Category: Reviews

Being-with, Being Known: Critical Fictions by Hannah Godfrey

By Jaz Papadopoulos

Femme Art Review, February 2024

Between the covers of Critical Fictions, the latest collection from poet, storyteller, and art writer Hannah Godfrey, a pulse beats: a lineage and testament of queer intimacies is alive.

The five artists discussed within its pages––Derek Dunlop, Kristin Nelson, Hagere Selam shimby Zegeye-Gebrehiwot, AO Roberts, and Logan MacDonald––Godfrey knows on personal levels.

Read the review at Femme Art Review

The Power of Good Literary Citizenship

rob mclennan is a CanLit institution and an iconic example of the power of good literary citizenship. In addition to being one of the most prolific writers we know, rob regularly amplifies the voices of other writers through his blogs. You can find more about rob below. For now, let’s get to the burning question!

[Read the interview at River Street Writing]

These 4 new books of Canadian poetry urge us to observe the moment

New poems from Sandra Ridley, rob mclennan, Sonja Ruth Greckol and Nasser Hussain

These poems take on the quality of measured breath — inhale inhale pause, exhale. Inhale, and exhale. In so doing, they slow us down, a necessary and welcome step for all, but particularly needed while moving through the births of children and their early years…[read the review at thestar.com]

A video book review by Erica Violet Lee on Canadian Independent Bookstore Day

Erica Violet Lee is a poet, essayist, political theorist, and urban Native scholar from inner-city Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Turning the Tide Bookstore–check them out! Strombo called named them one of “Ten Beloved Bookstores from Coast to Coast.”

By Marisa Grizenko

The Capilano Review, February 3, 2021

In a scene reminiscent of Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, in which Mrs. Ramsay admires the artful composition of a fruit bowl, La Betty constructs her own mise-en-scène. Noting the beautiful colour produced when the rosy light of dawn graces her silver coffee tray, she makes adjustments to her room, “push[ing] one of her Osvaldo Borsani tables just a little closer to the window” to better appreciate the “evanescent marvel, silver plus pink.” Unlike Mrs. Ramsay, though, whose aesthetic pleasure is firmly grounded in her family’s domestic life, La Betty inhabits a world devoid of other people and largely of meaning itself; to La Betty, “superficiality is ecstasy.” And while she’s mastered the superficial life, she rarely gets the opportunity to fully enjoy it—busy as she is with near-constant spiritual combat. [Read the full review at The Capilano Review]

Millan and Dempsey are nothing if not progressive, and their most recent work is a fine example of their ability to portray the, unfortunately, sexist reality that continues to permeate women’s lives with a sense of humour.

Who needs a tightrope to stroll across Niagara Falls when you have the prose poem–pliable, surreal, infinitely hackable. These poems from Emma Healey signal the arrival of an exciting, nimble, new voice

These are poems that demand you pay attention. Pithy and persuasive, Healey’s “Heritage Moments”; series in particular knocks out an offbeat version of the Canadian National Anthem that makes me want to rise and place hand over heart. Begin with the End in Mind is strange, seductive, and brainy.

The People’s Citizenship Guide offers an interesting and engaging counterpoint to the current re-branding of Canada’s once peaceful, rights-championing image (although we quarreled with that, too). Penned by historians Esyllt Jones and Adele Perry, the Guide is a testament to the discipline’s deeply political nature, especially where it concerns our understanding and interpretation of nation and state.

…an excellent and highly readable overview of Canada; at the same time it is a clear and welcoming invitation for new immigrants and settled citizens to be active and engaged in creating a better and equitable society for all.

This book is a welcome political intervention. From its title through to its back cover,The People’s Citizenship Guide’s politics are open and easily discerned. Such overt and provocative language, which on the first page labels the vision of Canada presented in Discover Canada as “nationalistic, militaristic and racist,” may turn people off the book before they can digest its important content. That being said, the explicit nature of the book’s politics provides excellent contrast to the political perspectives that are often left implicit in Discover Canada. In publishing The People’s Citizenship Guide, Jones and Perry should be lauded for calling explicit attention to the politics of citizenship.

All We Want Is Everything is darkly funny at times, graceful at others and gritty throughout–a good read for those who are interested in the way people ruin and trap themselves, and the way they learn to cope with a world that is reluctant to help.

In All We Want Is Everything, Andrew F. Sullivan assembles a collection of short stories that are at once tragic, mortifying and funny. Although Sullivan’s voice is evident throughout the seventeen stories, each is different enough that the narratives seldom feel repetitive. These are the kinds of tales you love to read but are glad are not happening to you, involving estranged family members, childhood memories and personal and financial struggles. “The Lesser Half of Sir John A. MacDonald,” about a man who has travelled the country to find a city that will not break him, is particularly strong.

Andrew F. Sullivan is a big burly writer, and in All We Want is Everything he gives us a big burly world, one that exists just beyond the edge of the world most of us like to think that we know. If you love fiction, the one name you must remember is Andrew F. Sullivan. Starting here and now, do not miss anything he writes.

Andrew F. Sullivan wields his prose swiftly, expertly, slicing away all soft flesh and precious angles to get to the hidden marrow of his characters unquiet lives and then, when all seems hopeless, twists the knife slightly toward a momentary tenderness that’s even more startling. All We Want is Everything is an unnerving, discomfiting, totally original debut.

Reading Sullivan’s visceral, understated prose is roughly equivalent to watching a train wreck–horrifying, yet compelling, at the same time. … Sullivan should be commended for his strong commitment to voice and his uncanny ability to plumb the depths of these characters. This is a bold and arresting debut.

The 20 stories in All We Want Is Everything are hard and unforgiving, dragging the reader bodily through a world in which factory machines mangle workers beyond repair and clouds of birds descend on a city, turning it into a toxic wasteland of filth and unbreathable air.

All We Want Is Everything is a slim book but it is jammed with stories that drip with guts, bodily emissions, and heartache, told by narrators who long for a real connection. The writing is a clean right hook that lands with precision. …It’s a startling debut by one of my new favourite writers whose promise is clear and future looks bright. Write his name down because hopefully he’s going to be a big deal.

This is certainly not a conventional look at Canada’s economic history or where it fits in the world today. That makes this book refreshing.

The collection lays bare all the obvious–and not so obvious–ways our system works to undermine the working class, collectively and individually. Yates explores the interlocking blocks of capitalist rule: racism, patriarchy, anti-communism, ingrained worthlessness. Sometimes they present themselves boldly but, for the most part, they emerge in real life more subtly, and rife with contradictions.

The beauty is that Yates’ historical writing about his own life covers events that he was part of, written so that as a reader, I felt I was there. The fictional accounts that he includes throughout the book are so believable that I had to go back through later to remind myself which parts he lived and which ones he created. The fiction is not created out of whole cloth but is permeated with characters and events present in his life.

Yates’ insightful new collection of autobiographical essays and short fiction, In and Out of the Working Class, describes how he made his own way back to the labor movement. That journey toward home began after he achieved, with some ambivalence, advanced degrees and upward mobility that many others have used to leave the world of blue-collar work far behind them.

[Yates] moves up and out, but not away, from the consciousness of people who labor for a living. Crucially, In and Out of the Working Class never sugarcoats the working class, even as Yates highlights a social and economic system that spawns their alienation and exploitation. This is a major theme of his book, a recurrent problem that Yates deals with by supporting and forming bonds of solidarity with labor unions.

It should be said … that Michael Yates’s collection is graced by some of the finest writing that you are likely to encounter from someone whose background is primarily in political and economic analysis. It is distinguished by his unique, plain-spoken voice shaped by growing up in a working class milieu, where pretensions of one sort or another were likely to earn you a bloody nose, as well as an obvious understanding of how to sustain the reader’s attention.

The reader is forced to bear witness to colonialism’s centuries-old damage on Canada’s First Nations people. Of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg ancestry, Simpson draws painful portraits of everyday life, many personal, which exhibit the hereditary nature of colonialism’s scars. Simpson traces these scars with a delicate finger, writing with a fragility punctuated by moments of anger and sadness. Her raw prose spills across the page in a tumble of complex thoughts and emotions.

Leanne Simpson is a masterful storyteller and an integral indigenous voice in modern literature. Her work over the years has eloquently and powerfully captured the unique experiences of the first peoples of Turtle Island, and Islands of Decolonial Love is no exception. With precise craft, this new collection explores the many complicated facets of the contemporary Indigenous struggle to maintain tradition in a rapidly changing environment. The use of Anishinaabe language and custom in the prose and poetry resonates loudly and invokes a great sense of pride. Meanwhile, the challenge of balancing urban and reserve life explored in the pieces is easily relatable and can provide a crucial window into the experience for non-Indigenous readers. The power of Simpson’s storytelling is already spectacular on the printed page, but her spoken word performance is stunningly monumental. The audio component of Islands of Decolonial Love is essential listening to truly experience the complexity and beauty of the many sentiments and ideas she expresses. Thanks to the work of some of the most cutting-edge musicians out there, her already crucial stories become audible masterpieces in song.

Leanne Simpson’s lovingly drawn characters work hard to preserve their innocence in a world where irony and cynicism would be easier. They spend a lot of time travelling: on land, on the water, through space and time–in cars, trucks, fishing boats, canoes, and in their minds; between bars, forests, reservations, curling rinks, kitchens, lakes and highways. These exquisitely rendered journeys become symbols for our desire to understand and never stop learning, no matter the cost. There is heartbreak here but also many moments of fleeting grace, and a wry humour that promises to keep us safe.

wasaeyaban (Anishinaabe)–the first light, just before dawn. I don’t think writers make up stories, stories run around looking for a writer to tell them (if they are any good) otherwise they tend to be trite in the telling. I am glad these stories found the delicate hand and steel-wired beautiful voice of Leanne Simpson to bring them alive. Leanne is a listener and she was fully awake when she listened at dawn to all these stories and committed them to these trees (right, that would be pages, even though pages are really trees) and birthed a marvelous collection of stories (that are also poems) to illuminate the Anishinaabe experience in a way that turns the light on inside the reader–not just any light, but dawn’s first light, the light that counts, the light that stories our very lives, makes us plan something completely different from the sticky mud of same ol’, same ol’. Islands of Decolonial Love is the sort of book I have been looking for all my life–the kind of book that is going to make me a good writer, a good listener, a good citizen–it is going to wake up everything that is brilliant in everyone that reads it.

As a lover of storytelling and literature, my tendency is to have deep emotional responses to whatever I am reading. Every so often, a book comes along that, as I delve deeper into the pages, is something like peering into a body of water and seeing the wonder of stars and ancestors reflected back in glorious undulation. Forgive the flowery simile, but that is exactly how I felt as I cradled Leanne Simpson’s latest book Islands of Decolonial Love. I say cradled, because I felt something close to reverence as I was drawn into each short story and poem.

Grammar Matters packs a lot of punch into its pocketbook size. For linguists, this book is a perfect response for every time you tell someone you’re a linguist and they start revealing their pet hates about English. It’s a book that promotes linguistics, explains the social significance of language and encourages reflection on our own prejudices. It should certainly be handed out to those who relished Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Ghomeshi has written a careful and intelligent book that teaches the reader a great deal about linguistics and about the English language. The book is a gem. — Lawrie Cherniack, Winnipeg Free PressIn a remarkably easy read, Ghomeshi guides us point by point through an analysis of the source of common language-biases and how they are woven into the very fabric of all of our social relationships. It’s not a far leap as the book unfolds to understand how language purism has become a refuge for types of biased thinking that people are now socially prohibited from expressing. Ghomeshi educates, entertains, and invites us all to deconstruct ourselves and our relationship with language.

Ghomeshi argues persuasively that fluidity in language usage, understanding of nuance and the natural evolution of language–communication in a state of dynamism–is preferable to language dictated by prescriptivists. Her book is informative, interesting and should appeal to a wide range of readers.

I am whole-heartedly in favour of Ghomeshi’s fascinating, accessible and well-organized argument. Her book is a call for liberation from the inherent judgments of prescriptivism; such self-reflection should be encouraged.

Reading Gertude Unmanageable is like watching an episode of Star Trek written by an author who has had the protective sheath removed from her nerve endings.

Dancing On Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence And A New Emergence is a book that weaves many issues together but helps readers understand that in order for reconciliation to be meaningful to Indigenous people, we need to interpret it broadly and support Indigenous nations by regenerating everything that residential schools attacked and attempted to obliterate. This book provides a valuable perspective on the struggles of Indigenous peoples but also highlights the rich and vibrant ways in which Indigenous people continue to engage themselves.

Coming to it as someone who is fairly knowledgeable about the crisis due to the globalization of food, I was amazed to find nothing not here that I already knew — and a whole lot more that I didn’t.

This important book will appeal to readers of both local and national Canadian history as well as to those with an interest in sustainability. Both subjects are presented from an Indigenous perspective still largely missing from mainstream publications. Activists involved in environmental and First Nations causes will find much to learn from and be inspired by.

Administrators and politicians should read this book. I fear some of them may dismiss it as outdated idealism, but that would be a grave mistake. Angus concedes that some changes to the sector may be irreversible, but emphasises that we must seek to ensure that the university never loses its informing humanist tradition. It is easier said than done, but well worth struggling for.

Both perplexing and delightful, Jeanne Randolph’s writing is rooted in eclectic research and a deeply fertile imagination… Funny, smart, and engaging, Randolph spins a kaleidoscope of vignettes of Vegas and intricately wrought meditations on materialist culture… Steeped in history, theology, and Freudian psychoanalysis, Shopping Cart Pantheism is intellectual but accessible, and a whole lot of fun.

John Samson’s smart, soulful music has saved my life so many times. He’s the prairie poet voice of my generation and also of my kids.

John Samson’s lyrics move me with their detail and empathy. He has an ability to explain feelings we’ve all had but couldn’t verbalize. His songs are beautiful, brutal, honest and comforting, all at the same time.

John K. Samson is fluent in the inexpressible. Find him on the page or find him in the ether — just find him.

Beginning with a quote from Jack London, Christine Fellows sets the tone: this will be an exploration of the Canadian North, of “the infinite peace of a brooding land.” Burning Daylight, the singer-songwriter’s first poetry collection, flows from city highways to the Northwest Passage, collecting history (the Klondike Gold Rush and DEW Line both make an appearance) as it goes. At once handsome and dangerous, Fellows’ landscapes invade the senses–they demand attention. Determined birds outside windows and fearful cancers growing in bodies blur the boundaries of nature. The book is accompanied by a full-length album of the same name, full of stripped-down piano and vocals reminiscent of a Northern Cat Power. In this light, it’s easy to treat Burning Daylight as a multimedia project, and this is reflected in the collection’s careful design. This book is a confection, all pale greens and pinks and delicate collages by Alicia Smith. Despite the wintry harshness, Fellows has crafted something subtly beautiful.

Through his embrace of far-ranging poetic modalities and styles, a wealth of African Canadian and African American historical references, and dazzlingly original experiments in conjuring sound and music from and upon the static page, Kaie Kellough succeeds in creating a poetry collection that indeed functions as “both written word and musical score,” both diagram of Africa’s recent influence on literary and auditory culture in the Americas and portal to what a further hybridized, border-resistant artistic and political future very likely resembles.

How does a self-described “word-sound systemizer” convey the syncopations of his “bop inflected vox” onto a printed page? Montrealer Kaie Kellough’s second collection, true to its title Maple Leaf Rag after the Scott Joplin composition, does just that and then some.

…a rollicking guided tour of an “other” Canada, a black diasporic, jazzy-bluesy rumination on notions of place and identity in this 21st century. Whether commenting on encounters of racism in Calgary schoolyards or delivering brief lessons on the secret history of Canadian Blacks in B.C., Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, or ruminating on farther-flung locales like Harlem, New Orleans and the U.K., Kellough’s poems remain rooted in personal experience, with a voice that’s sometimes acerbic, often ironic, occasionally angry, but always compassionate, a voice which carries a high level of commitment to the craft of the poet.

These classy poems spring into motion like a jazzy urban pop-up book with its own musical score. Their craftsmanship recalls an age when attention to detail was an artisan’s signature, imagery fully-awake and precise by smooth linguistic sleight-of-hand. How supplely Kellough’s poems reflect the contours of the cultural landscapes they inhabit will be well borne out by time. Read these poems aloud–or better yet, go hear Kaie read them.

Kaie Kellough spells out the 21st century inheritance of multiple movements: the engaged pedigree of dub poetry, the identity politics-infused lyric, and the advancement of a so-called “spoken word” that bends–synesthetically–back to the page in concrete form. It is our luck that Kellough’s remarkable book-length experiment in form and social criticism occurs on this terrain. And it is a challenge that Canada, the black diaspora, and all followers of progressive poetics must meet. “News that stays new”? Kellough’s verse is New School that will stay New School.

The possibility of maternal empowerment introduced by Adrienne Rich in Of Woman Born has been realized. We no longer have to wish for a model, a narrative, or theory of such; its power and vision is all here in Green’s tour de force on feminist mothering.

Green’s work encourages a powerful revisioning of motherhood, from restrictive institution to a site of autonomy and empowerment that is worthy of our continued study and discussion.

There’s an incredible power behind Maracle’s voice, which demands to be heard.

Lee Maracle is one of our greatest gifts. Always smart, smooth and full of sly smiles, Maracle’s latest, Talking to the Diaspora is a beautiful collection of thoughtful, rhythmic gems. Poetry is so lucky to have her back again.

Manitoba’s Kino-nda-niimi Collective has created an invaluable resource with the recently-published book, (em>The Winter We Danced (ARP books, Winnipeg). This is a treasure trove of photos, poems, stories and essays, in all about 120 entries that capture the emotions and ideas of indigenous pride and resistance that fuel the Idle No More movement.

This collection is an important archive of all the effort toward Indigenous freedom that has been achieved so far and an impassioned vision of a resilient Indigenous future. It comes at a crucial moment to provide reflection and stoke the fires of further action. Indeed, simply purchasing the book helps further important work as all proceeds from The Winter We Danced go to the Native Youth Sexual Health Network.

They Came From Within is a revelatory and informative study of a previously underexplored area of horror history.

Caelum Vatnsdal not only loves horrow movies, he’s fond of them. Love can be blind, but fond sees both the potential and the flaws. Fond enjoys, and that enjoyment is evident in every world of They Came From Within. Enjoyment and enthusiasm and a sense of humour that is, like all good humour, as truthful as it is funny… This Canadian book is damn good.

The best thing about The Listener is its art. I’m not exactly sure how writer/artist David Lester achieved its effect, maybe some combination of pen for outlines and brush for the smeary shading? In any case, the pages all look like the rough studies a serious artist might draw when preparing a painting or a sculpture, and that fits perfectly with the framing story, which follows an artist making such drawings.

Lester’s drawing is wonderfully expressive and the book is an intense and well-structured look at a forgotten pivotal moment in history that uses the medium of comics to revisit that time and propose an antidote to generalized political malaise and anomie. In this sense the book is a fitting tribute to the work of Lester’s cartooning precursors who fought the good fight in the 1930s, as well as a modern call to arms.

Art Spiegelman has already covered the tragedies and travails of that epic conflict in his deeply personal and poignant graphic novel, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. But, Lester’s take on the story is slightly different. Just as Spiegelman juxtaposes his contemporary life and his father’s struggles during the Holocaust, Lester similarly contrasts the past and present. Only, The Listener seems more like a political treatise than a personal memoir.

The Listener is a good book for anyone who would be classified as either a history buff, an art buff, or a basic comic/graphic novel fan (unless they require the inclusion of spandex or rayon).

As for Lester’s art, it sweeps across the pages, changing as if it is alive with his thoughts.

Seven years in the making, The Listener is David Lester’s (Mecca Normal) epic graphic novel that blends historical fiction, art, and politics. The result is a dark, black-and-white, forward work that will certainly challenge its reader.

Filled with soul grabbing poetry, academic and personal essays, beautiful artwork, a short story and a play, Simpson, Ladner, and their 33 co-writers — including well-known contributors such as Ellen Gabriel (who stood in the front lines at Oka), and respected writer and professor Patricia Montour — provide educational pieces about the events of the standoff. They also take a stance on paper by sharing new issues that have come since Oka, and how it influenced a new generation of activists who seek justice in similar battles in their own territories.

Leanne Simpson and Kiera Ladner’s new edited collection, This is an Honour Song, seeks to recognize the significance of the events at Kanehsatà:ke for Indigenous peoples, as well as for Canada. The collection does not focus on rehashing the details of events at the pines (a number of good books already exist in this regard), but explores the broader resonance and echoes of the Kanien’kehaka resistance.

I am eternally grateful to Kiera and Leanne for their efforts in putting together this wonderful collection of articles, which record the sentiments and reactions of individuals about our actions during 1990. It will allow Kanehsatà:kehró:non to enjoy their messages for generations to come.

There are many lessons that resulted from the events at Kanehsatà:ke and many of these lessons are reflected by the amazing authors in this book. Nia:wen to our “word warriors” for continuing the “wake up call.”

Somewhere Else is a beautiful and powerfully affecting book. I love Jan Braun’s writing and I absolutely admire her courage and grace.

These new poems by Janet Rogers are a straight shot metaphysical call to action in the wake of historical trauma, police violence, shameful treatment of our body Earth. They stand as urgent witness, clear talk in the face of colonized law built on lies. Rogers reminds us to pay attention, to listen. These words can heal. – Joy Harjo, Mvskoke Nation, poet and musician To give Rogers’ poems a form, a body, I would have to name them blackbird, formidable winged creatures who’ve chosen the highest branch and whose eyes allow us the vision we so often cannot see ourselves. I’m honoured to be called into this ceremony, sung awake by her prayers. Praise for Totem Poles and Railroads – Gregory Scotfield, author of Witness, I amJanet Rogers doesn’t pull any punches. All of the stinging and difficult realities of colonialism are confronted head-on and with ferocity. Rogers is here to disrupt these white landscapes. Rogers is here to call out all of the bullshit both past and present. Totem Poles and Railroads is burning to be read. – Jordan Abel, Nisga’s Nation, author of Injun

Roewan Crowe’s debut long poem Quivering Land, wrangles up violence and trauma in the lasso of a queer Western. Juxtaposed with visual artist Paul Robles’ gorgeous paper-cut images of birds, guns, cowboy hats, and horses, these poems conjure memory, old Hollywood westerns, devastation, and the colonization of the west. Crowe introduces the poetic work within a feminist framework with three epigraphs by literary legends Adrienne Rich, Nicole Brassard, and Marguerite Duras. In the collections first poem, “Her Western Landscape,” she introduces Clem, who is sitting in the house her father built on the edge of town, and carries us through the narritive of ,em>Quivering Land.. Within a queer lens, Crowe raises important questions of gender, sexuality, and the various shards of identity. She asks what are the lines drawn on land, the markings on bodies, and brutality of survival. Where language quivers, its the lines between the lines; the landscape of Crowe’s poetry that distills memory, meaning and loss. Quivering Land captures the endless shadows a western sunset truly casts. – Shannon Webb-Campbell for the Telegraph journal

At its core, Revolutionary Traveller tries to make sense of the path taken by liberation movements in Southern Africa from the perspective of one swept up in their momentum. It is both sobering and literating to read a personal account of such large political transformations that considers the role an individual can play while acknowledging the greater role of class and national forces. — Chris Webb, Canadian Dimension

A witty, genre-bending narrative that joyfully combines social satire, cultural criticism and off-beat humour. Think of A Modest Proposal narrated by a woman who visits Las Vegas armed only with “an active subconscious and lots of nap time.”

Angela Hibbs’ third book of poetry invites us to indugle in pleasures of the flesh, to give in to fierce passions. And what better place to start than with these poems? Nervy, sensual, and slick, Sin Eater is Hibbs’ most accomplished book yet. I’m already tempted to read it again. – Paul Vermeersch

May 28, 2019, by Ramisha Farooq

From the beginning, Fox has known exactly how she’s going to die. It’s like a dark shadow that follows her around, a haunting vision that she makes no attempt to escape.

Author Jennifer Isle Black’s debut novel couples this literary structure with uniquely dark prose to tell the story of a young student activist who must deal with the aftermath of a violent act carried out by one of her comrades. When Fox’s friend, Mink, detonates an explosive beneath the University of Manitoba’s Abbott College, Fox struggles with how to cope. You can feel the panic, the pain, and the trauma in her thoughts. She’s unsure of how to come face to face with Mink’s act, treading the line between forgiveness and confrontation. [Read the review at Broken Pencil]

In gorgeously evocative prose, Cooper depicts and makes heartbreakingly palpable the evolution of imperfect lives. Her characters, full of sharp desires they can’t outrun, seeking connection and solace at almost any cost, remind us of what it is to be human, frail, even blind. Cooper is a writer of extraordinary gifts. – Kelli Deeth, author of The Other Side of Youth“The best lies, she believes, are close to truth.” This line from Sally Cooper’s story collection, Smells Like Heaven, captures the feeling of quest in Cooper’s characters as they set out and sometimes return to home in a small town, exploring love, friendship, and the creation of new families. This collection is deeply felt by a writer who dares tell fiction’s truth. -Kim Echlin, author of Under the Visable LifeSally Cooper’s stories hold a strange beauty and offer canny wisdom about life’s injustices and mercies as they twist and untwist the kinks of linked lives. – Catherine Bush, author of Accusation

Leanne Simpson’s Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back is a beautifully crafted clarion call specifically directed to the Nishnaabeg Nation and the Mississauga Ojibway, the original inhabitants of the Kawarthas. Her new work is a blending of wisdom teachings from the Elders, stories that flow from myth and the oral tradition, illuminations of heart-knowledge (the Debwewin “truth”), studies on the Nishnaabeg language and stages of life, and solidresearch interspersed with brilliant observation.

Sherman’s Dishonour The Crown is an impassioned description of one community’s unfinished battle. It is also an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the nuclear component of Ontario’s new Green Energy Act and should be read by anyone with an investment in our shared future.

The absolute strength of this book is that it offers a female visual perspective on the years 1880 to 1920. It focuses on four individuals from a time when very few women, let alone the working-class women represented here, were able to gain access to the means of producing photographic images. That alone would make the book unique, but Susan Close places these photos in a social frame. — Don Bouzek, Le Travail

Gertrude Unmanageable is an odd duck. And so is Gertrude Unmanageable herself, the eponymous heroine of Deborah Schnitzer’s debut novel. Though it confuses and frustrates at moments, Gertrude is ultimately a heartwarming glimpse into the interior lives of characters plunged into an unanticipated and otherworldly situation.

[An] acute and revealing examination of the economic difficulties facing the American empire. – Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Professor of Politics, University of California, Santa CruzIndispensable for students of international polical economy and a must for political activists. – Professor Elmar Altvater, Department of Political Science, Free University, Berlin

A more incendiary writer–or a more sensationalist publisher–might have titled this book Grammar Gurus Are Bigots. But Jila Ghomeshi is not an attack dog; she is a moderate-toned professor of linguistics. Nonetheless, her main theme is clear: abhorrence of non-standard grammar is a form of prejudice with no basis in reason, experience, or fact.

A compelling story of how the Mulroney government bent the law to spare a Canadian billionaire family hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, and how a gutsy citizen movement almost succeeded in making them pay. Provocative and well-told, How to Tax a Billionaire raises some powerful questions about the nature of Canadian democracy. – Linda McQuaig, author of Shooting the Hippo and Behind Closed Doors

Todd Gordon’s new book provides a compelling case that Canada is an imperialist country in its own right. His factual presentation of the matter will reinforce what is already a growing perception among Canadians. … Gordon argues that Canadian imperialism directed against Indigenous people within Canada is ongoing and central to the nature of Canadian capitalism. The book is an important advance over previous explicit characterizations of Canada as an imperialist state that did not develop this side of the analysis.

In and Out of the Working Class joins a growing field of what might be dubbed ‘working class studies,’ an academic subgenre that explicitly privileges studying class as an experience rather than a position in a class structure or set of class relations. But it doesn’t quite fit in because Yates refuses to accept such a dichotomy. Any number of contributions from this book would make a great addition to a class reading list, or just good reading for the general public or activist interested in the working class.

Indianland is a woman who steps deeper, digs deeper concedes nothing of her being. – Waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy

How many lives, Leanne Simpson, have you lived to create this most incredible collection? Astounding storytelling. Wondrous prose. Islands of Decolonial Love is a constellation of galaxies that I never want to leave. Wow!

How – and to ask the more urgent question, why – has Guy Maddin created his handmade, toylike cinema of delirium? Those of us who have been rapt before his pictures – those magical instruments for converting antiquarianism into novelty, irony candor, decadence into innocence – will be grateful for this insider’s account of his life and career. which Caelum Vatnsdal has composed with a random magniloquence well suited to its subject. – Stuart Klawans, former film critic for The Nation, and author of Film Folies: The Cinema Out of OrderHere’s the Guy Maddin paradox: In any other country but Canada he’d be a national treasure, but what other country but Canada could possibly have produced his particular genius? It’s the kind of thing one wonders while gazing upon his awesome weirdness. – Geoff Pevere, film critic for The Toronto Star and co-author of Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey

Cometbus’ writing is sharply original in its stark nostalgia. Nothing is sentimental, but everything is familiar.–CV2

Let Them Eat Junk stands high above the current crop of food politics books. It identifies capitalism and how it structures every aspect of food production and consumption: for that it’s worth a hundred 100 Mile Diets.

…it should still be catalogued in every provincial and university library. The publication of this book clearly accentuates that there exists in the Native community an active and articulate group of writers who will continue to press ahead with the First Nations agenda.

Ian Angus’s work is a courageous and eye-opening reflection of the present condition of universities in North America. …What Angus has crafted is a work that not only concerns those directly involved in academic life, but also the general public.

In 1995, senior members of the Conservative government of Manitoba perpetrated one of the most heinous political crimes in Canadian history. They tried to rig an entire election. Doug Smith has done a masterful job with his highly readable, sometimes even humorous and always cogent book. It should serve as a warning to politicians of all stripes who come to believe in their divine right to rule.” – Frances Russell, Winnipeg Free Press Columnist

The People’s Citizenship Guide is the work of a team of contributors from across the country, handsomely produced and effectively illustrated. In appealing for an informed, engaged and critical citizenship, this guide also finds room to discuss the place of cultural activism as a source of alternative identities pointing to the significant role of writers, artists, and performers in telling the Canadian story.

A World To Win is a very strong collection of essays that is timely and urgent; I recommend its publication in the strongest possible terms. The collection covers an impressive range of ground providing insightful analyses of several key social justice social movements defining the political landscape of the left in Canada today. – Dr. Sourayan Mookerjea, Department of Sociology University of Alberta

In Aboriginal Rights Are Not Human Rights, Peter Kulchyski argues that resolutions such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples produce a “conceptual confusion” between human rights and Aboriginal rights. Whereas human rights developed in conjunction with the Western state and protect purportedly universal human characteristics, Aboriginal rights originate in Aboriginal Peoples’ struggles over land and to protect traditional cultural practices. When the United Nations or Amnesty International fail to distinguish between Aboriginal and human rights, they ignore the concerns of Aboriginal Peoples such as self-determination. The book addresses three distinct features of Aboriginal rights: cultural traditions; struggles with state over land; and rights in practice. – Peter Kulchyski

It’s time to expand public awareness about how the right to know is being deliberately undermined, often with smug condescension, in ways that centralize power through the control of information. It’s time for a thoughtful national debate on the legislative mechanisms designed to empower us all to seek answers. That’s why this book matters.–Robert Cribb, Toronto Star

There’s a mantra, for crafting short fiction, which claims “a good short story opens on a scene in progress, and never really ends.” A short story is a snapshot of a life in progress, focused on a pivotal moment in the character’s life. Sullivan embodies this mantra, and his snapshots are more like dark portraits of society’s underbelly; its most sinister desires and unspoken realities. From his catchy opening lines to his killer closing lines, there’s not a wasted word on the pages of this book, and you will, more than once, be picking your jaw up off your lap.

True to its title, David McNally’s book teaches us to read the politics of our times with an optimism of both the intellect and the heart. It offers reasons for hope based on worldwide struggles for social justice and shows us the many links of resistence that join us across the world. Another World Is Possible builds bridges from where we stand now to another, better world. – Himani Bannerji Author of Dark Side of the Nation and Returning the Gaze: Essays on Racism, Feminism and Politics

The touchstone of truth in a fictional world is a surprise. When the least expected things seem inevitable and contrived, the reader has shared the most generous of all seductions. Alissa York cares fiercely for the integrity of her characters and never intrudes herself upon them, or us. These are truly original stories, charged with the luminous detail which makes us see life afresh. – Séan Virgo

It’s difficult not to get angry when reading Aquaduct. Perry’s frustration is palpable in the first chapter, and as the story progresses, it’s hard for the reader to not become more incredulous-the injustice is truly unmistakeable. However Perry does a phenomenal job of trying the hard history of Shoal Lake’s indigenous people into the hopeful future of tomorrow. -Maria Siassina

…once again shows Dempsey’s and Millan’s wit as they jab holes in the dominant culture, pointing out how much it has remained predominantly male and heterosexist.

Through the lens of Emma Healey’s poetry the narratives by which Canadian identity has been (and continues to be) formed are re-envisioned in powerful and at times poignant poems of profound personal and political import.

For years now Christine Fellows has been breaking my heart with darkness and sewing it back up with light. Her lyrics have long rewarded close listening; it was only a matter of time before her poetic intelligence found its way to the page. If that wasn’t enough, we have Alicia Smith’s haunting artworks, an inspired accompaniment to the text. Simply put, Burning Daylight is a marvel. Read, look and listen, people. Then read again.

For centuries workers have paid the ultimate price – their health – so that corporations could be productive, competitive and profitable. Consulted to Death presents a vivid sketch of the struggles workers and unions have waged to ensure that workers return home healthy and safe at the end of the workday. It provides an excellent context for our present struggles in health and safety, and is an inspiring read. – Lynn Bueckert, Director, Occupational Health and Safety, British Columbia Federation of LabourThis lucid and compelling book should make everyone who is concerned about workers’ health and safety pause and rethink the strategies they have been pursuing. Smith does not pretend to provide all the answers, but he poses the questions that must be addressed if we are to advance the struggle for healthier, more democratic workplaces in the twenty-first century. – Eric Tucker, Osgoode Hall Law School

Contest is a joy. When Genosko takes us along to the ring, the arena or the pool his passion for the games is right there. A given in a sports book, maybe – but the joy comes when he leaps from boxing to philosophy, from the blueline to nationhood. I loved it. – David Gutnick, CBC RadioWith his engaging brand of sharp intelligence and infectious wit, Gary Genosko stakes a valid claim for sports writers in the realm of cultural theorists. Whether he’s taking on the malevolent cuteness of Olympic gymnastics, or taking on task pesudo-intellectual readings of SI’s Swimsuit Issue, Genosko is one writer who’s not going to pipe down (as so he aptly puts it) while the dumb inherit the earth – Teri Bostian, Senior Editor, SportsJones.comA sinewy romp through the atatomy of sports; a fulfulling read for discerning sporting minds.

Canada Has An Anti-Blackness Problem

From national origin myths to austerity policies, racism permeates the fabric of the world’s ‘friendliest’ nation, argues Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi in their work, BlackLife.

By Rhea Rollman

While chapters of Black Lives Matter exist across Canada, it is Toronto that, for many, has come to be associated with the Canadian iteration of the movement. Established in 2014, the Toronto chapter roared into national prominence in July of 2016 when its activists brought the city’s annual Pride Parade (one of the world’s largest) to a halt with a sit-down protest demanding, among other things, funding for queer black youth groups, greater presence of transwomen and Indigenous persons in Toronto Pride leadership, and removal of police from the Parade. [Read the review on Popmatters]

The Canadian state and Black disregard

Review of BlackLife: Post-BLM and the Struggle for Freedom

By Phillip Dwight Morgan 

In BlackLife: Post BLM and the Struggle for Freedom, Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi want to change how readers think about Black Canadians. The authors examine Toronto between 1992 and 2005 as a window into Black life. Here, Walcott and Abdillahi coin the term “BlackLife,” arguing that “living Black makes BlackLife inextricable from the mark of its flesh, both historically and in our current time.” Each chapter of BlackLife carefully weaves together analyses of history, philosophy, policy, art, and activism to create a fuller picture of Black Canadian existence. [Read the review at Briarpatch]

It’s time to re-think what it means to be Black in Canada

In the book BlackLife, authors Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi argue that incremental efforts to combat anti-Black racism won’t work

By Neil Price

In BlackLife: Post-BLM And The Struggle For Freedom (ARP Books, $15), authors Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi argue for the need to re-think what it means to be Black in Canada. In their examination of how white supremacy marginalizes and ultimately erases Black presences in areas as varied as literature, music, immigration, mental health and public policy, the authors call for new forms of Black activism that abandon accommodationist and ineffectual approaches of the past. [Read the review on NOW]

Kaie Kellough – Montreal’s Word-Sound Systemizer and the Voices of the City

By Sara Spike

Accordéon is a smart experimental novel with a timely message. Our narrator is an anonymous itinerant who stands downtown, at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Mathieu Streets, delivering monologues mostly ignored by passersby. Having come to the attention of the ominous Ministry of Culture, which seeks to catalogue and thereby shape and control Quebec culture, the narrator has been kidnapped and their monologues have become testimony about the state of Quebec society. What readers have before them is a transcript, sporadically annotated by three ministry agents, each of whom has their own ideas about national culture. [Read the review at MRB]