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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.

 

Reviews, Awards, and Interviews: CASE STUDY, ORDINARY WONDER TALES, CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been reviewed by Christian Lorentzen in the New York Times! The review was published online on November 1, 2022. Read the full NYT review here.

Lorentzen writes,

Case Study has a lot in common with the novels of Vladimir Nabokov and Roberto Bolaño, in which invented characters pass through tumultuous episodes of literary history that never quite happened, though it seems as if they should have. … Case Study is a diverting novel, overflowing with clever plays on and inversions of tropes of English intellectual and social life during the postwar decades.”

Case Study has been featured on Lit Hub as one of “18 new books to kick your November reading into gear.” The list was posted on November 1, 2022 and can be read here.

Case Study was reviewed by Jessica Brockmole for The Historical Novel Society. The review was published online on November 1, 2022. Read the full review here.

Brockmole writes,

Case Study is a dizzying dive into British counterculture of the 1960s and the radical anti-psychiatry movement … wildly inventive and slickly written. The notebooks feel so casually and authentically from the period, with ‘Rebecca’s’ word choices and the details she includes saying as much about 1960s British society as they do about her place in it. ‘Rebecca’ is deliciously unreliable as a narrator.”

Graeme Macrae Burnet has been interviewed by Lily Meyer for Crime Reads. The interview was posted online on November 3, 2022 an can be read here.

Meyer writes,

“Burnet propels readers through the novel with his fierce, hilarious intelligence.”

Case Study has also been excerpted in Lit Hub and featured by Vol 1. Brooklyn as part of their “November 2022 Book Preview.” The excerpt, and preview were published online on November 3, 2022. Read the Lit Hub here, and Vol 1. Brooklyn here.

Grab your copy of Case Study here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales (November 1, 2022), was interviewed by Lisa Godfrey on CBC Ideas! The episode on hauntings aired on October 25, 2022. Emily’s segment begins at 25:00 mins. Listen to the full episode here.

Ordinary Wonder Tales has been reviewed by Kathleen Rooney in LIBER: A Feminist Review. The review will be published in print in their Winter 2022 issue. Read the full review here.

Kathleen writes,

“In Ordinary Wonder Tales, Urquhart stylishly combines her personal experiences with her academic expertise, leading to a reading experience that feels entertaining and casual yet also edifying … It’s a testament to Urquhart’s own formidable storytelling skill that each of her essays inspires a quiet awe.”

Ordinary Wonder Tales was been listed in CBC Books and Toronto Life!

The CBC Books list, “20 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in November” was published on November 2, 2022. You can check it out here.

The Toronto Life list, “Sixteen things to see, do, read and hear in Toronto this November” was published on October 28, 2022. You can read the full list here.

Order your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

THE AFFIRMATIONS

Luke Hathaway‘s poem “As the part hanteth after the water brooks” from The Affirmations (April 5, 2022), won the Confederation Poets Prize by Arc Poetry. The prize winner was announced on October 27, 2022. You can read the full announcement here.

This year’s judge, Brecken Hancock, had this to say about the winning poem:

“In 12 incredibly short lines, Luke Hathaway has captured how we survive and thrive by chance, by lucky accident. These spare lines take the reader on a profound journey with the speaker who has gone “uphill to the well / where I went, as I thought // for my water” only to find an utterly new form of thirst and its remedy waiting there instead. A previously unrecognized, but life-threatening, form of dehydration is alleviated (in what feels like the nick of time) by the startling discovery of a source to quench it. Rather than dwell on what had previously been missing, a sorrowful lack, the poem ends in affirmation—communicating a resonant relief, and, beyond that, the joy and ecstasy that can finally be embodied and expressed when our deepest needs are recognized and met.”

Get your copy of The Affirmations here!

CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Confessions with Keith by Pauline Holdstock (October 25, 2022), has been reviewed at Focus on Victoria on October 31, 2022. Read the whole review here.

Reviewer Amy Reiswig writes,

Confessions with Keith reminds us that life is a raw, radiant, and ridiculous story unfolding moment by moment for everyone in their separate subjectivities. It deserves laughter. It deserves tears. It is made more bearable by books like this, the literary equivalent of uncensored midnight conversation over cups of tea or glasses—plural—of wine. What Vita observes of festival street performers could well be said of reading Holdstock’s newest creation: ‘It was a shared experience of human life, a little bit of eternity together.'”

Confessions With Keith has also been reviewed at the BC Review. Read the whole review here.

Reviewer Candace Fertile writes,

“Things going wrong on many levels is the focus of the novel, but Vita’s ability to plough through the problems and often see the humour even when exhausted is refreshing … Confessions with Keith deals with real life issues in a frenetic and funny manner.”

Get your copy of Confessions with Keith here!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories by Clark Blaise (October 18, 2022) has been excerpted at Open Book. The excerpt is from the story “Translation” and was published Nov 1, 2022. You can read it here.

This Time, That Place also received a starred review at Quill & Quire. The review was published on November 2, 2022. Check out the whole review here.

Reviewer Steven W. Beattie writes,

“Blaise is … almost preternaturally adept at noticing things … sublime technique and linguistic finesse [are] showcased in these inestimable short works.”

Pick up your copy of This Time, That Place here!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Michael Hingston, author of Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda (September 13, 2022), has been reviewed by MA Orthofer in The Complete Review. The article was published on October 30, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Orthofer writes,

Try Not to be Strange is an enjoyable account of a bizarre not-quite-real place, with a rich cast of characters—not least Hingston himself, who amusingly tracks his own obsessiveness.”

Michael Hingston has also been interviewed on Across the Pond podcast and New & Used podcast! Both episodes were published on November 1, 2022. You can listen to Across the Pond here, and New & Used here.

Get your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

CASE STUDY, ESTATES LARGE AND SMALL, THIS TIME THAT PLACE: New York Times, CBC, and other media hits!

IN THE NEWS!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories by Clark Blaise (November 8, 2022) has been featured in the New York Times. The article was published on August 5, 2022.

The New York Times writes,

“This collection of 24 stories presents a life’s work by the Canadian American author and paints a restless, uneasy portrait of society at the turn of the 21st century.”

Check out the full list here.

Get your copy of This Time, That Place here!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been reviewed in Kirkus Reviews. The review was published online on July 27, 2022. Read the full review here.

Kirkus writes,

“A provocative send-up of midcentury British mores and the roots of modern psychotherapy … brisk and engaging.”

Case Study has also been longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize on July 26, and shortlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize on August 3!

View the Booker longlist here, and the Gordon Burn shortlist here.

Preorder Case Study here!

ESTATES LARGE AND SMALL

Estates Large and Small (August 16, 2022) by Ray Robertson was featured on a CBC Books list highlighting ’27 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in August.’ The list was published online on August 3, 2022. You can see the full list here.

The book was also featured on a list of bookseller recommendations by 49th Shelf. That list was published online on July 30, 2022 and is available here.

In his 49th Shelf recommendation, bookseller David Worsley writes,

“Ray Robertson has an unwavering morality and like a lot of smart people, he’s really, really funny. This is my favorite of the year so far.”

An interview with Ray Robertson was published on Open Book on August 4, 2022. You can read the full interview here.

Ahead of the interview, Open Book editors write,

“A funny, thoughtful, and heartbreaking love letter to the power of books and reading, Estates Large and Small is Robertson doing what he does best—asking probing questions about why and how we can best live and understand ourselves and one another.”

Get your copy of Estates Large and Small here!

IN THE MEDIA: Peninsula Sinking by David Huebert

Trade Paper $19.95
eBook $9.99

Peninsula Sinking offers up eight urgent and electric meditations on the mysteries of death and life, of grief and love, and never shies away from the joy and horror of our submerging world. Check out the buzz on David Huebert’s debut short fiction collection:

Quill & Quire: Book Review

“…establishes Huebert as one of Canada’s most impressive young writers … the stories are far-reaching, but tightly woven, each focused on characters in significant moments of development or change.” – Quill & Quire

Open Book: David Huebert on Inspiring a Dress Code, Being Haunted by Cows, and his Bachelorette Canada Connection

All Lit Up: Where in Canada – Peninsula Sinking

Western Gazette: ‘Sinking’ signals a career on the rise

“Huebert first captured the public imagination when “Enigma,” his short story about a woman grieving the death of her horse, won the CBC short story contest in 2016. His debut collection features Maritimers “marooned on the shores of being.” One of the many striking features of his work is his respect for the relations between humans and other animals.”– Chris Benjamin, Atlantic Books Today
“I absolutely loved this book. I’ve gone back and read stories multiple times, I have recommended it to countless people … It is descriptive and honest and real.”Bibliotaphs

CBC coverage

Plus! David’s CBC interviews have been all over CBC syndication lately!

And look for forthcoming coverage in:
-The London Free Press
-Londoner
-Dalhousie Review
-The Puritan