AS YOU WERE Virtual Launch Video

On Saturday, October 16, we held the virtual launch of Elaine Feeney’s As You Were! Elaine had an excellent discussion with Douglas Stuart, Booker-Prize winning author of Shuggie Bain, and the event was hosted by Grace Harper. Afterward, there was an audience Q&A, and a book giveaway!

And if you weren’t able to watch the event live, no worries! You can still watch it here:

ABOUT AS YOU WERE

Sinéad Hynes is a tough, driven, funny young property developer with a terminal cancer diagnosis—but no one knows it: not her fellow patients in a failing hospital, and certainly not her family. She has confided only in Google and a shiny magpie. Yet she can’t go on like this, tirelessly trying to outstrip her past and in mortal fear of her future. Across the ward, Margaret Rose is running her chaotic family from her rose-gold Nokia. In the neighbouring bed, Jane, rarely but piercingly lucid, is searching for a decent bra and for someone to listen. And Sinéad needs them both.

As You Were is about intimate histories, institutional failures, the kindness of strangers, and the darkly present past of modern Ireland; about women’s stories and women’s struggles; about seizing the moment to be free. Wildly funny, desperately tragic, inventive and irrepressible, As You Were introduces a brilliant new voice.

ABOUT ELAINE FEENEY

Elaine Feeney is an award-winning writer from Galway and teaches at The National University of Ireland, Galway. She has published three collections of poetry, including The Radio was Gospel and Rise and the award-winning drama, WRoNGHEADED with The Liz Roche Company. As You Were, her debut novel, was published in 2020 by Vintage in the UK and in 2021 by Biblioasis in North America. It was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and was included in The Guardian’s top debut novels for 2020. It appeared widely in best books of 2020 including in The Telegraph, The Irish Independent, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Observer and The Irish Times.

Order from Biblioasis here!

MUSIC, LATE AND SOON a finalist for THE MAVIS GALLANT PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

coverWe’re thrilled to share that on Friday, October 15, Music, Late and Soon (August 24, 2021) by Robyn Sarah was announced as a finalist for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction, presented by the Quebec Writers’ Foundation! The winner will be announced during a live-streamed gala event hosted by Giller prize-winning author Sean Michaels on November 24 at 7PM.

Since 1988, the QWF Literary Awards have celebrated the best books and plays published or performed by English-language writers and translators in Quebec, as well as those translating English works from Quebec into French. Each award comes with a purse of $3,000.

The other finalists for the Mavis Gallant Prize include: Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt’s Peacekeeper’s Daughter: A Middle-East Memoir (Thistledown Press), Karen Messing’s Bent Out of Shape (Between the Lines), André Picard’s Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada’s Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic (Random House Canada), and Samir Shaheen-Hussain’s Fighting for a Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism Against Indigenous Children in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press).

The winner will be announced during a live-streamed gala event hosted by Giller prize-winning author Sean Michaels on November 24 at 7PM.

 

ABOUT MUSIC, LATE AND SOON

A poet rediscovers the artistic passion of her youth—and pays tribute to the teacher she thought she’d lost.

After thirty-five years as an “on-again, off-again, uncoached closet pianist,” poet and writer Robyn Sarah picked up the phone one day and called her old piano teacher, whom she had last seen in her early twenties. Music, Late and Soon is the story of her return to studying piano with the mentor of her youth. In tandem, she reflects on a previously unexamined musical past: a decade spent at Quebec’s Conservatoire de Musique, studying clarinet—ostensibly headed for a career as an orchestral musician, but already a writer at heart. A meditation on creative process in both music and literary art, this two-tiered musical autobiography interweaves past and present as it tracks the author’s long-ago defection from a musical career path and her late re-embrace of serious practice. At its core is a portrait of an extraordinary piano teacher and of a relationship remembered and renewed.

ABOUT ROBYN SARAH

Robyn Sarah is the author of eleven collections of poems, two collections of short stories, and a book of essays on poetry. Her tenth poetry collection, My Shoes Are Killing Me, won the Governor General’s Award for poetry in 2015.  In 2017 Biblioasis published a forty-year retrospective, Wherever We Mean to Be: Selected Poems, 1975-2015. Sarah’s writing has appeared widely in Canada, the United States, and the U.K.  Her poems have been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry, 15 Canadian Poets x 2 and x 3, The Bedford Anthology of Literature, and The Norton Anthology of Poetry, and a dozen of them were broadcast by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. From 2011 until 2020 she served as poetry editor for Cormorant Books. She has lived for most of her life in Montréal.

 

Get your copy of Music, Late and Soon here!

 

AS YOU WERE, ON DECLINE, THINGS ARE AGAINST US, THE SINGING FOREST, WHITE SHADOW, and ON TIME AND WATER: New Reviews!

IN THE NEWS!

AS YOU WERE

Elaine Feeney’s As You Were (October 5, 2021) was featured in Nylon Magazine as one of “9 October 2021 Books to Kick Off Fall”! The list was published online on Friday, October 1. You can read it on their website here

Sophia June praised As You Were

“In a novel that paints a picture of modern Ireland that isn’t by Sally Rooney, women in an oncology ward come to terms with secrets, illnesses, and how to deal with their families through text and emoji-speak and existential humor. Perfect for Sad Girl Fall.”

An excerpt of As You Were was also published yesterday on October 4, in Lit Hub! You can read it on their website here.

Pick up your copy of As You Were here!

 

ON DECLINEOn Decline cover

Andrew Potter, author of On Decline (August 17, 2021) was interviewed for CBC Ideas with Nahlah Ayed. The episode was published online on September 29, and aired on CBC radio the same evening at 8PM ET. You can listen to the full interview here

Potter tells Ayed, 

“I think climate change is an effect of our civilization, but it becomes a problem when you lose the ability to do anything about it.”

Pick up your copy of On Decline here!

 

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann, author of Things Are Against Us (September 28, 2021), was interviewed by Lit Hub! The interview was published on September 29. You can read it out on their website here.

Lucy Ellmann spoke about how men need to read women writers: 

“It’s time for men simply to listen to women. But apparently even educated men who read books do not read books by women: in other words, they have no respect for our point of view.”

Things Are Against Us was listed by Lit Hub as one of thirteen New & Noteworthy titles to check out this week! The list was published on September 29. You can read it on their website here

Lucy Ellmann’s new essay collection was listed by The Millions as a New & Noteworthy title! The list was published on September 28, and you can read it here

Lucy Ellmann was also interviewed by the Chicago Review of Books! The interview was published on October 1. You can read it out on their website here.

Interviewer Rachel León praised Things Are Against Us

“[Ellmann] delivers these diatribes with her signature wit and humor … Each essay is accompanied by an illustration by artist Diana Hope, which complements the colorful nature of this collection. Fans of Ellmann will likely delight in Things Are Against Us.”

And Things Are Against Us is a Toronto Public Library Fall 2021 Pick! It was included in “Valerie’s Picks”, published on September 20, and was featured on their Instagram on October 1. You can read the list on their website here

Librarian Valerie Casselman wrote,

“As you might expect, a collection of essays by the author of the prize-winning stream of consciousness novel Ducks, Newburyport will not be boring or stuffy. ‘Let’s complain,’ she says in the preface and then proceeds to do just that. A collection of satirical essays written with biting wit, irreverence, and clever wordplay.”

Pick up your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

 

THE SINGING FOREST

Judith McCormack’s The Singing Forest (September 21, 2021) was featured as an Editor’s Pick from 49th Shelf, as well as a “Valerie’s Pick for Fall 2021” at the Toronto Public Library! 

Check out the full list from 49th Shelf here

Check out the full list from the Toronto Public Library here.

Pick up your copy of The Singing Forest here!

 

On Time and Water coverON TIME AND WATER and WHITE SHADOW

Both Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water (March 30, 2021) and Roy Jacobsen’s White Shadow (April 6, 2021) received excellent reviews in World Literature Today! Both reviews will be published in the Autumn 2021 issue and can be read on their website. 

You can read the On Time and Water review here, and the White Shadow review here.

Reviewer Greg Brown praised On Time and Water

“Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water is a wondrous, rambling book. It confronts the ecological and social challenges facing humanity and eloquently presents facts that are dire and terrifying. And yet, through persuasive narratives and insightful examples, the book is satisfying, useful, and even hopeful to a degree. I highly recommend Magnason’s On Time and Water to readers of nonfiction, especially those interested in ecology and eco-theory … Magnason’s eloquence is exactly what is called for in this dire moment.”

Reviewer Thomas Nolden praised White Shadow: White Shadow cover

“With every sentence in his new novel, Roy Jacobsen shows how his characters carve their morality out of the dried driftwood found on the small islands of war-ravaged Norway. White Shadow is yet another masterpiece by Jacobsen, who continues in this short novel to track the vicissitudes of the life of his young heroine Ingrid Barrøy … White Shadow is a powerful psychological novel.”

Pick up your copy of On Time and Water here!

Pick up your copy of White Shadow here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY and HOUSEHOLDERS: Double Launch Video

Last night we celebrated the double launch of two exciting Biblioasis books: Kate Cayley’s Householders and David Huebert’s Chemical Valley! Kate Cayley and David Huebert were joined in conversation by author Sofi Papamarko. After each author read from their work, the discussions kicked off in a fascinating range of topics, from communes to petroleum, artificiality to the placement of COVID in short stories. The conversations led into an audience Q&A, and we wrapped up the night with a giveaway of each book!

And in case you missed the live event, don’t worry! You can still watch it here:

 

Get your copy of Householders from Biblioasis here!

Get your copy of Chemical Valley from Biblioasis here!

 

ABOUT HOUSEHOLDERS

A woman impersonates a nun online, with unexpected consequences. In a rapidly changing neighborhood, tensions escalate around two events planned for the same day. The barista girlfriend of a tech billionaire survives a zombie apocalypse only to face spending her life with the paranoid super-rich. From a university campus to an underground bunker, a commune in the woods to Toronto and back again, the linked stories in Householders move effortlessly between the commonplace and the fantastic. In deft and exacting narratives about difficult children and thorny friendships, hopeful revolutionaries and self-deluded utopians, nascent queers, sincere frauds, and families of all kinds, Kate Cayley mines the moral hazards inherent in the ways we try to save each other and ourselves.

Kate Cayley has previously written a short story collection, two poetry collections, and a number of plays, both traditional and experimental, which have been produced in Canada and the US. She is a frequent writing collaborator with immersive company Zuppa Theatre. She has won the Trillium Book Award and an O. Henry Prize and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. She lives in Toronto with her wife and their three children.

 

ABOUT CHEMICAL VALLEY

Out there by the dock the ocean and the air are just layers of shadow and darkness. But the creature’s flesh hums through the dark—a seep of violet in the weeping night.

From refinery operators to long term care nurses, dishwashers to preppers to hockey enforcers, Chemical Valley’s compassionate and carefully wrought stories cultivate rich emotional worlds in and through the dankness of our bio-chemical animacy. Full-hearted, laced throughout with bruised optimism and sincere appreciation of the profound beauty of our wilted, wheezing world, Chemical Valley doesn’t shy away from urgent modern questions—the distribution of toxicity, environmental racism, the place of technoculture in this ecological spasm—but grounds these anxieties in the vivid and often humorous intricacies of its characters’ lives. Swamp-wrought and heartfelt, these stories run wild with vital energy, tilt and teeter into crazed and delirious loves.

David Huebert’s writing has won the CBC Short Story Prize, The Walrus Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2020 Journey Prize. David’s fiction debut, Peninsula Sinking, won a Dartmouth Book Award, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize, and was runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. David’s work has been published in magazines such as The Walrus, Maisonneuve, enRoute, and Canadian Notes & Queries, and anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories. David teaches at The University of King’s College in K’jipuktuk/Halifax, where he lives and writes.

HOUSEHOLDERS, ON THE ORIGIN, 100 MILES OF BASEBALL, MURDER ON THE INSIDE and BUSH RUNNER: New Reviews!

IN THE NEWS!

HOUSEHOLDERS

Householders coverKate Cayley’s Householders (September 14, 2021) received an excellent review in Lavender Magazine! The review was published on September 27, both print and digitally. You can read the review on the website here.

Reviewer E. B Boatner wrote,

“You don’t have to come from a foreign country to be a stranger in your land. Cayley’s haunting short stories weave together stealthily, gentle until the cosh strikes your skull … Brutally, beautifully lyrical.”

Householders also received a rave review in ZYZZYVA! The review was published today on September 29. You can read the review on the website here.

Reviewer Peter Schlachte wrote,

“Full of startling turns of phrase and evocative descriptions … Cayley’s background as a poet—she has published two collections of poetry—shines … With Householders, Cayley has envisioned a world that mirrors our own like a distorted funhouse—a place where the moral and physical stakes are heightened, where emotional bonds run deeply, and where something menacing is often lurking. It’s a frightening world, but it makes for a compelling story collection, as good to tear through for the narrative as it is to savor (and savor again) for the language.”

And don’t forget! Tonight, on September 29 at 7 PM EDT, tune in for Householders’ virtual book launch! This is a double book launch with David Huebert’s Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021). Kate Cayley and David Huebert will be joined in conversation by author Sofi Papamarko. We’ll be streaming live on Facebook & YouTube. Co-hosted by Another Story Bookshop (Toronto, ON), and Bookmark (Halifax, NS). Tune in for the launch here.

Grab your copy of Householders here!

 

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DEADLIEST PANDEMIC IN 100 YEARSOn the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years cover

An excerpt from On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years: An Investigation (August 31, 2021) by Elaine Dewar, has been published in Independent Science. The excerpt was published online on September 27. You can read it here.

Pick up your copy of On the Origin here!

 

100 MILES OF BASEBALL

Dale Jacobs & Heidi LM Jacobs were interviewed by Windsor Life Magazine about their book 100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer (March 16, 2021)! Dale and Heidi spoke to Michael Seguin. The interview was published on September 27, in their Autumn 2021 issue. You can read it on their website here.

Get your copy of 100 Miles of Baseball here!

 

MURDER ON THE INSIDE  and BUSH RUNNERMurder on the Inside cover

Both Catherine Fogarty’s Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston Penitentiary (April 13, 2021) and Mark Bourrie’s Bush Runner (April 2, 2019) were reviewed in the latest issue of Ontario History! The reviews were published in print in the Autumn 2021 issue.

Reviewer Jordan House praised Murder on the Inside:

“Fogarty’s approach makes for a compelling narrative and an extremely readable book … Fogarty’s most significant contribution is in a number of original interviews with guards, including one who had been held hostage, and prisoners who had lived through the riot. These interviews allow for a rich chronicling of events … Murder on the Inside successfully weaves a concise history of Canada’s most notorious prison into a compelling story of the 1971 riot and its aftermath and is a valuable contribution to the history of Canada’s prisons and the Canadian prison justice movement.”

Reviewer Chris Sanagan praised Bush Runner:

“It is the theme of survival that dominates Radisson’s life and is the beating heart of Mark Bourrie’s biography, Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson … A journalist and historian, Bourrie recognizes a good story when he sees one … In his hands, the life of Radisson plays out like some kind of early Canadian tragi-comedy … Masterful.”

Get your copy of Murder on the Inside here!

Get your copy of Bush Runner here!

 

ON DECLINE, ON THE ORIGIN, DANTE’S INDIANA, MUSIC LATE AND SOON, and THINGS ARE AGAINST US: Podcasts & Publicity!

On Decline coverIN THE NEWS!

ON DECLINE

Andrew Potter, author of On Decline (August 17, 2021) was interviewed for Jodi Butts podcast, @Risk, and the episode is now live! You can listen here.

On Decline was also the subject of an opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen by Terry Glavin titled, “Glavin: Yes, civilization is in decline (though it may not stay that way)”! The article was published online on September 22. You can read it here.

Glavin writes,

“Like its historic ancestors, On Decline deserves a wide general audience and should be required reading for the incoming federal government.”

Get your copy of On Decline here!

 

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann’s Things Are Against Us (September 28, 2021) was listed by the New York Times as a New & Noteworthy Title! The list was published online on September 22, and in print on September 26. You can check it out on their website here.

The New York Times wrote:

“Ellmann tackles the climate crisis, war and feminism in this collection of 14 searing essays on the beauty industry, ecotourism, crime fiction, Donald Trump and more.”

Things Are Against Us also received a rave review in the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was published on Saturday, September 25. You can read it out on their website here.

Reviewer Pauline Holdstock wrote:

“[Ellmann] lambastes the patriarchy with verve and gusto … The 14 pieces that comprise Ellmann’s discontents, vividly illustrated by Diana Hope, muster all of her comic powers in the service of her home truths… Ellmann is entertaining, funny, loopy and brave, but, importantly, she’s empowering. You remember that you’re not alone … It’s good to know Ellmann is keeping her formidable comic weaponry trained on the people who got us into this pig show.”

And on Sunday, September 26 we celebrated the launch of Things Are Against Us! Check out the full video of the launch on Facebook here, or on YouTube here.

Order your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

 

MUSIC, LATE AND SOONcover

Robyn Sarah, author of Music, Late and Soon (August 24, 2021) published an editorial in The Globe and Mail titled, “We should need no excuse to hold on to or reclaim something we love”! The piece was published online on September 24, and in print on September 25. Read the article here.

Sarah writes,

“… a longing to go back to what was once so central and fulfilling can haunt the years. In my own case, longing became impulse became action at the age of nearly 60.”

Robyn Sarah’s Music, Late and Soon was also featured in a review by the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was posted online on September 25. You can read it here.

Get your copy of Music, Late and Soon here!

 

DANTE’S INDIANA

Randy Boyagoda, author of Dante’s Indiana (September 7, 2021), wrote an article for the Globe & Mail! The opinion piece “Dante’s pandemic: Why the Divine Comedy helps us understand how we can respond to the challenge of living good lives in bad times” was published on Saturday, September 25, both in print and online. You can read it on their website here.

In other news, University of Toronto’s Massey College is hosting an exclusive in-person event with Randy Boyagoda on Wednesday, September 29 at 4:30 PM EDT! The event, “A Dante Theme Park? Satire and Sensibilities in 2021”, is part of the Massey Dialogues series. Randy Boyagoda, a Massey College Senior Fellow, will discuss his Dante’s Indiana with Senior Fellow Charles Foran and Junior Fellow Kate Frank. Only a limited number of people can attend, so register for a ticket here.

Get your copy of Dante’s Indiana here!

 

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DEADLIEST PANDEMIC IN 100 YEARSOn the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years cover

Elaine Dewar, author of On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years (August 31, 2021), was interviewed by Jesse Brown for the Canadaland podcast! The episode aired today on September 27. You can read the transcription and listen here.

Over the weekend, Dewar was also live on The Roy Green Show (Global News). Listen to the episode here.

On the Origin was also mentioned in an article from The Sun titled “OVEN READY Covid was ‘perfectly adapted’ to infect humans when virus emerged in Wuhan which ‘proves’ lab leak, book claims”. Read the article here.

Get your copy of On the Origin here!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US Launch Video

We had a wonderful time celebrating the virtual book launch of Lucy Ellmann’s essay collection this past Sunday, September 26. Lucy Ellmann had an engaging conversation with Todd McEwen and Diana Hope, and the event was hosted by Josh Cook. After the reading and discussions, there was an audience Q&A, and a successful book giveaway.

And if you couldn’t make the live event, don’t worry! You can still watch it below.

Get your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

Praise for Biblioasis Titles

IN THE NEWS!

ON THE ORIGIN

Elaine Dewar, author of On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years: An Investigation (August 31, 2021), published an editorial in the Toronto Star titled “Canadians must know what our lab’s role was in COVID’s origins”! The article was published online on September 18. You can read it here.

On the Origin was also listed in the Globe and Mail‘s “Fall 2021 books preview: Pump up your autumn with these weighty reads”. See the full list here.

And on Friday, September 17, Elaine Dewar was live on CJAD 800 AM – Montreal Now with Aaron Rand and Natasha Hall. You can listen to her radio interview here.

Get your copy of On the Origin from Biblioasis here!

 

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann’s Things Are Against Us (September 28, 2021) received a great review in Publishers Weekly! The review was published online on September 20. You can read it on their website here.

Publishers Weekly wrote:

“In this offbeat essay collection, novelist Ellmann (Ducks, Newburyport) addresses complex systemic ills alongside petty grievances in an acerbic and hilarious litany of complaints … Readers of Ducks, Newburyport will be familiar with her expansive writing style, which here manifests as a plethora of footnotes … Fans of feminist satire will delight in these rants and ruminations.”

Things Are Against Us was also included in the Globe and Mail‘s Fall 2021 book preview! The list was published on Saturday, September 18, both in print and online. You can read it on their website here.

Reviewer Emily Donaldson wrote:

“‘Let’s complain,’ urges the author of the prize-winning experimental novel Ducks, Newburyport at the outset of her first work of non-fiction, then valiantly leads the way. Over 14 entries that use approaches ranging from all-caps to page-swallowing footnotes, she takes on Trumpism, the beauty industry, patriarchy and crime writers, with charming tetchiness.”

Order your copy of Things Are Against Us here!

 

DANTE’S INDIANA

Randy Boyagoda’s Dante’s Indiana (September 7, 2021) was included in Globe and Mail‘s Fall 2021 book preview! The list was published on Saturday, September 18, both in print and online. You can read it on their website here.

Reviewer Emily Donaldson praised Dante’s Indiana as,

“Witty and wrenching.”

Randy Boyagoda was interviewed about Dante’s Indiana in the Catholic Register. The interview was published yesterday on September 19. You can read it on their website here.

Wendy-Anne Clarke wrote,

“Randy Boyagoda takes a bold dive into some of society’s most contentious issues in his latest novel, Dante’s Indiana … The theme of being lost and also being found is at the crux of Prin’s experience and that of the other characters. That profound idea found in Catholic liturgy and in Scripture is central to the religious tradition at play in this book.”

Randy Boyagoda was also interviewed by the University of Toronto’s A&S Newsletter. The interview was published September 15. You can read the interview on their website here.

Get your copy of Dante’s Indiana here!

 

ON DECLINEOn Decline cover

Andrew Potter’s On Decline (August 17, 2021) received a great review in the Winnipeg Free Press, titled “Extremism, stagnation hastening our potential downfall”! The article was published online on September 18. You can read it here.

Michael Dudley writes,

“Like its historic ancestors, On Decline deserves a wide general audience and should be required reading for the incoming federal government.”

Get your copy of On Decline here!

THE LAST GOLDFISH a finalist for the OTTAWA BOOK AWARDS

We’re thrilled to share that on September 15, it was announced that Anita Lahey is a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards for her memoir The Last Goldfish: A True Tale of Friendship! Learn more about the Ottawa Book Awards here.

The Ottawa Book Awards recognize the top English and French books published in the past year by 19 local authors—exemplifying Ottawa’s rich literary talent.

The other finalists for the English Non-Fiction award include Tim Cook’s The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canada’s Second World War (Penguin Random House), Suzanne Evans’ The Taste of Longing: Ethel Mulvany and her Starving Prisoners of War Cookbook (Between the Lines), Séan McCann and Andrea Aragon’s One Good Reason: A Memoir of Addiction and Recovery, Music and Love (Nimbus Publishing), and Brodie Ramin’s The Age of Fentanyl: Ending the Opioid Epidemic (Dundurn Press). Last year’s winner for the 2020 English Non-Fiction award was Beverly McLachlin’s Truth be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law.

The winners of each category will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will take place virtually on Wednesday, October 20 at 6PM EDT. Each winner will receive $7,500, while finalists will each receive $1,000. To receive a link to the invitation for the event, please write to infoculture@ottawa.ca.

ABOUT THE LAST GOLDFISH

Twenty-five years ago and counting, Louisa, my true, essential, always-there-for-everything friend, died. We were 22.

When Anita Lahey opens her binder in grade nine French and gasps over an unsigned form, the girl with the burst of red hair in front of her whispers, Forge it! Thus begins an intense, joyful friendship, one of those powerful bonds forged in youth that shapes a person’s identity and changes the course of a life.

Anita and Louisa navigate the wilds of 1980s suburban adolescence against the backdrop of dramatic world events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. They make carpe diem their manifesto and hatch ambitious plans. But when Louisa’s life takes a shocking turn, into hospital wards, medical tests, and treatments, a new possibility confronts them, one that alters, with devastating finality, the prospect of the future for them both.

Equal parts humorous and heartbreaking, The Last Goldfish is a poignant memoir of youth, friendship, and the impermanence of life.

ABOUT ANITA LAHEY

Anita Lahey’s books include The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture and two Véhicule Press poetry collections: Spinning Side Kick and Out to Dry in Cape Breton. Anita is an award-winning magazine journalist, past editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, and serves as series editor of the annual anthology, Best Canadian Poetry. A former resident of Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton and Victoria, she maintains fierce familial ties to Cape Breton Island and lives in Ottawa with her family. She grew up in Burlington, Ontario, in a house with a huge backyard a short bike ride from Lake Ontario.

 

Order your copy today here!

On the Origin Launch Video

Last night we celebrated the virtual launch of Elaine Dewar’s On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years! Elaine Dewar had a fascinating discussion with Wayne Grady, Canadian writer, editor, and translator. Afterward, there was an audience Q&A and giveaway of a copy of On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years!

And if you weren’t able to join last night, don’t worry! You can still watch the event here:

ABOUT ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DEADLIEST PANDEMIC IN 100 YEARS

In this compelling whodunnit, Elaine Dewar reads the science, follows the money, and connects the geopolitical interests to the spin.

When the first TV newscast described a SARS-like flu affecting a distant Chinese metropolis, investigative journalist Elaine Dewar started asking questions: Was SARS-CoV-2 something that came from nature, as leading scientists insisted, or did it come from a lab, and what role might controversial experiments have played in its development? Why was Wuhan the pandemic’s ground zero—and why, on the other side of the Atlantic, had two researchers been marched out of a lab in Winnipeg by the RCMP? Why were governments so slow to respond to the emerging pandemic, and why, now, is the government of China refusing to cooperate with the World Health Organization? And who, or what, is DRASTIC?

Locked down in Toronto with the world at a standstill, Dewar pored over newspapers and magazines, preprints and peer-reviewed journals, email chains and blacked-out responses to access to information requests; she conducted Zoom interviews and called telephone numbers until someone answered as she hunted down the truth of the virus’s origin. In this compelling whodunnit, she reads the science, follows the money, connects the geopolitical interests to the spin—and shows how leading science journals got it wrong, leaving it to interested citizens and junior scientists to pull out the truth.

ABOUT ELAINE DEWAR

Elaine Dewar—author, journalist, television story editor—has been honoured by nine National Magazine awards, including the prestigious President’s Medal, and the White Award. Her first book, Cloak of Green, delved into the dark side of environmental politics and became an underground classic. Bones: Discovering the First Americans, an investigation of the science and politics regarding the peopling of the Americas, was a national bestseller and earned a special commendation from the Canadian Archaeological Association. The Second Tree: of Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for Immortality, won Canada’s premier literary non-fiction prize from the Writers’ Trust. Called “Canada’s Rachel Carson,” Dewar aspires to be a happy warrior for the public good.

 

Order your copy from Biblioasis here!