Media Hits: INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING, ALL THINGS MOVE, ON CLASS, and more!

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) was reviewed in the New York Times by Jen Vafidis. The review was published online on May 30, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Vafidis writes,

“To read work like Heighton’s knowing that we won’t get more of it […] inspires fury in all directions. […] Every story in this collection has “it,” whatever Heighton decided “it” would be: pacing that thrills; fragile love and blind hate; descriptions you can smell and taste and hear.”

Instructions for the Drowning was reviewed in That Shakespearean Rag by Steven Beattie. The review was published online on May 23, 2023 and can be read here.

Beattie writes:

“Heighton’s almost preternatural ability to recognize what to include and what to leave out of a particular piece is most apparent in his poetry and his short fiction, where compression and precision of language combine to create meaning.”

Get Instructions for the Drowning here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by Jeannie Marshall (April 4, 2023), was reviewed in the Globe and Mail! The review was published online on June 1, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Kate Taylor writes,

“In the era of the perpetual scroll, art still asks us to stop and look, long and slowly. All Things Move is a rich vindication of one writer’s decision to do just that.”

All Things Move by Jeannie Marshall was mentioned in the New York Times as part of their “Newly Published.” The article was published online on May 24, 2023. Read the full article here.

From the article:

“The Sistine Chapel serves as inspiration and structure for this deeply contemplative account about life, family, art, and appreciation.”

All Things Move was also reviewed by Dan Dunsky in the Literary Review of Canada. The review appears online and in their print June issue. It was first published online on May 19, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Dunsky writes,

“Part meditation, part cultural criticism, part therapy, All Things Move captures the complex range of emotions that art can sometimes elicit in us, as well as the questions that may arise as a consequence.”

Get All Things Move here!

THE WORLD AT MY BACK

The World at My Back by Thomas Melle, trans. by Luise von Flotow (May 2, 2023) was featured in Words Without Borders‘ article “The Watchlist: May 2023.” The article was published online on May 31, 2023. Read the full review here.

Tobias Carroll writes,

“The World at My Back is in no way an easy read; instead, it’s a candid and frequently harrowing chronicle of its author’s struggles with mental health over the years, and the cyclical nature of its effect on his life. In von Flotow’s translation, this book becomes a source of insight into what its author went through—and what he gained and lost along the way.”

The World at My Back has been reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books. The review was published online on May 19, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Tim Niedermann writes,

“His goal in The World at My Back […] is to show what being mentally ill is really like from the inside. That he is such a talented writer allows him to pull this off powerfully.”

The World at My Back by Thomas Melle has been excerpted in Lit Hub. The excerpt was published online on May 23, 2023. You can read the full excerpt here.

Get The World at My Back here!

ON CLASS

Deborah Dundas, author of On Class (May 9, 2023), was interviewed by the University of King’s College MFA Program for their website, published online on May 24, 2023. You can read the full interview here.

On Class by Deborah Dundas was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The review was published online on May 19, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Douglas J. Johnston calls it

“a nifty, provocative little book.”

Grab On Class here!

ON BROWSING

On Browsing by Jason Guriel (October 4, 2022) has been reviewed in Fare Foreword. The review was published online on May 23, 2023. Check out the full review here.

Katy Carl writes,

“Guriel’s browsing minds court multisensory and memorable run-ins with reality, where text and context meld to generate irreducibly personal meanings. […] Guriel wants us to remember that, as human beings, we have deep, direct, innate access to ‘human and humanist’ values.”

Neil Pasricha (author of The Book of Awesome) featured On Browsing on his blog as part of his April Book Club, published on April 29, 2023. You can read Neil’s post here.

Get On Browsing here!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) was reviewed in the New York Sun. The review was published online on May 19, 2023 and can be read here.

Carl Rollyson writes,

“The parallel tracks of Case Study are deeply satisfying because they encompass a sense of how we live day-by-day in doubt, often unaware of our own motivations.”

Get Case Study here!

Media Hits: ALL THINGS MOVE, ON CLASS, DREAMING HOME, and more!

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IN THE NEWS

ALL THINGS MOVE

Jeannie Marshall, author of All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by (April 4, 2023), was interviewed by Meg Nolan in Foreword Reviews. The interview was published online on May 11, 2023. You can read the interview here.

All Things Move was also featured on All Lit Up as one of “10 Books to Get For Mom.” The list was published online on May 8, 2023. Read the full list here.

Buy All Things Move here.

ON CLASS

On Class (May 9, 2023) by Deborah Dundas was excerpted in the Toronto Star. The excerpt was published online on May 6, 2023. Read the full excerpt here.

Deborah Dundas was interviewed about On Class for Open Book. The interview was published online on May 2, 2023. Read the full interview here.

Open Book writes,

“Part of Biblioasis’s acclaimed Field Notes series exploring social issues, On Class is urgent and wise, written with Dundas’ trademark wit and crisp prose. Raw and smart, it urges readers not to look away from the complexity of issues affecting the poor and working class, especially in a time of constant political, economic, and social turmoil.”

Buy On Class here.

DREAMING HOME

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs (June 6, 2023) was reviewed in the Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on May 6, 2023. Check out the full review here.

Sarah Rutkowski writes,

“Childs’ ruthlessly genuine depiction of Kyle through these narratives is illustrative of a smart and thoughtful engagement with the simultaneity of a person whose sense of self is moulded by their suffering.”

Get Dreaming Home here.

PASCAL’S FIRE

Pascal’s Fire by Kristina Bresnen (April 4, 2023) has been reviewed in The BC Review. The review was published online on May 2, 2023. You can read the full review here.

In the review, Linda Rogers writes:

“Bresnen has found a metaphor for the human condition, but some will argue against the facility of faith speech as a solution.”

Buy Pascal’s Fire here.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING & THIS TIME THAT PLACE

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) and This Time, That Place by Clark Blaise (Oct 18, 2022) were included in CBC Books’ list, “May is Short Story Month — here are 14 Canadian collections to check out.” The list was published on May 4, 2023. Check out the full list here.

Get Instructions for the Drowning here.

Get This Time, That Place here.

ORDINARY WONDER TALES & CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart and Confessions with Keith by Pauline Holdstock were both featured in the Globe and Mail‘s list, “Twelve books that capture the fabulous and fraught nature of motherhood.” The article was posted on May 12, 2023. Check out the full list here.

On Ordinary Wonder Tales:

“In these essays, Emily Urquhart—who has a doctorate in folklore (and is the daughter of Canadian author Jane Urquhart and the late painter Tony Urquhart, whose dementia is dealt with in the final, powerful essay)—explores childhood, motherhood and daughterhood with a sense of wonder.”

On Confessions with Keith:

“Bridget Jones meets Nora Ephron in this diarized account of Vita, a woman dealing with an unexpected plot twist after 20 years of marriage.”

Get Ordinary Wonder Tales here.

Get Confessions with Keith here.

THE MUSIC GAME wins the 2023 FRENCH-AMERICAN TRANSLATION PRIZE for Fiction!

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We’re thrilled to share that JC Sutcliffe has won the 2023 French-American Translation Prize for Fiction for her translation of The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont! Read the official announcement here.

Since 1986, the French-American Foundation, with the longstanding support of the Florence Gould Foundation, has awarded an annual prize for exceptional translations from French to English in both fiction and nonfiction. JC is joined by the nonfiction co-winners Kieran Aarons and Cédrine Michel, for their co-translation of Self Defense: A Philosophy of Violence by Elsa Dorlin (Verso Books).

The awards ceremony is open to the public and will be held on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at Hearst Tower in NYC. More information and a link to RSVP, may be found here.

A huge congratulations to JC from all of us at Biblioasis!

Get your copy of The Music Game here!

ABOUT THE MUSIC GAME

Winner of the 2023 French-American Translation Prize for Fiction

Friends since grade school, Céline, Julie, and Sabrina come of age at the start of a new millennium, supporting each other and drifting apart as their lives pull them in different directions. But when their friend dies by suicide in the abandoned city lot where they once gathered, they must carry on in the world that left him behind—one they once dreamed they would change for the better. From the grind of Montreal service jobs, to isolated French Ontario countryside childhoods, to the tenuous cooperation of Bay Area punk squats, the three young women navigate everyday losses and fears against the backdrop of a tumultuous twenty-first century. An ode to friendship and the ties that bind us together, Stéfanie Clermont’s award-winning The Music Game confronts the violence of the modern world and pays homage to those who work in the hope and faith that it can still be made a better place.

ABOUT JC SUTCLIFFE

JC Sutcliffe is a writer, translator and editor. She has lived in England, France and Canada. The Music Game is the ninth Québécois novel she has translated.

ABOUT STEFANIE CLERMONT

Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Stéfanie Clermont travelled throughout Canada and the United States, working at a wide variety of jobs, before settling in Montreal in 2012. The Music Game, her first book, won the prestigious Ringuet Prize of the Quebec Academy of Arts and Letters, the Quebec Arts Council’s prize for a new work by a young artist, and the Adrienne Choquette Prize for short stories. It was a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal and was included in Le Combat des livres, the French-language counterpart of Canada Reads.

April Media Hits!

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IN THE NEWS!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by Jeannie Marshall (April 4, 2023) was reviewed by Randy Boyagoda on CBC’s The Next Chapter! The episode was posted on April 21, and is available to listen to here.

All Things Move was also reviewed in Ploughshares on April 10, the Winnipeg Free Press on April 8, and the Midwest Book Review on April 20..

In the Ploughshares review (here), Holly M. Wendt writes:

“Marshall’s narrative doesn’t arrive at tidy religious revelation or optimistic conversion; what takes center stage is simply the willingness to examine her own story from the edges and move inward: from the threads of her mother’s complicated faith and with attention to the moments in her life that allowed her to stand here, in this artistic and historical center.”

In the Winnipeg Free Press review (here), Alison Gillmor writes:

“All Things Move is an extended essay on how we experience art. […] evocative and illuminating, a moving meditation on the human impulse both to create art and to experience its power.”

In the Midwest Book Review (here), Helen Dumont calls the book:

“Informative, insightful, perceptive, thought-provoking.”

Additionally, Jeannie Marshall wrote a special for the Globe and Mail, “What’s so great about the Sistine Chapel?” published on April 7. You can read Marshall’s piece here.

Grab your copy of All Things Move here.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) has been reviewed in the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. Both reviews were published online on April 20, 2023.

David Moscrop writes, in the Globe and Mail:

“To create so many small worlds and characters that feel so real and populate is an act of transcendence. To do it well is to offer a gift. In Instructions, the late Steven Heighton has managed both, and the gift is ours.”

Read the full review here.

Robert J Wiersema writes, in the Toronto Star:

“As these stories demonstrate, human life is a means of exploration and celebration, threaded through with darkness and loss. In the midst of death, Heighton seems to say, we are in life: it should be savoured.”

Read the full review here.

Instructions for the Drowning was also reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada by Kyle Wyatt. The review was published online on April 18, 2023. You can read the review online here.

Kyle Wyatt writes:

“If there is any justice in this literary world, Steven Heighton’s ‘Professions of Love,’ the fifth of the eleven stories in Instructions for the Drowning, will soon 7nd itself sitting side by side with ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ on syllabuses everywhere. Like Heighton’s final collection as a whole, it is wonderful.”

Instructions for the Drowning was excerpted in Lit Hub on April 19, 2023, and Open Book on April 13, 2023. Read the Lit Hub excerpt here and Open Book here.

Get your copy of Instructions for the Drowning here!

WAY TO GO

Way to Go by Richard Sanger (April 4, 2023) has been reviewed in The Miramichi Reader by Heidi Greco. The review was published online on April 17, 2023. You can read the review here.

Greco calls the collection

“remarkable […] We should all be so blessed (and brave) to leave such a farewell as Sanger has.”

Get your copy of Way to Go here.

PASCAL’S FIRE

Pascal’s Fire by Kristina Bresnen (April 4, 2023) has been reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on April 10, 2023. You can read the full review here.

In the review, Michael Greenstein writes:

“Speaking in tongues, Bresnen makes an impressive name for herself in this debut colloquy; she notices, and should be noticed.”

Get your copy of Pascal’s Fire here.

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (February 14, 2023) has been reviewed in Compulsive Reader. The review was published online on April 9, 2023. Read the full article here.

Nick Harvey writes,

“On Writing and Failure is less about writing and more about perseverance. Reading it reminded me of all the things I thought impossible before I tried them and now find impossible to live without. Writing is one of those things.”

Get your copy of On Writing and Failure here.

 

Biblioasis: Recent Award Nominations!

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THE AFFIRMATIONS

The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway has been shortlisted for the Atlantic Book Awards’ 2023 J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award! The shortlist was announced on April 12, 2023, and can be read here.

The winner will be revealed at the Atlantic Book Awards Gala at the Halifax Central Library on Wednesday, June 7. Tickets ($20) are available online here.

Grab your copy of The Affirmations here.

THE DAY-BREAKERS

The Day-Breakers by Michael Fraser has been longlisted for the LCP’s 2023 Raymond Souster Award! The longlist was announced on April 6, 2023, and can be seen here.

The Raymond Souster Award is given for a book of poetry by a League of Canadian Poets member, and carries a $2,000 prize. The shortlist will be announced on April 20, 2023, and the winners on May 4, 2023.

The Day-Breakers also made the poetry longlist for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature! Read the full list here.

Grab your copy of The Day-Breakers here.

THE MUSIC GAME

The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont, translated by JC Sutcliffe, is a finalist for the 2023 French-American Translation Prize! The finalists were announced on March 22, and can be read here.

The Translation Prize honours exceptional English translations of French works of fiction and nonfiction published in the United States. The winning translator in each category will receive a $10,000 award generously funded by the Florence Gould Foundation. Winners will be announced in May 2023 and will be honored at an awards ceremony in late May.

Get your copy of The Music Game here.

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston has been shortlisted for the 2023 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize! The shortlisted was announced on April 5, 2023, and can be seen here.

The prize recognizes Edmonton writers based on a book that was published in the past year, and the winning author receives a prize of $10,000. Winners will be announced at the awards presentation on Wednesday, May 3 at 7 pm at the Westbury Theatre. To RSVP, email rsvp@edmontonarts.ca.

Get your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here.

Media Round-up

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IN THE NEWS

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure (February 14, 2023) by Stephen Marche has been reviewed in the the Washington Post. The article was published online on March 6, 2023. Read the full article here.

Mark Athitakis writes,

“In On Writing and Failure, Marche attempts to reset the way we talk about such struggles. He stomps Freytag’s Pyramid flat. […] Marche’s book isn’t a pep talk, but it’s not intended to cut you off at the knees. His sole prescription is stubbornness. “You have to write.”‘

On Writing and Failure was also reviewed by John Delacourt in Policy Magazine. The review was published online on March 7, 2023.  You can read the full review here.

John Delacourt writes, for Policy,

“On Writing and Failure is a slim little truth bomb I wish had been written when I first harboured notions of writing to be published.”

Stephen Marche, author of On Writing and Failure has been interviewed by Aryeh Cohen-Wade on the Culturally Determined podcast. The podcast episode was published online on March 7, 2023. Listen to the full episode here.

Marche was also interviewed on CKLW AM 800 about his event on March 8, 2023. Listen to the full AM 800 interview here.

Grab your copy of On Writing and Failure here.

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Mark Bourrie author of Big Men Fear Me (October 18, 2022) has been interviewed on CBC Ideas. The episode aired on March 6, 2023.

Check out the full episode here.

Grab your copy of Big Men Fear Me here.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) has been reviewed in FreeFall Magazine. The review will be published in their spring 2023 print edition.

Skylar Kay writes,

“Heighton will go down as one of the brightest stars in Canadian literary history.”

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton has been reviewed in The Walrus. The review was published online on March 6, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Elisabeth de Mariafi writes,

“In Instructions for the Drowning, however, he uses his poet’s precision, his depth as a novelist, and his intimacy as a memoirist to give us a glimpse of the closure he may have hoped for—for himself, for his characters, and also for his readers.”

Order your copy of Instructions for the Drowning here.

SHIMMER

Shimmer by Alex Pugsley (May 17, 2022) was reviewed in The Colorado Sun. The review was published online on March 5, 2023. Read the full review here.

The review quotes Jason Jefferies,

“Alex Pugsley is one of our greatest living writers. He is like a Canadian James Joyce, only if James Joyce grew up hanging out in the parking lots of rundown 7-Elevens and pow-wowing on the grimy floors of divey rock & roll clubs.”

Grab your copy of Shimmer here.

ON BROWSING

On Browsing by Jason Guriel has been reviewed in Literary Matters. The review was published online on March 6, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Vertacnik writes,

“We need the voices of those like Guriel in our midst […] My copy is already a well-thumbed and annotated reminder of the advantages (to quote Guriel’s fellow Canadian Marshall McLuan) of ‘marching backwards into the future.'”

Get your copy of On Browsing here.

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales (November 1, 2022), and this year’s nonfiction judge for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, has been interviewed for the Kobo blog! The interview was published online on March 10, 2023.

Read the full interview here.

Grab your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here.

 

THE DAY-BREAKERS longlisted for the 2023 OCM BOCAS PRIZE!

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We’re excited to share that The Day-Breakers by Michael Fraser (April 4, 2022) has been longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize!

The judges describe The Day-Breakers by Grenada-born, Canada-based Michael Fraser as “breathtakingly assured. […] Fraser’s poems unearth a new and untold world of Black experience from a very familiar arc of history with a rich linguistic curiosity…. The poet’s use of language illumines this collection in a way that conjoins Fraser to that broad stem of the diaspora represented by the finest Caribbean Canadian poets.”

The OCM Bocas Prize is considered the most coveted award dedicated to Caribbean writing. It recognises books in three genre categories—poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction—published by authors of Caribbean birth or citizenship in the preceding year.

In the next stage of judging for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize, the judges will announce the winners in the three genre categories on Sunday 2 April. These will go on to compete for the overall Prize of US$10,000, to be announced on Saturday 29 April, during the 13th annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

Congratulations to Michael from all of us!

Grab your copy of The Day-Breakers here!

ABOUT THE DAY-BREAKERS

Longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize • A CBC Best Poetry Book of 2022

Saturated with locutions lifted from the late 19th century, The Day-Breakers deeply conceives of what African Canadian soldiers experienced before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War.

“It is not wise to waste the life / Against a stubborn will. / Yet would we die as some have done. / Beating a way for the rising sun wrote Arna Bontemps. In The Day-Breakers, poet Michael Fraser imagines the selflessness of Black soldiers who fought for the Union during the American Civil War, of whom hundreds were African-Canadian, fighting for the freedom of their brethren and the dawning of a new day. Brilliantly capturing the rhythms of their voices and the era in which they lived and fought, Fraser’s The Day-Breakers is an homage to their sacrifice and an unforgettable act of reclamation: the restoration of a language, and a powerful new perspective on Black history and experience.

ABOUT MICHAEL FRASER

Michael Fraser is published in various national and international journals and anthologies. He is published in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 and 2018. He has won numerous awards, including Freefall Magazine’s 2014 and 2015 poetry contests, the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize, and the 2018 Gwendolyn Macewen Poetry Competition. The Day-Breakers is his third book of poems.

ON WRITING AND FAILURE, TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE, DANTE’S INDIANA: Reviews and Interviews!

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IN THE NEWS!

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure (February 14, 2023) by Stephen Marche has been reviewed in the Globe and Mail. The review was published online on February 23, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Sandra Martin writes,

“While writing starts with one person, an empty page and an urge to say something, it ends with another person reading your words, digesting them and making a judgment. […] That’s why I’m keeping On Writing and Failure on my desk—for encouragement—which I am guessing is Marche’s true purpose in writing the book.”

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche has been excerpted in The Atlantic. The excerpt was published online on February 21, 2023. You can read the full excerpt here.

Stephen Marche has been interviewed on The Times Literary Supplement podcast and The Commentary podcast. Both aired on February 16, 2023. You can listen to the full TLS podcast episode here, and the full episode of The Commentary here.

Stephen Marche has also been interviewed by Tara Henley in her newsletter Lean Out with Tara Henley. The interview was published online on February 19, 2023. Read the full interview here.

During the interview, Marche says,

“I think what I find very powerful is those feelings of connection that you get across time and space, that really only writing can provide. […] That cosmopolitanism in time and space and that web of connections—to even be a small part of that is very powerful.”

Grab your copy of On Writing and Failure here!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Try Not to Be Strange by Michael Hingston (September 13, 2022) has been reviewed in Alberta Views. The review appears in the March 2023 print edition.

Megan Clark writes:

“Try Not to Be Strange takes on the magnificent feat of writing the history of a persistent and yet barely extant literary kingdom. […] The charm of the book, really, is the earnestness with which Hingston approaches the story.”

Get your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

DANTE’S INDIANA

Dante’s Indiana by Randy Boyagoda (September 2021) has been reviewed in America Magazine. The review was published on February 15, 2023. Read the full review here.

Gregory Wolfe writes:

“Using the literary framework of Dante’s three-part epic poem ‘The Divine Comedy’ as a lens through which to cast a sardonic eye on the present moment is hardly a new idea, but it has proven to be a durable one.”

Grab your copy of Dante’s Indiana here!

Check out the first book, Original Prin, here!

ON WRITING AND FAILURE, ON BROWSING, CASE, STUDY, ORDINARY WONDER TALES, CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH: NYT Hits, Reviews, and More!

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IN THE NEWS

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (February 14, 2023) has been featured as part of “Newly Published This Week” in the New York Times and was reviewed in the Midwest Review of Books. Both articles were published on February 9, 2023.

The New York Times writes:

“The Canadian novelist and essayist describes the defining role rejection has played in his career and reflects on its importance in the lives of notable writers, from Ovid to Dostoyevsky and Baldwin.”

You can read the full article here.

The Midwest Book Review writes:

“On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer must be considered essential reading for anyone seeking to write for a living, be it as a novelist, essayist, poet, columnist, or any other writing genre. Itself exceptionally well written.”

You can read the full review here.

Order your copy of On Writing and Failure here!

ON WRITING AND FAILURE & ON BROWSING

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (February 14, 2023) and On Browsing by Jason Guriel (October 4, 2022) were reviewed together in the Literary Review of Canada. The article, “Noteworthy: Two Pamphlets Pack a Punch” was published online on February 7, 2023.. You can read the full review here.

Jessica Dunn Wolfe writes,

“Two additions to Biblioasis’s Field Notes series contend with such modern flavours of literary despair. Jason Guriel’s On Browsing offers a personal “browser history” that reveals the author as much as it elegizes the habit of sifting through physical copies of music, books, and movies. Stephen Marche’s On Writing and Failure romps through a series of anecdotes about the thwarted aspirations of authors so as to instruct a “kid writer” not to hope for anything. Reading the pamphlets together shows the connections between their topics. After all, writers browse most while failing to write.”

Grab your copy of On Browsing here!

Check out the rest of the Field Notes series here!

CASE STUDY

Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of Case Study (November 1, 2022) was interviewed on CBC Writers and Company! The interview was posted online on February 10, 2023. Listen to the full interview here.

Graeme Macrae Burnet was also interviewed in Famous Writing Routines. The interview was published on February 2, 2023. You can read the full interview here.

In the interview, Burnet discusses his writing process, struggles, and sources of inspiration. He says,

“The words never come easily. Writing for me is a constant struggle against my own ill-discipline and the inner voices that tell me that whatever I’m working on is shit and that no one will ever want to read it. But while it is a struggle, I wouldn’t call that writer’s block. I’ve never met a writer who uses the term writer’s block.”

Grab your copy of Case Study here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart (November 1, 2022), has been reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada! The review was published online on February 7, 2023. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Marlo Alexandra Burks writes,

“The author’s academic and journalistic training, her eye for the strange and marvellous, and her expertise in European fables all come together in this curious gathering of stories borrowed from everyday life. While Ordinary Wonder Tales is replete with autobiographical fragments, the tone is restrained: self-analysis never courts self-indulgence, and personal experiences merge seamlessly into the yarns we spin and the beliefs we pass down.”

Get your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Pauline Holdstock, author of Confessions With Keith (October 25, 2022), has been interviewed on All Write in Sin City podcast. The episode was published online on February 5, 2023.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Grab your copy of Confessions with Keith here!

Spotlight On: ON PROPERTY by RINALDO WALCOTT

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Our February pick for the Biblioasis Spotlight Series is Rinaldo Walcott‘s powerfully concise, investigative, and compassionate contribution to our Field Notes series, On Property (Feb 2, 2021). Enjoy a brief note from the author about the book, and don’t miss an excerpt later this month in our online newsletter, The Bibliophile.

ON PROPERTY

Nominated for the Heritage Toronto Book Award • Longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards • A Globe and Mail Book of the Year • A CBC Books Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2021

From plantation rebellion to prison labour’s super-exploitation, Walcott examines the relationship between policing and property.

That a man can lose his life for passing a fake $20 bill when we know our economies are flush with fake money says something damning about the way we’ve organized society. Yet the intensity of the calls to abolish the police after George Floyd’s death surprised almost everyone. What, exactly, does abolition mean? How did we get here? And what does property have to do with it? In On Property, Rinaldo Walcott explores the long shadow cast by slavery’s afterlife and shows how present-day abolitionists continue the work of their forebears in service of an imaginative, creative philosophy that ensures freedom and equality for all. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, compassionate, and profound, On Property makes an urgent plea for a new ethics of care.

“Masterful. A powerful tract … Rinaldo Walcott’s gift is that he makes what seems preposterous to most seem like common sense: abolish property as a completion of abolishing slavery as a means to solving the savagery of modern policing. A mad idea? Perhaps, but I found it hard to argue with his logic. As the Rastafari would say: bun Babylon!”—Globe and Mail

Rinaldo Walcott is a Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. His research is in the area of Black Diaspora Cultural Studies, gender and sexuality.

Get your copy of On Property here!

A WORD FROM RINALDO WALCOTT

Community and Change

Photo Credit: Abdi Osman

The publication of On Property has been a wild ride. It has been quite the experience to see the different kinds of communities that have engaged the book. Activists working for the end of policing; lawyers who do civil rights work and want to rethink the terms of their practices; readers generally interested in social issues; students interested in abolition; and many others in-between. How do I know this? People have stopped me in the street, at protests and parades; they have asked me to join their Zoom rooms to engage them in conversations about the book; and they have written to me (including letters disputing my arguments too, not everyone like what I had to say). On Property set out to get at the foundation of what kind of society we have created and why it does not work for many of us. Many readers find it a hopeful book and especially are interested in the ideas about the commons in the book. It is this idea of the commons that now fuels my interests in pursuing further reading, thinking and writing about utopia. My next project will explore utopia not as some set of wild and unachievable ideas but as something necessary for getting us a bit closer to the beloved community we so desperately need. On Property opened up for me the urgency of the political project of transformation.