WHITE SHADOW, MURDER ON THE INSIDE, ON PROPERTY, FOREGONE, DEBT, STRANGERS: Biblioasis Headlines!

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It’s a busy time of the year here at Biblioasis, and we’ve got the media coverage to prove it! Why not listen in as our authors discuss their work? Or, you can take a look at some of these excellent reviews! Check out these and more below:

White Shadow by Roy Jacobsen was reviewed in the Historical Novel Society. Check out the full review on their website here!

Janice Derr had this to say:

Jacobsen’s sparse and raw prose evoke the chaos and despair of war, and his atmospheric descriptions vividly depict the island’s brutal landscape.

Order White Shadow today from Biblioasis!

 

Catherine Fogarty’s Murder on the Inside received quite a bit of attention, with Catherine appearing on several radio and tv spots. She was interviewed by Ramanjit Sidhu on CKER World FM, and by Mehroop Kaur on The Evening Roundup on CJCN Connect FM. Catherine was also a guest on Kitchener Today with Brian Bourke, which you can listen to here!

Get your copy of Murder on the Inside from Biblioasis!

 

On Property by Rinaldo Walcott was featured in a great review by Quill & Quire. 

Reviewer Sanchari Sur wrote:

“Rinaldo Walcott locates his contribution to the Field Notes series on current issues, On Property, in the present political moment, while using historical references and events to argue for the abolition of police and property … Walcott concludes his case by asking for a new ethics of care and economy that does not keep feeding into the incarceration system, a system rigged to continue Black suffering … It is a question we must ask ourselves after reflecting on the ways in which we, too, are complicit.”

Check out the full review on their website here.

Order your copy of On Property today from Biblioasis!

 

Foregone by Russell Banks received a phenomenal review in the LA Review of Books! The review was published on May 5, 2021, and can be found on their website here.

Rob Latham had this to say:

“Complexly engaging … In this most haunting of metafictional echoes, the author shows how the lonely death of a minor Canadian filmmaker, ‘famous only in certain unfashionably leftist quarters,’ may yet be a tale of deep grace and significance, a gathering into the artifice of eternity. If Foregone turns out to be Banks’s final novel (and, given its many strengths, one hopes not), it is a profoundly compelling valedictory.”

Get your copy of Forgone now from Biblioasis!

 

Andreae Callanan’s poetry collection The Debt was featured in a notice by the Memorial University Gazette, which you can find on their website here.

Mandy Cook writes:

“The collection of poems is an argument for community and connection in an age increasingly associated with isolation of the individual.”

Get your copy of The Debt from Biblioasis!

 

Strangers by Rob Taylor was beautifully examined in a review by the Miramichi Reader, which you can read in full on their website here.

Reviewer Chris Banks writes:

“If ‘Imagery is the memory of memory’ as Stanley Plumly believed, Rob Taylor’s Strangers out with Biblioasis press uses imagery as both revelation and reconciliation. The poems tease epiphany from memory, memory from language, language from grief and loss. I urge everyone to go out and buy this wonderful poetry collection that dares sadness and boldly remembers, imagining a present moment where our deceased loved ones and friends are still close by, albeit unseen, making loss and life more palpable.”

Buy your copy of Strangers now from Biblioasis!

IF YOU HEAR ME a finalist for the 2020 GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARD IN TRANSLATION

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We are absolutely delighted that on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, it was announced by the Canada Council for the Arts that If You Hear Me by Pascale Quiviger & translated by Lazer Lederhendler has been shortlisted for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award in Translation!

Each finalist receives $1,000 CAD, and the winner of the award receives $25,000 CAD. In the case of co-creators, the award money is shared. The winners will be announced via press release on June 1, 2021.

The awards, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, are given in seven English-language categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature—text, young people’s literature—illustration, drama and translation. Seven French-language awards are also given out in the same categories.

The other finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award in Translation are Amaryllis & Little Witch by Pascal Brullemans & translated by Alexis Diamond (Playwrights Canada Press), Back Roads by Andrée A. Michaud & translated by J. C. Sutcliffe (House of Anansi), The Country Will Bring Us No Peace by Matthieu Simard & translated by Pablo Strauss (Coach House Books), and The Neptune Room by Bertrand Laverdure & translated by Oana Avasilichioaei (Book *hug Press).

ABOUT IF YOU HEAR ME

Sliding doors open and close automatically, exit to the left, entrance to the right. Beyond it, cars go by, and pedestrians and cyclists. A large park behaves as if nothing has happened. The mirage of a world intact.

In an instant, a life can change forever. After he falls from a scaffold on the construction site where he works, David, deep in a coma, is visited regularly by his wife, Caroline, and their six-year-old son Bertrand. Yet despite their devotion, there seems to be no crossing the divide between consciousness and the mysterious world David now inhabits. Devastated by loss and the reality that their own lives must go on, the mourners face difficult questions. How do we communicate when language fails? When, and how, do we move forward? What constitutes a life, and can there be such a thing as a good death? All the while, David’s inner world unfolds, shifting from sensory perceptions, to memories of loved ones, to nightmare landscapes from his family’s past in WWII Poland.

Elegantly translated by Lazer Lederhendler, If You Hear Me is a gripping account of a woman’s struggle to let go of the husband whose mind is lost to her while his body lives on in the bittersweet present, and a deft rendering of the complexity of grief, asking what it means to be alive and how we learn to accept the unacceptable—while at the same time bearing witness to the enduring power of hope, and the ways we find peace in unexpected places.

 

Born in Montreal, Pascale Quiviger studied visual arts, earned an M.A. in philosophy and did an apprenticeship in print-making in Rome. She has published four novels, a book of short stories and a book of poems, and has written and illustrated two art books. Her novel The Perfect Circle won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction in French, and, in English translation, was a finalist for the Giller Prize. The Breakwater House was a finalist for the Prix France-Québec, and If You Hear Me was translated into Spanish. A resident of Italy for more than a decade, Pascale Quiviger now lives with her family in Nottingham, England.

Lazer Lederhendler is a full-time literary translator specializing in Québécois fiction and non-fiction. His translations have earned awards and distinctions in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.A. He has translated the works of noted authors including Gaétan Soucy, Nicolas Dickner, Edem Awumey, Perrine Leblanc, and Catherine Leroux. He lives in Montreal with the visual artist Pierrette Bouchard.

Order your copy now!

HERE THE DARK a finalist for the MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD and the MARGARET LAURENCE AWARD FOR FICTION!

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We at Biblioasis are thrilled to share that on Friday, April 30, 2021 at 11 AM CDT, it was announced by the Manitoba Book Awards that Here the Dark by David Bergen has been shortlisted for both the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction!

The prize for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award is $2000 CAD, and the prize for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction is $3500 CAD. The winners for both will be announced online on Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 11 AM CDT via social media and media release.

The other finalists for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award are Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory by David A. Robertson (HarperCollins), Dragonfly by Lara Rae (J. Gordon Shillingford), My Claustrophobic Happiness by Jeanne Randolph (ARP Books), Tablet Fragments by Tamar Rubin (Signature Editions), and The World is Mostly Sky by Sarah Ens (Turnstone Press).

The other finalists for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction are Kate Wake by Mariianne Mays Wiebe (DC Books), My Claustrophobic Happiness by Jeanne Randolph (ARP Books), Still Me: A Golf Tragedy in 18 Parts by Jeffrey John Eyamie (Turnstone Press), and The Lightning of Possible Storms by Jonathan Ball (Book*hug Press).

ABOUT HERE THE DARK

From the streets of Danang, Vietnam, where a boy falls in with a young American missionary, to fishermen lost on the islands of Honduras, to the Canadian prairies, where an aging rancher finds himself smitten and a teenage boy’s infatuation reveals his naiveté, the short stories in Here the Dark chronicle the geographies of both place and heart. Featuring a novella about a young woman torn between faith and doubt in a cloistered Mennonite community, David Bergen’s latest deftly renders complex moral ambiguities and asks what it means to be lost—and how, through grace, we can be found.

David Bergen HeadshotABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Bergen has published eight novels and a collection of short stories. His work has been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Impac Dublin Literary Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He won the Giller Prize for his novel The Time in Between. In 2018 he was given the Writers’ Trust Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life.

Get your copy of Here The Dark now!

Poetry Month with Biblioasis Poets: Part II

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National Poetry Month may be over, but poetic excellence lives on! If you happened to miss our posts on social media, thankfully you can still enjoy listening to our fantastic poets read from their works, collected below! Check out out these virtual readings from the last half of the month (and you can find those from the beginning of the month here).

Erín Moure kicks off this round reading from her poem, “Odiama,” featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and first published in Arc Poetry Magazine.

Frances Boyle reads from “Pegging Out Washing,” which was in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally in Queen’s Quarterly.

Andrea Thompson both reads, and explains the inspiration behind her poem, “To Whyt/Anthology/Editors,” which appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in Arc Poetry Magazine.

Babo Kamel reads from her poem “It’s Always Winter When Someone Dies,” which was featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and first appeared in Contemporary Verse 2.

Abby Paige shares from her “Selected Hoems.” Her work can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was originally published in Arc Poetry Magazine.

Selina Boan discusses and reads from her poem, “Minimal Pairs Are Words Holding Hands,” which can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was originally published in Room Magazine.

Maureen Scott Harris shares with us “A Room Of My Own,” which can be read in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in The New Quarterly.

Have a listen to Tanis MacDonald’s reading of “Feeding Foxes,” which is featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in Contemporary Verse 2.

Join Anita Lahey in her reading of Adele Wiseman’s “Never Put Off a Poem,” which can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in Juniper.

Last, but certainly not least, finishing off the month is Margret Bollup, reading from her poem “Dementia and common household objects,” which is featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was originally published in The New Quarterly.

We hope you enjoyed our celebration of Poetry Month, and continue to dive into the works of our wonderful poets.

Purchase Best Canadian Poetry 2020 from Biblioasis here, or from your local bookstore!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT, STRANGERS, DEBT, VILLA NEGATIVA, ON TIME AND WATER, SEA LOVES ME, DRIVEN: Latest News!

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We’ve gotten some fantastic coverage on a number of our titles here at Biblioasis in the last couple of weeks. Take a look at these reviews!

IN THE NEWS

Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat was highlighted in the New York Review of Books, and in a starred review by Foreword Reviews! You can read the New York Review of Books article here, and the Foreword Reviews article here.

New York Review of Books reviewer Ange Mlinko writes:

“Ní Ghríofa is a poet through and through: in this prose work she writes lyrical sentences that make the physical world come alive … It was around Ní Chonaill’s time that a new poetic form was invented: the aisling, a dream vision of Ireland revealing itself to the poet as a beautiful woman in need of saving. Ní Ghríofa certainly gives us a new, feminist vision of a woman saving another woman, righting a historical imbalance that persists in women’s continued sacrifices.”

Michelle Anne Schingler writes in Foreword Reviews:

“History mutes women; it also depends on them. This paradox is at the heart of a A Ghost in the Throat, an extraordinary literary memoir that finds life in buried spaces … Feminist and feminine, A Ghost in the Throat gives defiant voice to hushed womanhood, in all of its pain and glory. Her images incandescent and brutal, Ní Ghríofa writes about the omens represented by starlings and about unearthed fragments of teacups, but also about caesarean scars, bleeding hangnails, and the consuming fire of her husband’s touch … A Ghost in the Throat is an achingly gorgeous literary exploration that establishes a sisterhood across generations.”

Visit their websites for the full reviews!

Order your copy from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore.

 

Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water, and Mia Couto’s Sea Loves Me were both featured in reviews by the Winnipeg Free Press! The piece on Magnason can be read here, and the one on Couto can be read here.

Of On Time and Water, reviewer Joseph Hnatiuk had this to say:

“Compelling … This clarion call to action on the climate issue, coming from award-winning Icelandic poet and novelist Andri Snær Magnason, should be required reading for deniers of the greatest crisis humans have ever faced … A memoir and polemic featuring mythological stories, Icelandic folklore, cultural histories and science-driven extrapolations which effectively combine to send a strong message about the planetary damage humans are causing.”

While Rory Runnells wrote about Sea Loves Me:

“Extraordinary … Begin anywhere, with any story, and you as reader are safe within Couto’s world. The imagination is without limit, the poetic force is exhilarating and often disturbing, while the surprise of some is breathtaking … Couto is as much a master of the pointed anecdote as the longer tale.”

Check out the Winnipeg Free Press website for the full reviews.

Purchase your copy of On Time and Water from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

Order Sea Loves Me today from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

 

Strangers by Rob Taylor, Villa Negativa by Sharon McCartney, and The Debt by Andreae Callanan were all featured on CBC’s 55 Canadian poetry collections to check out in spring 2021 list! For a look at our poetry collections and more, check out the full list here.

Order your copy of Strangers at Biblioasis

Order your copy of Villa Negativa at Biblioasis

Order your copy of The Debt at Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

 

And just last week, Marcello Di Cintio’s Driven was given a glowing shout-out on twitter by none other than Margaret Atwood!

Atwood wrote:

“An astonishing book about folks from all over, many of whom have been through total hell but have somehow made their way out … You never know who’s driving you. Each person contains multitudes.”

Purchase your copy of Driven at Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

THE DEBT Virtual Launch Video

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Over the weekend we celebrated the launch of Andreae Callanan’s poetry collection, The Debt! Andreae Callanan was joined in conversation by Elaine Feeney, and the event was emceed wonderfully by Mark Callanan. The launch finished off with an audience Q&A, and a successful book giveaway. The event was also co-hosted by Running the Goat Books in Tors Cove, NL.

And if you couldn’t make it, don’t worry! You can still watch here:

ABOUT THE DEBT

Set against the backdrop of a post-moratorium St. John’s, Newfoundland, The Debt explores tensions between tradition and innovation, and between past and present in a province unmoored by loss and grief. The Debt is about development and change, idleness and activism, ecological stewardship, feminism, motherhood, the personal and the political. It is also about resistance—against the encroaching forces of greed and capitalism, even against the accumulated notions of the self. The poems are an argument for community and connection in an age increasingly associated with isolation of the individual. The Debt explores the dues we all owe: to nature, to those who came before us, and to one another.

ABOUT ANDREAE CALLANAN

Andreae Callanan’s poetry, essays, and reviews have been read in The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, Canadian Verse 2, Riddle Fence, CBC.ca, and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is a recent recipient of the Cox & Palmer SPARKS Creative Writing Award at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and she holds a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship for her doctoral work in English literature. Her chapbook, Crown, was published by Anstruther Press in 2019. Andreae lives in St. John’s with her husband and their four children.

 

Pre-order your copy from Running the Goat Bookstore

Learn more about The Debt, or pre-order your copy, from Biblioasis

STOOP CITY Wins ReLit Award!

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Stoop City coverWe’re thrilled to announce that Stoop City by Kristyn Dunnion has won the 2021 ReLit Award in the short fiction category!

Founded in 2000, The ReLit Awards are awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories, and are considered the preeminent literary prize in independent Canadian publishing.

Stoop City was selected from a shortlist which also included Here The Dark by David Bergen (Biblioasis), Seeking Shade by Frances Boyle (Porcupine’s Quill), The Swan Suit by Katherine Fawcett (Douglas & McIntyre), The End Of Me by John Gould (Freehand), Swimmers in Winter by Faye Guenther (Invisible), Permanent Tourist by Genni Gunn (Signature Editions), Czech Techno by Mark Anthony Jarman (Anvil Press), Dominoes At The Crossroads by Kaie Kellough (Esplanade), Paradise Island and Other Galaxies by Micheal Mirolla (Exile Editions), and Goth Girls Of Banff by John O’Neill (NeWest Press).

 

ABOUT STOOP CITY

Welcome to Stoop City, where your neighbours include a condo-destroying cat, a teen queen beset by Catholic guilt, and an emergency clinic staffed entirely by lovelorn skeptics. Couples counseling with Marzana, her girlfriend’s ghost, might not be enough to resolve past indiscretions; our heroine could need a death goddess ritual or two. Plus, Hoofy’s not sure if his missing scam-artist boyfriend was picked up by the cops, or by that pretty blonde, their last mark. When Jan takes a room at Plague House, her first year of university takes an unexpected turn—into anarcho-politics and direct action, gender studies and late-night shenanigans with Saffy, her captivating yet cagey housemate.

From the lovelorn Mary Louise, who struggles with butch bachelorhood, to rural teens finding—and found by—adult sexualities, to Grimm’s “The Golden Goose” rendered as a jazz dance spectacle, Kristyn Dunnion’s freewheeling collection fosters a radical revisioning of community. Dunnion goes wherever there’s a story to tell—and then, out of whispers and shouts, echoes and snippets, gritty realism and speculative fiction, illuminates the delicate strands that hold us all together.

ABOUT THE AUTHORKristyn Dunnion

Kristyn Dunnion grew up in Essex County, the southernmost tip of Canada, and now lives in Toronto. She is the author of six books, including Tarry This Night and The Dirt Chronicles, a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her short fiction is widely published, most recently in Best Canadian Stories 2020, Foglifter, Orca: A Literary Journal, and Toronto 2033. Dunnion works supporting homeless adults with serious mental illness, and has been a healthy food advocate for marginalized communities in Davenport-Perth, where she resides.

 

Order your copy from Biblioasis, or from your local bookstore!

 

 

Celebrating Poetry Month with Biblioasis Poets!

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It’s National Poetry Month, and Biblioasis is celebrating virtually with our brilliant poets! Each day we’re featuring a different poet on our social media, who not only reads from their work, but gives a little insight into their poetry as well. Join us for this exciting month of paying tribute to poetic excellence by checking out their readings so far below!

 

Starting off the month was a throw-back to an event from last year, A Best Canadian Poetry Virtual Event, with Anita Lahey and Luke Hathaway. Featuring readings from, and discussions about, Best Canadian Poetry 2020 anthology!

Sanna Wani is the first of our individual poet readings, beginning with her poem “As I pray”, which was in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in canthius:

Geoff Pevlin reads and discusses “clumper crackies/Ice Pan Puppies”, from Best Canadian Poetry 2020, originally published in The Fiddlehead:

Fiona Tinwei Lam leads us into her poem “Ode to the Potato”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in The New Quarterly:

Next up, Dallas Hunt reads “Louise”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in Contemporary Verse 2:

Susan Haldane gives a lovely reading of “Thin-Skinned”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in Grain Magazine:

Rob Budde discusses his poem “Blockade”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and first published in The Goose Journal:

Kevin Spenst’s poem, “It Will Rain Like Rods On the Hillside in Sweden” is read not by one, but various people to to articulate the presence of rain across the world. Spenst is featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and his poem was originally published in Taddle Creek.

Dell Catherall brings us outside with her poem “Fig Sestina”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in The New Quarterly:

Rounding out the first half of the month is Erín Moure, reading “Odiama”, which was featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and first published in Arc Poetry Magazine:

 

But Poetry Month’s not over yet! Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube throughout the rest of April to continue listening to more from our amazing poets!

 

Purchase Best Canadian Poetry 2020 from Biblioasis here, or from your local bookstore!

MURDER ON THE INSIDE: TV, News, and More!

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On the heels of a successful launch on Wednesday April 14, which you can watch here, Catherine Fogarty’s Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston State Penitentiary has received fantastic media attention: from TV and radio interviews, to reviews in newspapers across Canada!

IN THE NEWS!

Murder on the Inside was reviewed by the Winnipeg Free Press and The Kingston-Whig Standard, and an excerpt was featured in the Toronto Star. You can read the Winnipeg Free Press here, the Kingston-Whig here, and the Toronto Star excerpt here.

In the Winnipeg Free Press, writer Barry Craig had this to say:

“The most important observation author Catherine Fogarty makes in this her first book (and a good one) is not about the notorious riot in 1971 in Kingston Penitentiary (KP) that she examines, but her conclusion that Canada’s prisons are still much better at housing and hurting people than helping them … Fogarty’s chronicle of the KP riot is a comprehensive and action-packed explanation of what went right and wrong … Murder on the Inside is a shocking tale of sickening savagery and unrewarded heroics, and Fogarty details with growing confidence the unhealthy, sadistic straight-jacket life inside Kingston’s notorious maximum security prison 50 years ago.”

In the Kingston Whig-Standard, Peter Hendra wrote:

“The book details what happened and why, and the aftermath of the four-day standoff, while offering compelling portraits of the characters on both sides of the negotiating table.”

INTERVIEWS!

Catherine Fogarty was recently interviewed about her book on Global News Kingston by Bill Welychka. Check out the video below!

Catherine Fogarty also discussed her book on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paiken, which you can watch below.

Additionally, Catherine Fogarty spoke to twelve CBC shows across Canada on April 13: “Up North” in Sudbury, ON at 2:30 PM EDT, “Mainstreet” in Halifax, NS at 2:40 PM EDT, “Radioactive” in Edmonton, AB at 2:50 PM EDT, “All Points West” in Victoria, BC at 3:07 PM EDT, “Homestretch” in Calgary, AB at 3:30 PM EDT, “Mainstreet” in Cape Breton/ Sydney, NS at 3:50 PM EDT, “Afternoon Edition” in Saskatchewan at 4:07 PM EDT, “Up to Speed” in Winnipeg, MB at 4:20 PM EDT, “Radio West” in Kelowna, BC at 4:40 PM EDT, “On the Coast” in Vancouver, BC at 4:50 PM EDT, “Air Play” in Whitehorse, YT at 5:30 PM EDT, “Afternoon Drive” in London/Windsor, ON at 5:50 PM EDT.

 

ABOUT MURDER ON THE INSIDE

“You have taken our civil rights—we want our human rights.”

On April 14, 1971, a handful of prisoners attacked the guards at Kingston Penitentiary and seized control, making headlines around the world. For four intense days, the prisoners held the guards hostage while their leaders negotiated with a citizens’ committee of journalists and lawyers, drawing attention to the dehumanizing realities of their incarceration, including overcrowding, harsh punishment and extreme isolation. But when another group of convicts turned their pent-up rage towards some of the weakest prisoners, tensions inside the old stone walls erupted, with tragic consequences. As heavily armed soldiers prepared to regain control of the prison through a full military assault, the inmates were finally forced to surrender.

Murder on the Inside tells the harrowing story of a prison in crisis against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in the history of human rights. Occurring just months before the uprising at Attica Prison, the Kingston riot has remained largely undocumented, and few have known the details—yet the tense drama chronicled here is more relevant today than ever. A gripping account of the standoff and the efforts for justice and reform it inspired, Murder on the Inside is essential reading for our times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Fogarty is a storyteller. She is the founder and president of Big Coat Media and Story Hunter Podcasts. An accomplished television producer, writer and director, Catherine has produced award-winning lifestyle, reality and documentary series for both Canadian and American networks. Catherine is the executive producer of the Gemini nominated series Love It or List It and directed I Don’t Have Time for This, an intimate documentary about young women with breast cancer. Originally trained as a social worker, Catherine studied deviance and criminology. She worked with numerous at-risk populations including street youth, people with AIDS, abused women, and social services. Catherine holds an M.A. in Social Work, an MBA in Human Resource Management, and an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of Kings College. She was recently awarded the Marina Nemet Award in Creative Writing through the University of Toronto.

 

Order your copy now from Biblioasis, or from your local bookstore!

ON TIME AND WATER Virtual Launch Video

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Last night we celebrated the launch of  Andri Snær Magnason’s new book, On Time and Water! Andri Snær Magnason was joined virtually by Meehan Crist and Lytton Smith in a great discussion. The event then moved on to an exciting audience Q&A and book giveaway! Biblioasis was thrilled to partner with the US publisher Open Letter Books for the launch, which was co-hosted by Glass Bookshop in Edmonton, AB.

If you missed the event, don’t worry—you can still watch it below!

Order your copy from Biblioasis in Canada.

Order your copy from Open Letter Books in the US.

Or, you can pick up a copy from your local bookstore!

 

ABOUT ON TIME AND WATER

Asked by a leading climate scientist why he wasn’t writing about the greatest crisis mankind has faced, Andri Snær Magnason, one of Iceland’s most beloved writers and public intellectuals, protested: he wasn’t a specialist, he said. It wasn’t his field. But the scientist persisted: “If you cannot understand our scientific findings and present them in an emotional, psychological, poetic or mythological context,” he told him, “then no one will really understand the issue, and the world will end.”

Based on interviews and advice from leading glacial, ocean, climate, and geographical scientists, and interwoven with personal, historical, and mythological stories, Magnason’s resulting response is a rich and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that illustrates the reality of climate change and offers hope in the face of an uncertain future. Moving from reflections on how one writes an obituary for a glacier to exhortation for a heightened understanding of human time and our obligations to one another, throughout history and across the globe, On Time and Water is both deeply personal and globally minded: a travel story, a world history, a desperate plea to live in harmony with future generations—and is unlike anything that has yet been published on the current climate emergency.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andri Snær Magnason is one of Iceland’s most celebrated writers. He has won the Icelandic Literary Prize for fiction, children’s fiction, and non-fiction. In 2009, Magnason co-directed the documentary Dreamland, which was based on his book Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation. In 2010, Magnason was awarded the Kairos Prize, presented to outstanding individuals in the field of intercultural understanding. Magnason ran for president of Iceland in 2016 and came third out of nine candidates.