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Media Hits: YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, BURN MAN!

IN THE NEWS!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Mar 5, 2024) received an outstanding review from Daniel Mason in the New York Times. The review was published online on March 3, 2024 and in print on March 10, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Mason writes:

“Comparisons do not do justice to the complexity of Stefánsson’s book, nor the uniqueness of his prose, rendered here in a tumblingly beautiful translation by Philip Roughton.”

Your Absence Is Darkness has also been reviewed in Asymptote, Under the Radar Magazine, and Winnipeg Free Press. The reviews were all published on March 11, 2024. It was also listed on Lit Hub, which highlighted the New York Times review, online on March 8, 2024.

In Asymptote, Kathryn Raver writes:

“A tale about life, death, and what we do with the time we are given in between the two . . . Stefánsson seeks to evoke is that the big picture isn’t for us to know, but something that is created, unknowingly, over the course of centuries.”

In Under the Radar, Frank Valish writes:

Your Absence Is Darkness will be one of the best books you read this year . . . [it] expounds on themes of life, death, love, loneliness, mistakes, and the search for meaning. The eternal themes. Those which the great novels elucidate carefully but spectacularly in unmatched prose. Which is exactly the kind of novel this is.”

In the Winnipeg Free Press, David Jón Fuller writes:

“The award-winning Icelandic author interweaves multigenerational stories often set in the country’s north and west . . . Stefánsson’s prose puts us right in the characters’ thoughts, feelings and sensations.”

Get Your Absence Is Darkness here!

BURN MAN

Burn Man by Mark Anthony Jarman (Nov 21, 2023) was reviewed in Literary Review of Canada. The review was published on March 8, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Ruth Panofsky writes:

“This is a writer who possesses stylistic mastery and an ability to evoke character and incident using the barest of details. His are inimitable protagonists—wounded and nameless men with a gift for irony and humour—who inhabit haunting worlds.”

Burn Man was also reviewed in the Globe and Mail. The review was published on March 13, 2024, and can be read here.

Emily M. Keeler writes:

“Jarman’s stories on the whole feel less Catholic in the Roman sense and more Catholic in the Greek sense: his attentions are rangey, all-embracing, vitalized by the splendour both in ugly mundane violence and the febrile pulsations of longing, of something a bit like love.”

Get Burn Man here!

Media Hits: YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, THE FUTURE, THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2024) was featured on Michigan Public Radio. The feature was reported online on February 28, 2024. You can read (and listen!) to the MPR piece here.

Rachel Ishikawa and Olivia Mouradian write:

“The novel contends with histories of forced migration, poverty, and environmental degradation … [and] speak[s] more broadly to the ways cities will be forced to change in the face of climate change.”

The Future was also reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books on February 28, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Tim Niedermann writes:

“Leroux immerses the reader in these children’s world as they experience it … Trees and animals, wind and water speak to them in ways adults have forgotten…A paean to the wisdom that childhood possesses and the promise that it holds.”

Leroux read from The Future on CBC As It Happens on February 28, 2024. You can listen to the full episode here.

Grab your copy of The Future here!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Mar 5, 2024) has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal! The review was published online on Mar 1, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Sam Sacks writes:

“Like fellow Scandinavian authors Jon Fosse and Karl Ove Knausgaard, Mr. Stefánsson joins plainspoken depictions of daily life to intimations of mysticism, creating a spectral, haunted atmosphere … Questioning, vulnerable and openly sentimental, this is an absorbing commemoration of what the author calls the paradox that rules our existence, the vivifying joy and paralyzing sorrow of loving another person.”

Your Absence Is Darkness featured by the Historical Novel Society as a forthcoming book to watch for. The article was published online on February 29, 2024.

You can read the full Historical Novel Society article here.

Get Your Absence Is Darkness here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić (Feb 6, 2024) was featured on Lit Hub as having one of the best book covers of February! Check out the full article here.

Get Love Novel here!

HOW TO BUILD A BOAT

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (Nov 7, 2023) was reviewed in The Arts Fuse. The article was published online on March 1, 2024 and you can read the full review here.

Roberta Silman calls the book:

“[A] work of such depth and compassion that it was no surprise to learn that it was on the Long List for last year’s Booker prize … This is a book that should be read by every child and adult who is convinced he doesn’t ‘fit in.’ A book whose allusions and concerns broaden our view of the world.”

Get How to Build a Boat here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by Jeannie Marshall (Apr 4, 2023) has been reviewed in Commonweal Magazine. The article was published online on February 26, 2024, and you can read the full review here.

Jeff Reimer writes:

“Marshall does not set up her unbelief as a barrier to encounter. Rather, she allows herself to be addressed by the paintings. She opens herself to them … Marshall is as much seeker as skeptic.”

Get All Things Move here!

BEST CANADIAN POETRY 2024

The Best Canadian Poetry 2024 anthology (Nov 14, 2023) has been featured on CBC Victoria and in Victoria Buzz, in advance of the Victoria book launch. Both pieces were published on February 28, 2024. You can listen to the CBC interview feature here.

Get Best Canadian Poetry 2024 here!

Check out all three Best Canadian anthologies here!

Media Hits: THE HOLLOW BEAST, THE FUTURE, LOVE NOVEL, THEY CALL ME GEORGE!

IN THE NEWS!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) has been reviewed in Foreword Reviews! The review was posted online on February 14, 2024 and can be read here.

Reviewer Isabella Zhou wrote,

“Mixing family history with local lore, the satirical novel The Hollow Beast is a tale of revenge and hauntings.”

Order The Hollow Beast here!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2023), was reviewed by Andrew Hood on TheBookshelf! The review was published online on February 14, and can be read here.

Hood writes of the book,

“In The Future, old things are dying and new things are growing. That the new things come at the cost of the loss of the old can’t help but tint our feelings towards them. It’s this grey area that Leroux manages to break light through.”

Catherine Leroux was also interviewed alongside a review of The Future, in the McGill Daily! The feature was posted online on February 12, 2024. You can read and listen to the review and interview here.

Caley Fifield writes,

The Future is as factual as it is fictional, and the strength, creativity, and humour with which her characters weather each storm that comes their way are truly inspiring.”

Get The Future here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić (Feb 6, 2024), was featured in a ‘Book of the Day Roundup’ from Foreword Reviews! The roundup for the week of Feb 12-16 was posted online on February 15. Check out the full roundup here.

Love Novel was also reviewed by Tom Bowden in The Book Beat! The review was posted February 10, 2024. Read the full review here.

Bowden writes,

“Ivana Sajko’s narrative—rendered in English by Mima Simić with seeming effortlessness—is told in the third-person with an omniscience transparent enough to be led by the rhythms of each character’s thoughts and speech.”

Order Love Novel here!

THEY CALL ME GEORGE

They Call Me George by Cecil Foster was featured in All Lit Up‘s ‘Black History Month Series: Non-Fiction’ list! The list was posted on February 8, and you can check out the full article here.

Get They Call Me George here!

Media Hits: BURN MAN, THE FUTURE, LOVE NOVEL, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

Catherine Leroux, author of The Future (trans. by Susan Ouriou) (Sep 5, 2024) was interviewed alongside Heather O’Neill on CBC The Next Chapter by Ali Hassan, as part of their promotion of The Future for CBC Canada Reads, our nationwide literary competition. The interview aired on February 2, 204. You can listen to the full episode here.

Catherine Leroux was also interviewed for CBC Syndication which includes dozens of shows across the country. The interviews were conducted live on February 7, 2024. You can find links to all of her recent CBC interviews and features for Canada Reads here.

Get The Future here!

BURN MAN

Burn Man: Selected Stories by Mark Anthony Jarman (Nov 21, 2023) has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by Sam Sacks. The review was published online on February 8, 2024 and can be read here.

Fiction critic Sam Sacks writes:

“The stories in Burn Man, by the Canadian writer Mark Anthony Jarman, derive from the … raucous lineage of Barry Hannah, Thomas McGuane and Denis Johnson … He gives us a gallery of antiheroes—some of them bona fide criminals but many just screwups—who are helpless in the grip of their worst impulses.”

Get Burn Man here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić (Feb 6, 2024) was reviewed by Andrew Hood on The Bookshelf. The review was published online on February 5, 2024, and can be read in full here.

Hood writes:

“In its depiction of a contemporary relationship submitted to the meatgrinder of contemporary demands and expectations, Love Novel is unafraid and unsparing in its honesty.”

Love Novel was also listed in Library Journal as recommended by booksellers. The article was published online on February 5, 2024 and can be seen here.

Get Love Novel here!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. The review was published online on February 2, 2024, and you can read the full review here.

The review reads:

“Quebecois writer Bernard debuts with a feverish burlesque about a one-time hockey player’s decades-long dispute with a referee and his grandson’s attempts to reverse the family curse … Bernard’s bawdiness and mania credibly evoke Thomas Pynchon’s flights of invention.”

Order The Hollow Beast here!

THE FULL-MOON WHALING CHRONICLES

Jason Guriel, author of The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles (Aug 1, 2023) has written a piece for The Millions, in which he discusses his journey from lyric poetry to a novel in verse. The article was published online on February 6, 2024. Check out the full essay here.

Grab The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles here!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook (Aug 22, 2023) was reviewed in the Chicago Tribune by John Warner as part of his “Top 5 Favorite Books About Bookstores.” The review was published online on January 27, 2024. You can read the full article here.

Warner calls the book:

“A treatise on the way commerce shapes what and how we read.”

Grab The Art of Libromancy here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move by Jeannie Marshall (Apr 4, 2023) has been featured in Canadian Architect. The review was published online on February 1, 2024. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Adele Weber writes:

All Things Move: Learning to Look at the Sistine Chapel … makes a unique case for considering the Chapel as something other than a religious enclave, scholarly artifact, or checklist tourist attraction. It’s all those, of course, but its otherworldly qualities transcend religious, academic, or tour-bus affiliations.”

Get All Things Move here!

Media Hits: BURN MAN, THE FUTURE, YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2024), according to CBC Books is the #1 bestselling Canadian fiction title in Canada this week! You can view the full list here.

The Future was featured in the Windsor Star. The article was published on January 13, 2024, and you can read the full profile here.

Trevor Wilhelm writes:

“Dystopian novel The Future, published by Windsor’s Bibliosias, is in the running for a national competition to determine the one book to rule them all.”

Catherine Leroux, author of The Future, has been interviewed on CBC: Let’s Go. The interview aired on January 15, 2024. Listen to the full interview here.

Grab your copy of The Future here!

BURN MAN

Burn Man by Mark Anthony Jarman (Nov 21, 2023) received an outstanding review in the New York Times! The review was published online on January 13, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Lincoln Michel writes:

“Anyone who enjoys poetry in prose, who feels enlivened by language and struck by sentences, will find much to admire in Burn Man. Jarman’s stories are full of violence, tragedy and mistakes. Yet there’s plenty of humor and heart too. […] Burn Man left me seeing a bit more beauty in our hurting-heart world.”

Burn Man was featured again in the New York Times by Greg Cowles as part of their Editor’s Choice column: “9 New Books We Recommend This Week.” The article was published online on January 25, 2024, and can be read here.

Cowles says, of Burn Man:

“The Canadian author Jarman may not be a familiar name in the United States just yet, but this anthology aims to fix that.”

Burn Man was reviewed by Andrew Hood on The Bookshelf’s website. The review was published online on January 19, 2024, and can be read here.

Hood writes:

“If I would compare Jarman to anyone other than himself, it would be to Tom Waits. Post-Kathleen Brennan Tom Waits. Yes, these are stories in the generic sense, just as a Tom Waits song is, technically, a song, but they are made of different things. For Waits, anything is percussive if you bang on it hard enough in the right place, and Jarman bashes language in the same way. The instrumentation in a Jarman story may sometimes sound conventional, but once isolated, sounds like nothing other than what it is. […] Reading Jarman is often, and I mean this in the best way possible, like drinking from a fire hose.”

Burn Man has also been excerpted in Lit Hub. The excerpt was published online on January 17, 2024—take a look here.

Get Burn Man here!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (March 5, 2024)  is an Indie Next Pick for March and has also received an outstanding starred review in Publishers Weekly. The review was published online on January 14, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Publishers Weekly writes:

“What makes this so irresistible is the narrator’s constant optimism as he probes profound questions from within the murk of his consciousness (“Give me darkness, and then I’ll know where the light is”). Stefánsson is poised to make his mark on the world stage.”

Order your copy of Your Absence is Darkness here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić was featured on Kirkus Reviews as one of “20 Titles You Can Read in a Week.” The article was published online on January 24, 2024. Check out the full list here.

Order your copy of Love Novel here!

BEST CANADIAN POETRY 2024 & BEST CANADIAN ESSAYS 2024

Best Canadian Essays 2024 and Best Canadian Poetry 2024 (Nov 14, 2023) have been reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The article was published online on January 23, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Christina Barber writes of the anthologies:

“A testament to the importance of literature in Canada … it is a powerful body that celebrates the creative and literary spirit of Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”

Best Canadian Essays 2024 was also reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The article was published online on January 13, 2024, and you can read the full review here.

Susan Huebert writes:

“Each of the authors in Best Canadian Essays 2024 offers a particular style and perspective, but the essays work together to provide a picture of some of the issues Canadians have been facing. Many readers are likely to find something to interest them in this short collection of essays.”

Grab your copy of Essays here and Poetry here!

Check out all three Best Canadian anthologies here!

Media Hits: DREAMING HOME, WORLD AT MY BACK, ART OF LIBROMANCY, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

DREAMING HOME

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs (June 6, 2023) has been reviewed in the New York Times. The article was published online on July 7, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Kia Corthron writes,

“Eminently accomplished, [and] often deliciously droll … The novel asks provocative questions: At what age are we wholly accountable for our actions? To what degree do we hold a traumatized person responsible for perpetuating harm?”

Dreaming Home was also reviewed in Quill and Quire on June 27, 2023 and in Prairie Fire on June 26, 2023.

In Quill and Quire, Shawn Syms writes,

“In elegant, emotionally resonant prose, Childs creates a nuanced and sensitive portrait of a life shaped by loss, abandonment, and generational trauma … Thematically sophisticated, Dreaming Home also explores persistent issues in the gay male community such as sexual racism and the disparagement of older men.”

In Prairie Fire, Will Fawley writes,

“Though weighty, the stories or chapters in Dreaming Home are easy to devour because they feel so real and personal … The language is sparse, yet beautifully written, illuminating brief moments and observations that root you to the lives and experiences of these characters, making them vivid and real.”

Dreaming Home was featured in The Southern Review of Books as one of “Books to Celebrate in June 2023”. The list was published online on June 29, 2023. You can read the full list here.

Order Dreaming Home here!

THE WORLD AT MY BACK

The World at My Back by Thomas Melle, trans. by Luise von Flotow, (May 2, 2023) has been featured in the New York Times as one of “9 New Books We Recommend This Week.” The article was published online on May 31, 2023.

You can read the full article here.

Order The World at My Back here!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook (August 22, 2023) has been featured in Lit Hub as one of their “Most Anticipated Books of 2023.” The article was published online on July 5, 2023.

You can read the full article here.

Order The Art of Libromancy here!

THE COUNTRY OF TOO

The Country of Toó by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, translated by Stephen Henighan, (July 11, 2023) has been featured in the Brooklyn Rail, including an interview with the author by Tobias Carroll. The article was published online on July 5, 2023. You can read the full piece here.

Carroll writes,

The Country of Toó is … about a lot of things, including political corruption and reform; a young man’s surreal recovery from a traumatic injury; and the moral crisis faced by a man known only as the Cobra, who has begun to feel the strain of years of working as a hired gun. Tonally, the work shifts from realistic to dreamlike and back again; the result is a complex reckoning with histories both personal and national.”

Order The Country of Toó here!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) was featured in the New Yorker as part one of their “Best Books We Read This Week,” which is part of their Best Books of 2023. The list was updated on June 22, 2023.

You can read the full list here.

Order Instructions for the Drowning here!

HOW TO BUILD A BOAT

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (November 7, 2023) has been reviewed in the Guardian as part of “Hot off the press: authors pick their page-turners for summer.” The article was published online on July 4, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Louise Kennedy writes,

How to Build a Boat is a heart-rending and delightful voyage in the company of 13-year-old Jamie O’Neill and his currach. The author Elaine Feeney has a poet’s way with words and uncanny understanding of human frailty.”

Order How to Build a Boat here!

ON CLASS

Deborah Dundas author of On Class (May 9 2023) wrote a piece on the process of writing On Class in the Literary Review of Canada. The piece “Opening Up” was published online on June 22, 2023 and appears in the print edition of their July/August issue. You can read the full piece here.

Deborah Dundas was also interviewed on Morning TV Hamilton. The interview aired on June 20, 2023. Watch the full interview here.

Order On Class here!

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed in Troy Media by Michael Taube. The article, “Four Canadian Books I Highly Recommend” was published online on July 4, 2023. Check out the full article here.

Taube writes,

“[George McCullough] is barely remembered today for several reasons, including the unfortunate bipolar disorder that led to his early and unexpected demise. Thanks to Bourrie’s well-written book, that’s no longer the case.”

Order Big Men Fear Me here!

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

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!

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.

April Media Hits!

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.

 

Media Round-up

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.