Dreaming Home: Toronto Launch!

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Join us in Toronto for the launch of Lucian Childs‘s debut, Dreaming Home! Lucian will be reading from his new book, followed by a Q&A and book signing. The launch will take place at Queen Books on Thursday, June 1 at 6PM ET.

Order your copy of Dreaming Home here!

ABOUT DREAMING HOME

A queer coming-of-age—and coming-to-terms—follows the after-effects of betrayal and poignantly explores the ways we search for home.

When a sister’s casual act of betrayal awakens their father’s demons—ones spawned by his time in Vietnamese POW camps—the effects of the ensuing violence against her brother ripple out over the course of forty years, from Lubbock, to San Francisco, to Fort Lauderdale. Swept up in this arc, the members of this family and their loved ones tell their tales. A queer coming-of-age, and coming-to-terms, and a poignant exploration of all the ways we search for home, Dreaming Home is the unforgettable story of the fragmenting of an American family.

ABOUT LUCIAN CHILDS

Lucian Childs has been a Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. He is a co-editor of Lambda Literary finalist Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry. Born in Dallas, Texas, he has lived in Toronto, Ontario, for fifteen years, since 2015 on a permanent basis.

Steven Heighton Memorial Event: Toronto

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Join us in remembering the late Steven Heighton. The memorial event will take place at Queen Books in Toronto on Thursday, May 18 at 7PM ET.

More details TBA.

Order your copy of Steven’s posthumous collection, Instructions for the Drowning, here.

Check out Steven’s previous work, Reaching Mithymna, here.

ABOUT STEVEN HEIGHTON

Steven Heighton (1961–2022) was a writer and musician. His nineteen previous books include the novels Afterlands, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and the bestselling The Shadow Boxer; the Writers’ Trust Hilary Weston Prize finalist memoir Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos; and The Waking Comes Late, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

ABOUT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

“To say Heighton is an immensely talented writer is true enough but insufficient … As good a writer as Canada has ever produced.”—National Post

A man recalls his father’s advice on how to save a drowning person, but struggles when the time comes to use it. A wife’s good deed leaves a couple vulnerable at the moment when they’re most in need of security—the birth of their first child. Newly in love, a man preoccupied by accounts of freak accidents is befallen by one himself. In stories about love and fear, idealisms and illusions, failures of muscle and mind and all the ways we try to care for one another, Steven Heighton’s Instructions for the Drowning is an indelible last collection by a writer working at the height of his powers.

Deborah Dundas at Ottawa Writers Fest

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Join Deborah Dundas (On Class) at Ottawa Writers Fest! The event will take place on Friday, May 3 at 6PM ET.

More details TBA.

Order your copy of On Class here!

ABOUT ON CLASS

Deborah Dundas is a journalist who grew up poor and almost didn’t make it to university. In On Class, she talks to writers, activists, those who work with the poor and those who are poor about what happens when we don’t talk about poverty or class—and what will happen when we do.

Stories about poor people are rarely written by the poor—and when they are written they tend to fit into a hero narrative. Through hard work, smarts, and temerity, the hero pulls themselves up by their bootstraps in a narrative that simply provides an easy exception: look, we don’t have to give you more, you just have to work harder. On Class is an exploration of the ways we talk about class: of who tells the stories and who doesn’t, and why that has to change. It asks the question: What don’t we talk about when we don’t talk about class? We don’t talk about luck, or privilege, or entitlement. We don’t talk about the trauma that goes along with being poor.

ABOUT DEBORAH DUNDAS

Deborah Dundas grew up poor in the west end of Toronto. She is now a writer and journalist, has worked as a television producer and is currently an editor at the Toronto Star. Her work has appeared in numerous publications in Canada, the UK and Ireland including Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, The Belfast Telegraph and The Sunday Independent. She attended York University for English and Political Science and has an MFA in Creative Non-fiction from the University of King’s College. She lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter and their loving, grumpy cat Jumper.

Steven Heighton Remembered

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On this Sunday afternoon you will get to know Steven Heighton: the thoughtful writer, poet, musician and spontaneous giver who passed away in April 2022. Rhonda Douglas, along with Steven’s friends and fellow authors Angie Abdou, Wayne Grady and Dave O’Meara, will steer a conversation about this gifted creative architect of language and story.

Steven’s legacy endures through his poems, novels, short stories, memoir and songs, and in the hearts and memories of those he touched through his capacity to love, listen and empathize. Personal tributes will be given by Ginger Pharand, Steven’s editor and life partner, and Hugh Christopher Brown, his friend and music producer. Also a musical retrospective, Chris and Ginger will perform some of Steve’s songs from his 2021 album The Devil’s Share, along with newer works soon to be produced.

The memorial will take place at the Motel Chelsea on Sunday, May 28 at 4PM, with tickets available beginning April 4.

More details here.

Order your copy of Steven’s posthumous collection, Instructions for the Drowning, here.

Check out Steven’s previous work, Reaching Mithymna, here.

ABOUT STEVEN HEIGHTON

Steven Heighton (1961–2022) was a writer and musician. His nineteen previous books include the novels Afterlands, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and the bestselling The Shadow Boxer; the Writers’ Trust Hilary Weston Prize finalist memoir Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos; and The Waking Comes Late, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

ABOUT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

“To say Heighton is an immensely talented writer is true enough but insufficient … As good a writer as Canada has ever produced.”—National Post

A man recalls his father’s advice on how to save a drowning person, but struggles when the time comes to use it. A wife’s good deed leaves a couple vulnerable at the moment when they’re most in need of security—the birth of their first child. Newly in love, a man preoccupied by accounts of freak accidents is befallen by one himself. In stories about love and fear, idealisms and illusions, failures of muscle and mind and all the ways we try to care for one another, Steven Heighton’s Instructions for the Drowning is an indelible last collection by a writer working at the height of his powers.

Best Canadian Stories 2023: East Coast Event!

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Join us in Fredericton at the Broken Record Music Room to celebrate Best Canadian Stories 2023! Editor Mark Anthony Jarman will host the event which will include readings from several contributors. The event will take place on Tuesday, April 25 at 7PM AT.

Grab your copy of Best Canadian Stories 2023 here!

Check out the rest of the Best Canadian series here!

ABOUT BEST CANADIAN STORIES 2023

Selected by editor Mark Anthony Jarman, the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Stories showcases the best Canadian fiction writing published in 2021.

A collection that takes us into a firey near-future and a notorious feminist’s personal past, from a near-drowning to a fake breakdown, through mothers who fail us to crummy jobs, to thieves, to grief, to revenge with a bottle of tabasco sauce. With work by established practitioners alongside that of lesser-known writers, this year’s Best Canadian Stories shows how the short form can evoke the experience of a person on the brink. Including 2023 Metcalf-Rooke Award winner Caroline Adderson, and featuring, in tribute, two stories by the late Steven Heighton, this year’s collection draws together beloved Canadian practitioners of the form and thrilling new voices to continue not only a series, but a legacy in Canadian letters.

ABOUT MARK ANTHONY JARMAN

Mark Anthony Jarman is the author of Touch Anywhere to Begin, Czech Techno, Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, 19 Knives, and the travel book Ireland’s Eye. He has published fiction and creative nonfiction in Europe, India, and North America. Jarman is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a fiction editor for The Fiddlehead literary journal in Canada.

All Things Move: Windsor Launch!

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Join us in Windsor for the launch of Jeannie Marshall’s All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel! The launch will take place on Friday, April 28.

More details TBA.

Grab your copy of All Things Move here!

ABOUT ALL THINGS MOVE

A deeply personal search for meaning in Michelangelo’s frescoes—and an impassioned defence of the role of art in a fractured age.

What do we hope to get out of seeing a famous piece of art? Jeannie Marshall asked that question of herself when she started visiting the Sistine Chapel frescoes. She wanted to understand their meaning and context—but in the process, she also found what she didn’t know she was looking for.

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel tells the story of Marshall’s relationship with one of our most cherished artworks. Interwoven with the history of its making and the Rome of today, it’s an exploration of the past in the present, the street in the museum, and the way a work of art can both terrify and alchemize the soul. An impassioned defence of the role of art in a fractured age, All Things Move is a quietly sublime meditation on how our lives can be changed by art, if only we learn to look.

ABOUT JEANNIE MARSHALL 

Jeannie Marshall is a writer who has been living in Italy with her family since 2002. A nonfiction author, journalist, and former staff features writer at the National Post in Toronto, she contributes articles to Maclean’s and the Walrus and has published literary nonfiction in The Common, the Literary Review of Canada, Brick, and elsewhere.

Pascal’s Fire: Montreal Launch!

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Join us for the launch of Kristina Bresnen‘s debut poetry collection, Pascal’s Fire! Kristina will be reading from the collection, followed by a Q&A and book signing. The launch will take place at De Stiil Booksellers on Thursday, April 27 at 7PM.

Get your copy of Pascal’s Fire here!

ABOUT PASCAL’S FIRE

An unnamed speaker navigates a world where God comes in the shape of a cardinal, speaks in the voice of Georgia O’Keeffe, and paints the desert with bones.

Driven by sound, heartbreak, and the baffling limits and possibilities of language, a nameless speaker sets out into a dream-like wilderness where lyric and narrative meet, time dissolves, and figures as various as Moses, the apostle Paul, Virginia Woolf, Blaise Pascal, and Zora Neale Hurston gather in a colloquy. Born from a region of preachers and stuttering prophets, from the gift of tongues and psalms of lament and praise, Pascal’s Fire negotiates the wonder of the unknown and the tension of belief and confronts the vulnerability of speech where it brushes up against death and grief, wind and desert heat, unquenchable thirst and the steady sound of an IV drip.

ABOUT KRISTINA BRESNEN

Kristina Bresnen has published poems in Canada and the US. She is from Montreal and currently lives in Vancouver.

Biblioasis Spring Books Launch!

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You are invited to join Biblioasis Publishing at Supermarket Bar Toronto to celebrate the launch some of our spring 2023 books: On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche, Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton, Way to Go by Richard Sanger, Pascal’s Fire by Kristina Bresnen, Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs, On Class by Deborah Dundas and All Things Move by Jeannie Marshall.

This exciting multi-book event will take place on Wednesday, April 26 at 7PM ET. RSVP on Facebook here!

Check out On Writing and Failure here!

Check out Instructions for the Drowning here!

Check out Way to Go here!

Check out Pascal’s Fire here!

Check out Dreaming Home here!

Check out On Class here!

Check out All Things Move here!

All Things Move: Rome Launch

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All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by Jeannie Marshall will be launching in Rome at Almost Corner Bookshop! Jeannie will be reading and discussing the book on Monday, April 3 at 6:30PM CEST.

More details here.

Pick up your copy of All Things Move here!

ABOUT ALL THINGS MOVE

A deeply personal search for meaning in Michelangelo’s frescoes—and an impassioned defence of the role of art in a fractured age.

What do we hope to get out of seeing a famous piece of art? Jeannie Marshall asked that question of herself when she started visiting the Sistine Chapel frescoes. She wanted to understand their meaning and context—but in the process, she also found what she didn’t know she was looking for.

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel tells the story of Marshall’s relationship with one of our most cherished artworks. Interwoven with the history of its making and the Rome of today, it’s an exploration of the past in the present, the street in the museum, and the way a work of art can both terrify and alchemize the soul. An impassioned defence of the role of art in a fractured age, All Things Move is a quietly sublime meditation on how our lives can be changed by art, if only we learn to look.

ABOUT JEANNIE MARSHALL 

Jeannie Marshall is a writer who has been living in Italy with her family since 2002. A nonfiction author, journalist, and former staff features writer at the National Post in Toronto, she contributes articles to Maclean’s and the Walrus and has published literary nonfiction in The Common, the Literary Review of Canada, Brick, and elsewhere.

Clark Blaise at Imagination Festival

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Join author Clark Blaise at the Imagination Festival, where he will be discussing his recent book This Time, That Place with host Laura Rohard! The event will take place at the Morrin Centre on Saturday, April 15 at 5:30PM ET.

Tickets and details here.

Order Clark’s books now at La Maison Anglaise and the Festival will receive 30% of the sale! Click here.

Or, get your copy of This Time, That Place from Biblioasis here!

Check out Clark Blaise’s other works here.

ABOUT THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

“Blaise is probably the greatest living Canadian writer most Canadians have never heard of.”—Quill & Quire

“If you want to understand something about what life was like in the restless, peripatetic, striving, anxiety-ridden, shimmer cultural soup of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries,” writes Margaret Atwood, “read the stories of Clark Blaise.” This Time, That Place draws together twenty-four stories that span the entirety of Blaise’s career, including one never previously published. Moving swiftly across place and time, through and between languages—from Florida’s Confederate swamps, to working-class Pittsburgh, to Montreal and abroad—they demonstrate Blaise’s profound mastery of the short story and reveal the range of his lifelong preoccupation with identity as fallacy, fable, and dream.

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories confirms Clark Blaise as one of the best and most enduring masters of the form—on either side of our shared borders.

ABOUT CLARK BLAISE

Clark Blaise (1940–), Canadian and American, is the author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction. A longtime advocate for the literary arts in North America, Blaise has taught writing and literature at Emory, Skidmore, Columbia, NYU, Sir George Williams, UC-Berkeley, SUNY-Stony Brook, and the David Thompson University Centre. In 1968, he founded the postgraduate Creative Writing Program at Concordia University; he after went on to serve as the Director of the International Writing Program at Iowa (1990-1998), and as President of the Society for the Study of the Short Story (2002-present). Internationally recognized for his contributions to the field, Blaise has received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy (2003), and in 2010 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.