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

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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!

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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!

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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 Prin & Dante’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!

End of November: Major Media Round-Up!

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IN THE NEWS!

GLOBE 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

On November 29, The Globe and Mail announced the ‘Globe 100’, their 100 best books of the year. We are delighted to have three Biblioasis titles included this year, Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat (June 1, 2021), Marcello Di Cintio’s Driven (May 4, 2021), and Rinaldo Walcott’s On Property (February 2, 2021)! You can view the whole list here.

Order On Property here!

Order Driven here!

Order A Ghost in the Throat here!

Foregone cover

 

FOREGONE

Foregone by Russell Banks (March 16, 2021) has been listed by Kirkus as a Best Fiction Book of the Year!  The list was published on November 15, and can be found on their website here.

Kirkus had originally reviewed the book on March 2, 2021 saying that the book was:

“a challenging, risk-taking work marked by a wry and compassionate intelligence.”

Order your copy of Foregone here!

 

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann’s Things Are Against Us (September 28, 2021), has been included in the ‘Best Gift Books to Give 2021’ by the Chicago Tribune! The guide was published on November 24. You can view the whole guide here.

Christopher Borrelli says:

“[Lucy’s] working in a tone familiar to lovers of E.B. White and Norah Ephron—knowing, funny, exhausted. Subjects include the patriarchy, staying home and underwear (“Bras: A Life Sentence”).”

Order your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

 

coverMUSIC, LATE AND SOON

Music, Late and Soon (August 24, 2021) by Robyn Sarah has been included on the CBC Books ’20 books for the music lover on your holiday shopping list.’ The list was published online on November 29. See the full list here. 

Sarah was also recently named a finalist for The Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction. The following statement was provided by the jurors: 

“Sarah splices the narrative of her belated return to piano lessons with memories of her development as a promising professional musician. Sarah understates her musical talent but the facts speak for themselves. At twenty-four, however … she abandoned music as a profession to become a poet and literary editor.

Sarah calls her book “a musical autobiography” but it is far more than that. It is a deeply intimate exploration of the artistic process by a writer of remarkable maturity and poise.  

Unfailingly, her prose remains centred, rooted in humility, never drawing attention to itself. Her every word feels thoughtful, honest, and true. With this book, Sarah demonstrates that a life pursued artistically, when done so with sincerity and integrity, is a life lived spiritually, no matter what the discipline. Concert halls might be poorer for her career choice, but the literary world can count itself richly blessed.”

Order your copy of Music, Late and Soon here!

 

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley by David Huebert (October 19, 2021) has been reviewed in Atlantic Books! The review was published today on November 15, and can be read on their website here.

Reviewer Chris Benjamin said,

“Huebert is a gifted short story writer. His characters do contain multitudes, each story a set of worlds. Collectively, they reflect our times, and help us contemplate the most dire of threats to our singular habitable planet.”

David Huebert was interviewed on the @Risk Podcast! The episode was posted on November 18, and can be listened to here.

David Huebert was also interviewed about Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021) by Keri Ferguson in Western News! The interview was posted on November 25. You can read it here.

Order your copy of Chemical Valley here!

 

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

On November 22, it was announced that Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat (June 1, 2021) is a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2021! You can view the whole list here.

Reviewer Nina MacLaughlin said,

“This book comes from the body, from the ‘entwining strands of female voices that were carried in female bodies.’ The sound of the female voice, the aural texture of A Ghost in the Throat, is part of its deep pleasure.”

It was also announced on November 22 that A Ghost in the Throat is a Kirkus Best Book of 2021! You can view the whole list here. 

The original starred review reads,

“Lyrical prose passages and moving introspection abound in this unique and beautiful book.”

The NPR Books We Love list (formerly Books Concierge) was announced on November 24, and both Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat (June 1, 2021) and Mia Couto’s Sea Loves Me (February 23, 2021) are included! You can view the whole list here. 

Ann Powers says of A Ghost in the Throat,

“Intensely poetic and freewheeling and connecting the bodily details of mothering and erotic love – “female texts” – to linguistic hierarchies and erasures, this book creates its own form: a critical biography of the body, of bloodshed and babies born, of the word made flesh.”

Order your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

 

SEA LOVES ME

Mia Couto’s Sea Loves Me (February 23, 2021) was also included on the NPR Books We Love list from November 24! You can view the whole list here. 

Thúy Ðinh says of Sea Loves Me,

“As with his natural affinity toward cats, Couto’s stories — deftly translated by David Brookshaw and Eric M.B. Becker — represent graceful attempts to transcend barriers between the colonizer and colonized, native and settler, human and animal, matter and antimatter.”

Order your copy of Sea Loves Me here!

 

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES 2021

Seth, the designer and illustrator for Biblioasis’ Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) was interviewed on CTV Kitchener! The interview aired on November 24. You can watch it here (beginning at 21:35). 

The Doll’s Ghost by F. Marion Crawford from Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) was featured in a reading on the Christmas Past podcast! The episode was posted on November 26. You can listen to it on their website here. 

Host Brian Earl said,

“The great thing about each passing season is the chance to discover something new that may go on to become a new favourite. That old and largely forgotten tradition of Christmas ghost stories is fertile ground for anyone digging for a spooky festive treat from a bygone time.“

Christmas Ghost Stories (October 26, 2021) was also reviewed on the Total Christmas Podcast! The episode was posted on November 21. You can listen to it on their website here (review starts at 34:00). 

Host Jack Ford said,

“These books are just delightful … and the illustrations are just—shall I say delightful again?”

Order the Christmas Ghost Stories 2021 bundle here!

 

BEST CANADIAN 2021 SERIES

The Best Canadian 2021 Series has received a great review in the Toronto Star by Steven Beattie. The review was published online on November 26. You can read the review here. 

Beattie writes,

“All three of these volumes have much to recommend, though the stylistic virtuosity on display in Best Canadian Stories 2021 testifies most explicitly to a range of writing being produced right now. But it is Thammavongsa’s poetry selection that provides the most startling and memorable moment. David Romanda’s poem “We Really Like Your Writing” manages something in five short lines that few of the other writers in any of these anthologies even attempt: it makes its reader laugh out loud. And that has to qualify as one of the best outcomes from a year of uncertainty, trouble, and strife.”

Order the Best Canadian 2021 Series bundle here!

 

Spotlight On: BLUE FIELD by ELISE LEVINE

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Welcome back to Biblioasis’ Spotlight series! For the month of December, we’ve chosen to feature Elise Levine’s claustrophobic and visceral novel Blue Field (April 11, 2017).

BLUE FIELD

When her friend Jane dies while exploring an underwater cave with her husband Rand, Marilyn takes up diving again, to honour—and outdo—her late friend. Marilyn drags Rand with her as she increasingly pushes herself far past her limits and skill level, endangering them both in their private underwater version of hell.

More than two decades after the release of her sensational, critically acclaimed collection Driving Men Mad, Blue Field marks Elise Levine’s much anticipated return to form.

Elise Levine’s Say This: Two Novellas is forthcoming in March 2022. She is also the author of the recent story collection This Wicked Tongue, the novels Blue Field and Requests and Dedications, and the story collection Driving Men Mad. Her work has appeared in publications including Ploughshares, Blackbird, The Gettysburg Review, and has appeared four times in Best Canadian Stories. She lives in Baltimore, MD, and teaches in the MA in Writing program at Johns Hopkins University.

 

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

On New Work

Who gets to say? What’s it like to begin—to even just begin to begin—thinking and living in terms of your own story, and not the one handed to you? What desires might you inhabit if you were free to own those desires?

These are the questions that animate Say This: Two Novellas, due out in Spring 2022.

Here’s a little more about how the book goes, which also asks, What do we owe each other?

A celebrity journalist hopes Eva will tell him everything about the sexual affair she had as a teen with her older cousin, a man now in federal prison for murder. Thirteen years earlier, Lenore-May answers the phone to the nightmare news that her stepson’s body has been found near Mount Hood, and homicide is suspected.

I think of the book as a set of portraits that speak to one another. There’s the portrait of Eva’s unsettling ambivalence towards her confusing relationship. And the portrait of her cousin’s victim through a collage of the perspectives of the slain man’s family—and a portrait as well of their various lives, filtered through the lens of grief and joy and love.

Writing a book is like taking a sustained flying leap. You get an idea, a sense of character, circumstance. So many questions. The obsessive desire to follow where they lead. And off you go, hoping for the best. Hoping in the end that you’ve sufficiently looked your characters’ complexities in the face to accord them the freedom to rise and meet their self-determined fates.

Now that Say This is close to landing—in book form, that is—I’m kiting similar questions about desire and identity in new work I hope takes off and catches the light and reflects new angles.

It’s early stages, but here’s what’s on my mind.

GIANT: Stories. Nine stories, in fact. About ambition, will, self-creation—and their discontents. Stories about brazenly going off the rails. Stories that might go off the rails. That might have a blast.

You can find the first story, “Arnhem”, in Best Canadian Stories 2021. Maybe you’ll look it up?

Elise

 

Get your copy of Blue Field here!

Pre-order Say This here!

And why not check out Elise Levine’s other fantastic titles here?

BEST CANADIAN 2021 SERIES Virtual Launch Video

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“The legacy of this series is massive … a literary institution.” —Ottawa Citizen

Last night we celebrated the virtual launch of the 2021 Best Canadian Series! The event kicked off with a discussion and Q&A between publisher Dan Wells and editors Bruce Whiteman, Diane Schoemperlen, and Souvankham Thammavongsa. This was followed by selected readings by contributors from each anthology: Eva-Lynn Jagoe from Essays, David Romanda from Poetry, and Metcalf-Rooke Award-winner Colette Maitland from Stories. The night finished off with a series giveaway.

And even if you missed the live event, you can still watch here!

ABOUT BRUCE WHITEMAN

Bruce Whiteman is a poet, translator, culture historian, and book reviewer. His reviews appear regularly in Canadian Notes & Queries, The Hudson Review, and elsewhere. Recent poetry collections include Intimate Letters (2014), Tablature (2015), and The Sad Mechanic Exercise (2019). His translation of Fanny Daubigny’s study Proust in Black: Los Angeles: A Proustian Fiction was published in 2019.

ABOUT DIANE SCHOEMPERLEN

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Diane Schoemperlen has published several collections of short fiction and three novels, In the Language of Love (1994), Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), and At A Loss For Words (2008). Her 1990 collection, The Man of My Dreams, was shortlisted for both the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium. Her collection, Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures won the 1998 Governor General’s Award for English Fiction. In 2008, she received the Marian Engel Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. In 2012, she was Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s University. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

ABOUT SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of five books: Small Arguments (2003), winner of the ReLit Prize; Found (2007), now a short film; Light (2013), winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry; Cluster (2019); and the short story collection How to Pronounce Knife (2020), winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She has been in residence at Yaddo and has presented her work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

 

Order your copy of Best Canadian Poetry here!

Order your copy of Best Canadian Stories here!

Order your copy of Best Canadian Essays here!

Get the Best Canadian 2021 Bundle here!

ROMANTIC Virtual Launch Video

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Last night we celebrated the virtual launch of Mark Callanan’s new poetry collection, Romantic (October 12, 2021)! Mark Callanan had a wonderful discussion with fellow poet Luke Hathaway, who showed up dressed in shining armor for the event! The reading was followed by an audience Q&A, and a successful book giveaway!

And if you missed the live launch, you can still check it out below!

 

ABOUT ROMANTIC

Drawing on Arthurian myth, the Romantic poets, the ill-fated “Great War” efforts of the Newfoundland Regiment, modern parenthood, 16-bit video games, and Major League Baseball, these poems examine the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, both as individuals and as communities, in order to explain how and why we are the way we are. At its heart, Romantic interrogates our western society’s idealized, self-deluding personal and cultural perspectives.

ABOUT MARK CALLANAN

Mark Callanan is the author of two previous poetry collections. He was one of the founding editors of the St. John’s, Newfoundland-based literary journal Riddle Fence and co-edited The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry. He lives in St. John’s with his wife, poet and critic Andreae Callanan, and their four children.

 

Get your copy of Romantic from Biblioasis here!

Bookselling & Political Action: Event Video

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Last night we held a fascinating discussion between booksellers and writers, Danny Caine (How To Resist Amazon and Why) and Josh Cook (The Least We Can Do)! The event was coordinated with The Raven Bookstore. Afterward, there was an audience Q&A and a chance to win copies of both books!

If you didn’t catch the event live, no worries! You can still watch it below:

ABOUT THE LEAST WE CAN DO

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day 2021, we’re proud to present Josh Cook’s The Least We Can Do!

Like most of our cultural institutions, bookshops and the booksellers who run them have worked hard the last few years to respond to political and social issues in our society. They’ve formed committees and hosted panels, held training sessions and had difficult conversations in both their private and professional lives. Yet books by White supremacists, fascists, misogynists, and other dangerous ideologues are bought and sold in independent bookshops across North America every day. What are the economic, social, and moral consequences of stocking and selling these titles? In The Least We Can Do, Josh Cook, bookseller at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, takes up these questions and more, embarking on an urgent and insightful reckoning with critical issues around freedom of expression, public discourse, industry ethics, and moral culpability.

The first in a new series of pamphlets to be published by booksellers, for booksellers and those invested in bookstores and book culture, The Least We Can Do is a call to action and the beginning of an essential conversation.

ABOUT JOSH COOK

Josh Cook is a bookseller at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and his fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

ABOUT HOW TO RESIST AMAZON AND WHY

When a company’s workers are literally dying on the job, when their business model relies on preying on local businesses and even their own companies, when their CEO is literally the richest person in the world while their workers make minimum wage with impossible quotas … wouldn’t you want to resist? Danny Caine, owner of Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas compiled this zine about his commitment to fighting the seemingly impossible giant in the bookselling world: Amazon. This zine includes the open letter he wrote to Jeff Bezos, examples of successful social media activism that produced waves of successful economic solidarity for local bookstores, links to other resources, and some sobering words about boycotting. Let this zine inspire you to support independents and stand up to the biggest threats facing our society!

ABOUT DANNY CAINE

Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy’s, and Flavortown, as well as the book How to Resist Amazon and Why. His poetry has appeared in LitHub, DIAGRAM, Hobart, and Barrelhouse, and his prose has appeared in LitHub and Publishers Weekly. The Midwest Independent Booksellers Association awarded him the 2019 Midwest Bookseller of the Year award. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas where he owns Raven Book Store.

 

Order The Least We Can Do from Biblioasis here!

Order How to Resist Amazon and Why from The Raven Bookstore here!

Spotlight On: ALL SAINTS by K.D. MILLER

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Welcome to Biblioasis’ Spotlight series, a new monthly feature highlighting our brilliant backlist titles! This also includes a brief word from the authors themselves on their past work, an update on what they’re up to now, or thoughts on future projects. Our featured title for November is the short story collection All Saints (April 15, 2014) by K.D. Miller.

 

ALL SAINTS

Shortlisted for the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
Longlisted for the 2014 Frank O’Connor Award

In a linked collection that presents the secret small tragedies of an Anglican congregation struggling to survive, All Saints (April 15, 2014) delves into the life of Simon, the Reverend, and the lives of his parishioners: Miss Alice Vipond, a refined and elderly schoolteacher, incarcerated for a horrendous crime; a woman driven to extreme anxiety by an affair she cannot end; a receptionist, and her act of improbable generosity; a writer making peace with her divorce. Effortlessly written and candidly observed, All Saints is a moving collection of tremendous skill, whose intersecting stories illuminate the tenacity and vulnerability of modern-day believers.

K.D. Miller is the author of two previous short story collections, Give me Your Answer and Litany on a Time of Plague, and an essay collection, Holy Writ. Her work has twice been collected in The Journey Prize Anthology and Best Canadian Stories, and she has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for Fiction. She lives and writes in Toronto.

 

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

On Alice Drive by K.D. Miller

Out my study window, I can just catch sight of a little street called Edith Drive. I frequently incorporate Edith Drive into my daily walk. I have tried, and failed, to find out who Edith was and why these two short blocks are named after her. And several years ago, I spent a good part of New Year’s Eve watching half of one of Edith Drive’s semi-detached houses burn. The adjoining house came out of it unscathed and still habitable, while the one that caught fire was a blackened shell for two years or more.

I can’t remember exactly when Edith became Alice in my imagination, or Alice Drive the working title of what I hope will be my next collection of stories. But the neighbourhood is growing as more and more characters move in.

I have published four collections of linked short stories. In each case, I have come to regard the characters as imaginary friends—a community I work with and get to know and miss, once the manuscript is in my publisher’s hands. Any writer will tell you that a fictional character has a life of their own, and exercises more than a bit of control over what happens to them.

Whenever I’m working on a collection, there comes a moment when someone playing a minor role in one story convinces me that they deserve to star in a narrative all their own. In All Saints, for example, Gail, a church receptionist who is briefly mentioned in “Still Dark,” takes centre stage in “Spare Change,” demonstrating that there is more to her than typing, filing and picking up an office phone.

Characters don’t just migrate from story to story, either, but from book to book. I was pleased to welcome Kelly into two of the stories in All Saints, twenty years after she made her debut in my first collection, A Litany in Time of Plague. It was fun to find out what she had been up to, and what was going to happen next. Right now, as I’m working on the title story of Alice Drive, I’m getting reacquainted with Pete Aspinall. Pete had a brief mention in All Saints’ “October Song,” then a major supporting role in the same collection’s “Heroes.” A lot has happened in seven years. He retired from teaching, moved into a house on Alice Drive, met René, the love of his life, and is now mourning René’s untimely death. Add to that the fact that his house seems to be haunted …

But I’ll let Pete tell you his own story. Once he’s finished telling it to me.

 

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And why not check out K.D. Miller’s other fantastic titles here?

 

THE SINGING FOREST Virtual Launch Video

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Last night we celebrated the launch of Judith McCormack’s The Singing Forest (September 21 2021)! Judith was joined by criminal lawyer Frank Addario, and author and Judge Maryka Omatsu, for a fascinating discussion and engaging audience Q&A. Afterward, there was a giveaway for the book.

And if you weren’t able to make the live event, you can still watch it below!

ABOUT THE SINGING FOREST

In a quiet forest in Belarus, two boys make a gruesome find that reveals a long-kept secret: the mass grave where Stalin’s police buried thousands of murder victims in the 1930s. The results of the subsequent investigation—30,000 dead—has far-reaching effects, and across the Atlantic in Toronto, young lawyer Leah Jarvis finds herself tasked with an impossible case: the trial of elderly Stefan Drozd, a former member of Stalin’s forces, who fled his crimes in Kurapaty for a new identity in Canada. Though Leah is convinced of Drozd’s guilt, she needs hard facts. Determined to bring him to justice, she travels to Belarus in search of witnesses—and finds herself piecing together another set of evidence: her mother’s death, her father’s absence, the shadows of her Jewish heritage. Lyrical and wrenching by turns, The Singing Forest is a profound investigation of memory, truth, and the stories that tell us who we are.

ABOUT JUDITH MCCORMACK

Judith McCormack was born in Evanston, and grew up in Toronto, with several years in Montreal and Vancouver. She is Jewish through her mother, and her maternal grandparents came from Belarus and Lithuania, with her father contributing his Scots-Irish heritage. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Fiction Prize, the Journey Prize and the Amazon First Novel Award, and her short stories have appeared in the Harvard Review, Descant, The Fiddlehead, Coming Attractions and Best Canadian Stories. She also has several law degrees, which first introduced her to story-telling, and is a recipient of the Law Society Medal and The Guthrie Award for access to justice.

Order from Biblioasis here!