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.

CASE STUDY, DUCKS NEWBURYPORT, ON WRITING AND FAILURE: Reviews and Awards!

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IN THE NEWS

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been longlisted for The Dublin Literary Award 2023! The longlist was announced online on January 30, 2023. You can check out the full longlist here.

The nominating library, Limerick City and County Libraries, comments:

“Macrae Burnet has created a dynamic work that has excellent characterisation with acute observation. The writing is layered but there is no use of superfluous words. While the themes are profound, the style is both intriguing and playful . He has created a book that is thought provoking and a compulsive read.”

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet has been reviewed in Spectrum Culture. The review was published online on January 27, 2023. You can read the complete review here.

J Simpson writes,

“Darkly funny and, at times, deeply weird, Case Study is a dense, complicated, singular work of meta-fiction. It asks deep and important questions without ever shoving them down your throat. Most importantly, though, it tells an interesting and engaging story—three of them, in fact. It’s a ride well worth taking, even if it is sometimes quiet and subtle. Case Study is well-deserving of its praise.”

Get your copy of Case Study here!

DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann was mentioned in the Ohio Star‘s article “The Importance of Reading Difficult Books.” Read the full article here.

Grab your copy of Ducks, Newburyport here!

Check out Lucy Ellmann’s other books here.

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (February 14, 2023) was featured in the Columbia Daily Tribune. The article, “These early 2023 books top reading lists of local literary enthusiasts” was published online on January 30, 2023. You can read the full article here.

The article quotes local bookseller, Carrie Koepke,

“Number 6 in the Biblioasis Field Notes Series. A tiny book that holds enough to be a repeated reference. Any writer will benefit from having this honest exposure to the importance of failing. It is a harsh, and still kind, reminder that the effort is more important than the result—because without the effort there isn’t a chance of anything at all.”

Order your copy of on Writing and Failure here!

Check out the rest of the Field Notes series here!