECLINE, ON TIME AND WATER, DRIVEN, ON PROPERTY, HOUSEHOLDERS, THE ACCIDENT: Media Hits!

IN THE NEWS!

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS TOP READS OF 2021

The Winnipeg Free Press listed their book reviewers’ top reads of 2021, which included five Biblioasis titles: Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat(June 1, 2021), Randy Boyagoda’s Dante’s Indiana (September 7, 2021), Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water(March 30, 2021), Andrew Potter’s On Decline (August 17, 2021), and Best Canadian Essays (October 19, 2021)! The list was posted on December 4, 2021. You can check out the full list here.

Order A Ghost in the Throat here!

Order Dante’s Indiana here!

Order On Time and Water here!

Order On Decline here!

Order Best Canadian Essays 2021 here!

 

THE SINGING FOREST

Judith McCormack’s The Singing Forest (September 21, 2021) was reviewed in the New York Times‘ list of ‘The Season’s Best New Historical Novels’! The review was posted on December 3, 2021. You can check out the full list here.

Reviewer Alida Becker praised,

The Singing Forest blends thought-provoking reflections on the moral reckoning of war crimes with a warm, wry, almost Anne Tyler-esque depiction of a young woman’s attempts to decode her eccentric professional and personal families … Leah’s losses, her questions about her parents, are subtly contrasted with larger questions about truth and responsibility, especially when she flies off to conduct interviews in Minsk, ‘where facts had been malleable for so long, where they had become saleable commodities.'”

Judith McCormack, author of The Singing Forest was interviewed by Joseph Planta on thecommentary.ca podcast! The interview was posted on November 30, 2021. You can listen to it here.

Host Joseph Planta said,

“The ideas of justice, vengeance, and motive are contended with, and it’s fascinating to think about as the time has passed from the crimes themselves. Heritage, inheritance, and memory are also investigated in the book that is quite engaging.”

The Singing Forest was also included in The Walrus‘ ‘Canadian Authors Pick Their Favourite Books of 2021’ list! The list was posted on December 2, 2021. You can check out the full list here.

Caroline Adderson said,

“Moving hypnotically between present events and two motherless childhoods—Jarvis’s eccentric upbringing and the loveless brutality of Drozd’s—McCormack pulls off a little miracle. For much of the novel, we care about the monster. All this she accomplishes in sentences that wrap themselves around you.”

An excerpt from The Singing Forest was also published in LitHub! The excerpt was published online on December 3, 2021. You can read it here.

Get your copy of The Singing Forest here!

 

HOUSEHOLDERS

Householders (September 14, 2021) by Kate Cayley was listed as a 49th Shelf Book of the Year 2021! The list was published yesterday on December 6, 2021. You can check out the full list on the website here.

Get your copy of Householders here!

 

CHEMICAL VALLEY

David Huebert, author of Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021) was interviewed in a Q&A by Supriya Saxena for ZYZZYVA! The Q&A was posted on December 2, 2021. You can read it here.

Supriya Saxena wrote,

“The stories are varied, featuring oil refinery workers, teenage climate activists, long-term care nurses, and more, showing the issues and intricacies of their lives in lush detail. The grim explorations of wealth inequality, illness, and bereavement are counterbalanced by the rich and lyrical prose, providing heartfelt insights into today’s damaged world and the individuals who inhabit it.”

Get your copy of Chemical Valley here!

 

DANTE’S INDIANA

Randy Boyagoda, author of Dante’s Indiana (September 7, 2021) was interviewed alongside Alix Ohlin in the Globe and Mail! The interview was posted on December 3, 2021, and is part of a series of conversations between authors to mark the 2021 edition of The Globe 100. You can read the full interview here.

On the fun of writing, Randy Boyagoda said,

“[T]he comedy in Dante’s Indiana is in service to something larger and more serious. So yes, I had a lot of fun writing it. But it was always with the discipline of making sure that it led to something greater than only another zany joke.”

Order your copy of Dante’s Indiana here!

Or get the first two books in the series with the Original PrinDante’s Indiana bundle here!

 

DRIVEN

Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers (May 4, 2021) by Marcello Di Cintio was included in The Walrus‘ ‘Canadian Authors Pick Their Favourite Books of 2021’ list! The list was posted on December 2, 2021. You can check out the full list here.

Alex Pugsley said,

“A blend of reportage, social history, and personal profile, Driven is a triumph of curiosity and compassion.”

Order your copy of Driven here!

 

ON PROPERTY

Rinaldo Walcott, author of On Property (February 2, 2021) was interviewed alongside Esi Edugyen in the Globe and Mail! The interview was posted on December 4, 2021, and is part of a series of conversations between authors to mark the 2021 edition of The Globe 100. You can read the full interview here.

During the interview, Rinaldo Walcott said,

“The question of the relationship between silence and political action is one that I hold dearly. I do not believe that everyone who holds some kind of public personality needs to speak to political issues. If you’re a writer and you write poetry and that’s the way you address these questions, do that. If you write novels, do that. Politics by guilt never works. Politics has to be generous. It has to be willing to bring people along. It has to be persuasive. It has to be willing to engage.”

Order your copy of On Property here!

Or get the full Field Notes series bundle here!

 

THE ACCIDENT

Mihail Sebastian’s The Accident (May 1, 2011) was reviewed in the Calvert Journal! The review was posted on December 3, and can be read on their website here.

Reviewer Paula Erizanu wrote,

“With its elegant, sparkling-clear prose, tight structure, and memorable characters, the short novel is a page-turner and, perhaps Mihail Sebastian’s best work of fiction.”

Get your copy of The Accident here!