Media Hits: ON BROWSING, CASE STUDY, THIS TIME THAT PLACE, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, and more!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

ON BROWSING

Jason Guriel’s On Browsing (Oct 4, 2022) was featured on TVO’s The Agenda. Steve Paikin interviewed Guriel about browsing, physical media, and mall nostalgia. The episode aired on Dec 6, 2022. You can watch the whole interview here.

Jason Guriel published an original piece about holiday shopping as a companion to On Browsing at The Atlantic. In “The Tactile Joy of IRL Gift Buying,” Guriel writes, “Browsing isn’t just better for carbon levels; it’s better for the soul.” Find the whole essay here.

Jason Guriel’s On Browsing has been featured in an article at the Toronto Star. The article was posted online on Dec 3, 2022. You can find the whole piece here.

In a piece titled “Tinder fatigue, the endless Netflix scroll, and the real reason online life is exhausting,” Andy Lamey writes,

“The trend in dating apps illustrates a central insight of poet and critic Jason Guriel in his book On Browsing: constraint can be generative. On Browsing recounts Guriel’s experiences shopping for physical copies of books or movies or albums, and asks, much as the developers of Soon do in the case of dating, why such experiences often compare favourably to seeking out a similar item online.”

Order your copy of On Browsing here!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place by Clark Blaise (Oct 18, 2022) has been reviewed in the McGill Tribune! The review was published online on December 7, 2022. Read the full review here.

Adrienne Roy writes,

“[Blaise’s] readers don’t feel as though they’re merely a fly on the wall: They’re sitting in the back of a stolen car in the middle of the night, inheriting a new identity as they watch a past life fade in the rearview.”

This Time, That Place was featured at CBC Books’ ‘The Best Canadian Fiction of 2022,’ published on December 6, 2022. You can find the whole list here.

They write,

“This Time, That Place demonstrates why Blaise is one of Canada’s greatest short story writers.”

Grab your copy of This Time, That Place here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart (Nov 1, 2022) was reviewed in the McGill Tribune! The review was published online on December 7, 2022. Read the review here.

Ella Buckingham writes,

“In Urquhart’s collection, she dispels the notion that fairy tales are irrelevant in this fast-paced, modern environment, and recreates the magic of childhood in day-to-day life.”

Ordinary Wonder Tales has been reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was published online on December 3, 2022. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Ariel Gordon writes,

“This book brings to mind Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work … Ordinary Wonder Tales is a quietly charming book about all the ordinary tragedies in a life. Urquhart’s essays help us understand the stories we tell ourselves, while also being satisfying as stories themselves.

Ordinary Wonder Tales was also reviewed by Andrew Hood for Bookshelf! The review was published online on December 4, 2022. Read the full review here.

Hood writes,

“Through both personal experience, the experiences of others, and scholarship, Urquhart reveals the wondrous to be ordinary and the ordinary to be wondrous … you won’t be able to put the book down. Unless, of course, you have to.”

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales, was interviewed in Kitchener CityNews! The interview was published online on December 2, 2022. Read the full article here.

In the interview, Urquhart states,

“I like to say that I’m a journalist on the folklore beat. We often see journalism as fact and folklore as fiction but I think if you look at fairy tales … what gets passed on within these stories, there’s truth within them.”

Get your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

SETH’S CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (November 1, 2022) were reviewed on the Total Christmas Podcast! The episode was published online on December 3, 2022. Listen to the review, beginning at 1:24:15 here.

Host Jack Ford says about the Christmas Ghost Stories,

“What I love about these books is that they’re really a proper blast from the past … If you know someone who likes their spooky stories, then they’d make a perfect Christmas gift. They look lovely, the artwork is fantastic, and they’re just a great read … I highly recommend them.”

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories were also reviewed in Modern Daily Knitting! The review was posted on December 3, 2022. Check it out here.

Reviewer DG Strong writes,

“There’s a wide range [of stories]—some are genuinely spooky, some (when held to today’s horror movie standards) are borderline campy, but I’ve yet to read one that wasn’t genuinely entertaining.”

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories were reviewed in The Charlatan! The review was published online on December 1, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Reviewer Justin Ball writes,

“[Seth’s] illustrations are bold yet simple, and the use of shadows brings a lifelike quality to the playful cartoon style. Seth visually guides readers through each scene and adds thrill to every tale … Those looking to introduce a weird yet interesting tradition with spooky historical ties should consider reading Christmas ghost stories to haunt the holiday season.”

Pick up all three 2022 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

Check out the rest of the series here!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been featured in the New York Times as part of “11 New Books We Recommend This Week.” The list was published online on December 1, 2022. You can read the full article here.

Case Study has been featured by Lit Hub as one of “November’s Best Reviewed Books.” The article was published online on November 30, 2022. You can read the full list here.

Pick up your copy of Case Study here!

THE POWER OF STORY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R. Johnson (October 11, 2022) has been reviewed in Quill & Quire by Robert J. Wiersema. The article was published online on December 1, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Wiersema writes,

“The Power of Story is a profoundly hopeful book, rooted in the malleability of stories we have taken for granted (the justice system and the government, to name but two), and the power of humans building out from their lifestories to effect those changes.”

Grab your copy of The Power of Story here!

BEST CANADIAN POETRY 2023

The Miramichi Reader, All Lit Up Blog, and the National Observer have reviewed Best Canadian Poetry 2023!

In the Miramichi Reader, Michael Greenstein writes,

“Hats off to Barton for editing this collection that has so much variety and serves as a forum and format for reconciliation; hats off to Biblioasis for publishing Best Canadian Poetry 2023.”

The review was published on Nov 26, 2022. Read the whole review here.

At All Lit Up, bookseller Matthew Stepanic writes,

“With heavy hitters such as Billy-Ray Belcourt, Bertrand Bickersteth, Jake Byrne, Penn Kemp, and Jan Zwicky, this collection will surprise and delight readers with a diverse range of what’s possible in the form, and will help guide them to discover books and poets they’ll want to read more from.”

The recommendation was published Nov 29, 2022. You can read Stepanic’s whole list here.

And at the National Observer, Matteo Cimellaro writes of the collection’s launch,

“As attendees sat cramped between oak bookshelves, […] readers were challenged with distinct poems of varying language, scenes, stories and identities. The reading—and the anthology—appreciates the overlaps and differences of each poet’s specificity.”

The article was published Nov 25, 2022. You can read the whole article here.

Grab your copy of Best Canadian Poetry 2023 here!

Check out the full Best Canadian 2023 set here!

THE AFFIRMATIONS

The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway (April 5, 2022) has been featured as part of The Coast’s “12 local books that topped our reading lists in 2022.” The article was published online on December 6, 2022. You can read the complete list here.

Morgan Mullin writes:

“The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway Halifax-based poet Luke Hathaway had a lot to live up to with his newest release, since his last one—was on The New York Times’ radar as one of 2018’s best books. This time around, Hathaway delivers the story of ‘the love that rewired his being’ through lyrical poems that lean into the possibilities presented by small-f faith and transformation.”

Grab your copy of The Affirmations here!

Biblioasis in The Globe 100: Best Books of 2022!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

THE GLOBE 100: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022

We’re excited to share that several Biblioasis titles were included in the Globe and Mail‘s “The Globe 100: The Best Books of 2022”! This Time, That Place by Clark Blaise, Querelle of Roberval by Kevin Lambert, The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont, Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart, and The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway all made the list. The feature was published online on December 2, 2022.

This year’s Globe 100 were selected by Canadian writers, who provided blurbs for their nominations. Check out the full list here.

Alexander MacLeod on This Time, That Place:

“My hero of the Canadian short story. There’s 50 years of work in this book, all his greatest hits, but every piece is still urgent. If the topic is longing, loneliness or the search for love in an untethered world, no one writes with more wisdom or more beautifully.”

Get This Time, That Place here!

Will Aitken on Querelle of Roberval:

“Querelle of Roberval transplants legendary French novelist Jean Genet’s priapic queer sailor from his 1947 novel, Querelle de Brest, to contemporary Lac St-Jean and sets him to work in a sawmill in the middle of a bitter syndical struggle with a rapacious boss. The most brilliant, imaginative, phantasmagorical and incendiary novel of the year.”

Get Querelle of Roberval here!

Alex Pugsley on The Music Game:

“Many have been the millennial offerings I’ve read the past year, and while there is much to recommend […] the book I keep thinking about is Stéfanie Clermont’s The Music Game. An amalgam of short stories, childhood remembrances, dolorous journaling and deeply-felt romances, this multi-prize-winning novel is an ode to friends who seek alternatives to the systems they’ve inherited.”

Get The Music Game here!

Carrie Snyder on Ordinary Wonder Tales:

“Non-fiction that hums with truth and life. Emily Urquhart writes about family, pain, fear and genetics all through the lens of folk tales and folk history. It proves a deeply moving meditation on the stories we tell ourselves, collectively and individually, to make sense of the insensible magical wonderful awful parts of our ordinary lives.”

Get Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

Jason Guriel on The Affirmations:

“These are masterful, musical poems about faith and transformation, by one of our best contemporary poets.”

Get the Affirmations here!

WE’RE HIRING: Now accepting applications for a full-time Publicity and Marketing Assistant!

/in /by

Publicity and Marketing Assistant

We are seeking a full-time publicity and marketing assistant. This position entails the promotion of titles to media, bookseller and media relations, overseeing social media campaigns, and assisting marketing staff with sales materials. But we are also in the process of rethinking all aspects of our promotion and marketing strategies and will be looking for someone who can think creatively and help us discover new ways to promote our authors and their books.

We are looking, especially, for someone who reads widely and well, someone who is, ideally, familiar with the types of books we publish and can understand and place them in a wider context. We are looking for someone who can talk and write about books intelligently and with enthusiasm and enjoys proselytizing on their behalf. A person who enjoys working with authors, discussing ideas, making things, someone who likes mail and isn’t afraid of heavy lifting: the real business of books is moving boxes from one place to another, and then back again.

Though we ideally are looking for someone to join us in our Windsor office, consideration will be given if the best candidate needs to work long-distance. Please make clear whether you are applying for an in person or remote position in your cover letter. 

Major Responsibilities:

  • read and think about our books
  • assist with national and international publicity strategies for 25+ books annually, including electronic pitches, review copy mailings, and related follow-up
  • assist in production of marketing materials, including tipsheets, early reading materials, author questionnaires, digital and print catalogues
  • assist in the writing of design briefs and cover copy
  • build and manage relations with key media throughout North America
  • build and manage relations with key booksellers throughout North America
  • write and update press releases and pitches
  • secure local media coverage for author events
  • organize author tours, launches, readings, receptions, and festival and trade show appearances
  • travel to the occasional book fair or conference in support of our books and authors
  • assist with the designing of promotional material such as postcards, bookmarks, posters, advertisements, and newsletters
  • oversee media updates on the press’s website
  • work in collaboration with sales representatives in both Canada and the United States so they are informed and enthusiastic about Biblioasis titles
  • interact with authors to strategize publicity opportunities and to execute promotional and publicity events
  • field author queries and help manage author relations, including travel arrangements
  • other duties as assigned

Knowledge, skills, and abilities required:

  • individuals must be extremely organized, detail-oriented, and self-motivated problem solvers
  • excellent reading skills
  • excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • excellent interpersonal skills
  • must have a high degree of creativity and the ability to think strategically
  • must be willing to work occasional evenings and weekends
  • computer skills include: Word and Excel experience required. Experience with Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Filemaker an asset

Education and experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, English, art history, or related field would be an asset
  • experience thinking about and presenting books, whether in a professional capacity (e.g. in the classroom, as a bookseller) or more informally (social media) would be an asset
  • previous publicity or marketing experience would be an asset

All this being said, what we’re looking for is the best possible person for the job. We’ll be more impressed by what you’ve read and how you write and speak, by how you think, and where you’ve worked—including the automotive factory or shoe store—than where you went to school. Experience would be wonderful, but if you have all of the necessary skills, or even the potential and a willingness to learn, we can train you. We want a person who wants to be here and will do what it takes to make us better. Almost no one at Biblioasis started knowing that publishing could be a career: but we’re thrilled to have discovered it and love the shape it makes in a life. We want, most of all, someone who understands that too.

Salary Expectations:

Salary will be commensurate with experience but will most likely range from 38,000-45,000.

Who We Are:

Biblioasis is an award-winning independent publishing house based in Windsor, Ontario. We publish approximately 30 titles a year, including short fiction, novels, poetry, literary criticism, memoir, belle lettres, local and regional history, and general nonfiction. We are also the publishers of the critical journal CNQ: Canadian Notes & Queries and the annual Best Canadian anthologies and operate an independent bookstore in Windsor’s historic Walkerville.

To apply, email your resume and cover letter to Dan Wells at dwells@biblioasis.com by Friday, January 6, 2023. In your cover letter please tell us about three books that mean the most to you and why they matter. If you want to include something about why you want to work in publishing, and specifically why you want to work at Biblioasis, that would definitely be considered an asset.

Rave Reviews: CASE STUDY, ORDINARY WONDER TALES, THE POWER OF STORY, ON BROWSING and more!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been featured by The New York Times as one of “100 Notable Books of 2022.” The article was published online on November 22, 2022.

You can read the full article here.

Pick up your copy of Case Study here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart (November 1, 2022), has been reviewed by Robert J. Wiersema in the Toronto Star! The review was published online on November 24, 2022. Read the review here.

Wiersema writes,

“A book of both deep thought and intense feeling, Ordinary Wonder Tales is, literally, a collection of wonders, and a truly beautiful account of a life lived in the nexus of the temporal and the eternal. It’s a treasure.”

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales was interviewed by Jackie Sharkey on CBC Afternoon Drive! The episode was posted on November 15, 2022. Listen to the full interview here.

Ordinary Wonder Tales has been reviewed in the Midwest Book Review! The review was published online on November 14, 2022. Read the review here.

Reviewer Susan Bethany writes,

“A collective masterpiece of literary criticism, insights, observations, perceptions, and appreciation, Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart is an extraordinarily thoughtful and thought-provoking read.”

Ordinary Wonder Tales was also reviewed by Kerry Clare in Pickle Me This! The review was published online on November 21, 2022. Check it out here.

Clare writes,

“These essays—beautiful, rich and absorbing—will change the way you see your place in the world, and they’ll leave you noticing all the magic at its fringes.”

Grab your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE

A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski (April 26, 2022) has been featured on the Globe and Mail’s list of “The Best Books to Gift This Year.” The list was published online on November 18, 2022. Read the full list here.

The Globe and Mail writes:

“Poet and former London antiquarian bookseller recalls his life between the covers, from growing up in rural Ontario to his journey among eccentric buyers, sellers and other obsessives.”

Get your copy of A Factotum in the Book Trade here!

YOU ARE HERE

You Are Here: Selected Stories by Cynthia Flood (November 15, 2022), has been reviewed in the BC Review! The review was published online on November 21, 2022. Check it out here.

Reviewer Ginny Ratsoy writes,

“Curated from a body of work published over a 35-year period, You Are Here presents insightful, often incisive, glances into fictional lives … Cynthia Flood employs a realistic style to glances into characters who are products of their respective time and place, while at the same time surprising, sometimes jarring, us with unpredictability.”

Get your copy of You Are Here here!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston (September 13, 2022), has been reviewed in The Spectator. The article was published on November 24, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Leaf Arbuthnot writes,

“There is an island in the Caribbean so small that it doesn’t appear on many world maps … The island is the subject of the Canadian writer Michael Hingston’s often excellent Try Not to Be Strange. I can see booksellers scratching their heads over where to shelve it. Part memoir, part travelogue, it’s also a beer-soaked history of pub-going in mid-20th-century Soho, and an exhaustive record of a made up and deeply eccentric monarchy.”

Pick up your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

THE POWER OF STORY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R. Johnson (October 11, 2022) has been reviewed in the December issue of the Literary Review of Canada. The review was published online on November 21, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Christina Turner writes,

“Johnson’s idea is a powerful one: that a person is not only the “author” but also the “editor” of his or her life, that reframing a narrative is enough to change it.”

The Power of Story has also been reviewed in The Link. The review was published online on November 24, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Claire Helston-VanDuzer’s writes,

“[The Power of Story] is quite the legacy to leave behind … Clear and telling, this final work by Johnson is educational, cohesive and a very intriguing read.”

Get your copy of The Power of Story here!

ON BROWSING

Jason Guriel’s On Browsing (October 4, 2022) was listed as a best book of 2022 at the Times Literary Supplement. The list was published online on November 20, 2022. Find the whole list here.

A.E. Stallings writes,

“I enjoyed Jason Guriel’s hymn to life before algorithms, On Browsing, in which I recognized my own youth among malls, bookstores and card catalogues.”

Grab your copy of On Browsing here!

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The review, “Press baron’s rise and fall a riveting read,” was published online on November 19, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Douglas Johnston writes,

“Bourrie’s research is meticulous, and his writing has great pace and bounce. McCullagh’s rags-to-riches accession to press baron, and dark sudden demise, is a remarkable story.”

Get your copy of Big Men Fear Me here!

ESTATES LARGE AND SMALL

Ray Robertson, author of Estates Large and Small (August 16, 2022) was interviewed by Bookin podcast. The interview was published online on November 21, 2022. You can listen to the full episode here.

Estates Large and Small was also reviewed in the December issue of the Literary Review of Canada. The review was published online on November 21, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Jules Lewis writes,

“Sinking deeper into these existential questions, as Estates Large and Small does, scrapes away a sheltering layer of existence, bringing the reader into closer proximity to both joy and loss. Musing about his profession, Phil at one point says, ‘I was only renting my books.’ Indeed, Ray Robertson asks us to think about life as a rental, and to make the best out of it before our lease runs out.”

Grab your copy of Estates Large and Small here!

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (November 1, 2022), have been reviewed by Lindsey Childs in Prairie Fire! The review was published online on November 15, 2022. Read the full review here.

Childs called this year’s stories:

“A nice, creepy reprieve from all the holly and jolly of the holidays. Seth’s black and white illustrations provide a delicious sense for foreboding and unease to these tales of the dearly departed.”

Pick up the 2022 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

Check out the whole series here!

Reviews and Interviews: QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL, ON BROWSING, BIG MEN FEAR ME and more!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL

Kevin Lambert, author of Querelle of Roberval (trans. by Donald Winkler, August 2, 2022) was interviewed by Nantali Indongo at CBC Montreal’s The Bridge. Listen to the whole episode here.

Indongo says of Querelle of Roberval,

“BAM! That’s what I felt as I started reading.”

Grab your copy of Querelle of Roberval here!

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books. The review was published online on November 14, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Niedermann writes,

“Not only does he give us a portrait of a man who was central to a critical period in Canadian history, he illuminates the complexities of those years as well, in the process pulling back the rosy curtain of forgetfulness and nostalgia that has slowly descended over us in the years since to remind us of how fraught our politics and society were then. A truly great accomplishment!”

Pick up your copy of Big Men Fear Me here!

THE POWER OF STORY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R. Johnson (October 11, 2022) has featured on CBC’s The Next Chapter. The episode, which was recorded as part of Vancouver Writers Fest, aired on November 11, 2022.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Grab your copy of The Power of Story here!

ON BROWSING

Jason Guriel was interviewed about On Browsing (Oct 4, 2022) for the OC Register/LA Daily News. The interview was posted online on November 12, 2022. Read the whole interview here.

Guriel tells Erik Pederson,

“[Browsing] was a topic that I wasn’t even conscious of it being important to me until I started writing it. I found myself getting quite emotional that some of the stores that have meant a lot to me have vanished.”

Get your copy of On Browsing here!

MAN OR MANGO?

Lucy Ellmann‘s Man or Mango? (November 8, 2022) was reviewed at the Miramichi Reader. You can read the whole review here.

Reviewer Alison Manley writes,

“Prickly, strange and wholly ridiculous, the characters of Man or Mango? are delightful and so are their strange, overlapping journeys. People who enjoy mysterious, character-driven, plotless fiction will be at home in this novel, a lovely taste of what Ellmann can do.”

Pick up your copy of man or Mango? here!

THE DAY-BREAKERS

Michael Fraser, author of The Day-Breakers (April 12, 2022) has been interviewed by Rob McLennan on his blog, Periodicities. The interview was published online on November 14, 2022. You can read the complete list here.

Grab your copy of The Day-Breakers here!

Rave Reviews: CASE STUDY, THIS TIME THAT PLACE, ON BROWSING, ORDINARY WONDER TALES, and more!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been reviewed on the So Many Damn Books podcast episode featuring Kate Beaton. The episode was published online on November 8, 2022. You can listen to the full episode here.

Case Study by was reviewed in the Star Tribune by Malcom Forbes and the Chicago Review of Books by Marcie McCauley. Both reviews were published online on November 11, 2022.

Forbes writes, in the Star Tribune:

“Macrae’s novel works on various levels. It is an elaborate, mind-bending guessing game; it is a blackly comic and quietly moving study of a nervous breakdown; and it is a captivating portrait of an egomaniac. If the notebooks depict a gripping chain of events, then the biographical sections expertly flesh out the grotesque, manipulative yet charismatic Braithwaite. Macrae has reliably delivered another work of fiendish fun.”

You can read the full review here.

McCauley writes, in the Chicago Review of Books:

“Burnet is the ultimate unreliable narrator, and Case Study serves as a worthy addition to his oeuvre.”

You can read the full review here.

Get your copy of Case Study here!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories by Clark Blaise (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed at the Globe and Mail. The review was published on November 4, 2022. You can read the whole review here.

In a review titled “Clark Blaise is the greatest Canadian writer no one has heard about,” David Moscrop writes,

“More people should read Blaise … Contemporary life is full of irreconcilable tensions. This Time, That Place captures a handful of them, simultaneously telling stories of three countries and a multitude of identities that cut across various social, culture, political and economic dimensions.”

This Time, That Place has been reviewed in the Toronto Star! The review was published on November 11, 2022. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Robert J. Wiersema writes,

“This Time, That Place is not only a stunning collection of fiction, it is one of considerable importance; most readers will not recognize how much they have been lacking in their reading lives until they experience the work of Clark Blaise first-hand.”

This Time, That Place was also listed at Lit Hub’s “15 new books to dive into this week.” The article was posted Nov 8, 2022. Find the whole list here.

Get your copy of This Time, That Place here!

ON BROWSING

Jason Guriel‘s On Browsing (Oct 4, 2022) was mentioned in the New York Times‘s “Newly Published” column on November 11, 2022!

You can find the whole list here.

Grab your copy of On Browsing here.

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales (November 1, 2022), has been interviewed by Joseph Planta on The Commentary podcast! The episode was posted on November 4, 2022. Listen to the full interview here.

Planta calls the book:

“A highly readable, fascinating collection … The pieces are thoughtful and … enriching. The book is captivating, and as one critic has said, spellbinding.”

Grab your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

THE POWER OF STORY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R. Johnson (October 11, 2022) has been reviewed in That Shakespearean Rag by Steven Beattie. The review was published on October 15, 2022, and can be read here.

Steven Beattie writes,

“By examining Indigenous stories, ways of living, dying, and—yes—laughing, Johnson … offer[s] powerful alternatives to hierarchical structures of society that insist on consuming the Earth’s natural resources at an unsustainable pace.”

Pick up your copy of The Power of Story here!

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories 2022 (November 1, 2022), have been featured on the So Many Damn Books podcast! The episode aired on November 8, 2022. You can listen to the episode here (review starts at 7:10).

Host Christopher Hermelin praised the series’

“really beautiful art, and great stories.”

Grab all three 2022 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

Check out the rest of the series here.

SHIMMER

Alex Pugsley author of Shimmer (May 17, 2022) was interviewed on Bookin It podcast. The episode was published online on November 7, 2022.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Get your copy of Shimmer here!

MAN OR MANGO?

Lucy Ellmann‘s Man or Mango? (November 8, 2022) has been excerpted at Lit Hub. The excerpt went up on November 2, 2022. You can read the whole excerpt here.

Man or Mango? was also on Lit Hub‘s “15 new books to dive into this week.” The article was posted November 8, 2022. Find the whole list here.

Grab your copy of Man or Mango? here!

DANTE’S INDIANA

Dante’s Indiana by Randy Boyagoda (September 2021) has been reviewed at Eurasia Review. You can read the whole review here.

Reviewer Kevin Duffy calls it:

“An entertaining and theologically deft take on the consequences of the choices we all make as we seek the Good … Dante’s Indiana is a superb literary achievement.”

Get your copy of Dante’s Indiana here.

Or, start with the first book, Original Prin, here!

HOUSEHOLDERS

Householders cover

Householders by Kate Cayley (September 2021) was reviewed at Full-Stop Magazine. The review was posted November 9, 2022. Check out the review here.

Reviewer Emily Alex writes,

“It would be something of a shame to read any of these stories individually, or to read them just once through, as moving outside and around them is one of the pleasures of this text. Householders is not a collection about the singular self, but about the individual uneasily negotiating subjectivity in a manner that is intrinsically relational; and appropriately, the narratives seem to continue into and across one another, propelled by differences that underscore their symmetries. The work’s most disruptive insights emerge from these interactions. In a sense, the success of this collection lies in its failure as a novel.”

Pick up your copy of Householders here!

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

/in /by

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!

Spotlight On: CANARY by NANCY JO CULLEN

/in , /by

The Biblioasis Spotlight Series is back! Our November pick is Nancy Jo Cullen‘s queer, weird, and brilliantly messed-up debut collection of short stories, Canary (April 16, 2013). Read on for a brief word from the author on the journey and growing joy of writing, and keep an eye out for an excerpt from the collection in our newsletter later this month!

CANARY

An ALA 2014 Over the Rainbow Selection • An Amazon.ca Best Book of 2013: Top 100/Editors’ Pick • A Vancouver Sun Favourite Read of 2013

What has to die before you force yourself to change? That’s the question facing the always quirky and often-queer characters of Canary. From the communal showers of a hot yoga studio to seedy pubs on Vancouver’s East Side, from Catholic merchandise salesmen to hitchhiking teenage lesbians, the people and places of Nancy Jo Cullen’s debut are asphyxiating slowly on ordinary life. Yet in this joint-smoking urban underground, we also glimpse the families, communities, friends and strangers from whom unexpected kindness comes as a breath of fresh air. Trashy but poignant, comic and profound, Canary hangs luminous above the coal-heap of fiction debuts—and proves Nancy Jo Cullen a writer of astonishing depths.

“Cullen’s prose is volcanic even when she’s describing the most domestic situations possible—the language is full of subterranean rumbles that simultaneously disturb and delight. The writing is always surprising, always bright, even in the most somber moments. Moving and funny, these stories will break your heart in the very best way.”
—Suzette Mayr, Giller Prize-shortlisted author of The Sleeping Car Porter

Nancy Jo Cullen’s poetry and fiction have appeared in The Puritan, Grain, filling Station, Plenitude, Prairie Fire, Arc, This Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry 2018, Room, The Journey Prize and Best Canadian Fiction 2012. Nancy is the 2010 recipient for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ+ Emerging Writers. She’s published three collections of poetry with Frontenac House and a collection of short stories, Canary, with Biblioasis. Her first novel, The Western Alienation Merit Badge, was short-listed for the 2020 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Her fourth poetry collection, Nothing Will Save Your Life, is available now from Wolsak & Wynn.

Grab your copy of Canary here!

A WORD FROM NANCY JO CULLEN

The Biggest Joy in Writing

Photo Credit: Kristen Ritchie

I wrote the stories in Canary as my MFA thesis at the University of Guelph. My story “Ashes” came out of a writing assignment from a workshop with Michael Winter where he asked us to write something in the journalistic style of Norman Levine’s “In Lower Town.” That assignment allowed me to re-visit the eruption of Mount St. Helen’s; the fact that it turned out to be a big metaphor in the story was not something I realized until the story was written. I don’t generally plan when I’m writing (and yes, that means it takes longer, but the heart wants etc.) and I wrote most of the stories the way I write poetry; they grew from a phrase, feeling or image that I wanted to explore further. Writing my thesis was a glorious year of sitting in my room looking out over my Toronto street and down at the monks who came in and out of the Buddhist temple. I’d say to my kids, “I’m doing homework,” and they left me alone. Or maybe they understood I wouldn’t be policing their media consumption and jumped at the opportunity to be unsupervised.

After I wrote Canary I began work on a novel, The Western Alienation Merit Badge. Then, unexpectedly, found myself writing poetry again—something I swore I’d given up as I hadn’t felt the urge to write a poem for close to a decade. Those poems are now a collection titled, Nothing Will Save Your Life. During the pandemic, I thought I should write a fluffy novel and I’m still working my way through that; of course, I had the hubris to believe writing a fluffy novel would be easy. And now again, the siren call of short stories is strong. Notes are being made, and I’m coming to think maybe the biggest joy in writing is working on short pieces, poems and stories that allow me to explore small ideas in big ways and big ideas in small ways. My most recent note includes the words “vintage lesbian vest” and the many ways that turn of phrase may go.

BIG MEN FEAR ME, POWER OF STORY, QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL, CASE STUDY, TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE: Interviews and Reviews!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed by Nancy Wigston in the Toronto Star. The piece was published online on October 20, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Wigston writes:

“There are many threads to untangle here and Bourrie—journalist, academic, and lawyer—unpicks them all. Spanning the first half of 20th-century Ontario, [George] McCullagh’s life and times become an engrossing tale of ambition, politics and bipolar illness—it’s like little else we’re likely to read this year. … It was a tumultuous life, and Bourrie tells it with wit and humour.”

Mark Bourrie, author of Big Men Fear Me, was interviewed by Emily Donaldson for the Globe and Mail. The interview was published October 20, 2022. Read the full interview here.

Big Men Fear Me was also excerpted by the Globe and Mail. The excerpt was published online on October 25, 2022. You can read the full excerpt here.

Mark Bourrie was also interviewed by Steve Paikin on TVO – The Agenda. The interview aired on October 18, 2022. You can watch the full interview here.

Get your copy of Big Men Fear Me here!

THE POWER OF STORY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R. Johnson (October 11, 2022) has been excerpted in Lit Hub. The excerpt was published on October 24, 2022.

Read the full excerpt here.

Pick up your copy of The Power of Story here!

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL

Querelle of Roberval (August 2, 2022) by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler, was featured in an interview at CBC Books. You can read the whole interview here.

In the interview, Kevin writes,

“Querelle of Roberval isn’t about hope or morality. I wanted to create a sensation of resistance, or an ecstatic reaction, versus a boring message about ‘we can change things if we all work together’ or anything like that. Also, I hope readers discover a part of Quebec that is not the one often presented in fiction.”

Get your copy of Querelle of Roberval 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), was interviewed by Naben Ruthnum for The Vancouver Writers Festival podcast. The episode was published on October 17, 2022.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Grab a copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been reviewed by Kassie Rose on WOSU. The review was published online on October 17, 2022. Listen to the full review here.

In the segment on All Sides Weekend: Books, Rose calls Case Study

“an interesting book ” with a “dry, witty sense of humor.”

Get your copy of Case Study here!

THE DAY-BREAKERS, CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE, POWER OF STORY, A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE: Media Hits!

/in /by

IN THE NEWS!

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES 2022

Two of this year’s Christmas Ghost Stories from Seth (November 1, 2022), have been featured on the Christmas Past Podcast!

The episode featuring The Dead and the Countess by Gertrude Atherton aired on October 10, 2022, and can be listened to here.

The episode featuring The Corner Shop by Lady Cynthia Asquith aired on October 17, 2022 and can be heard here.

Grab a set of Christmas Ghost Stories 2022 here!

Check out the whole series here!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston (September 13, 2022), has been reviewed by Susan Huebert in the Winnipeg Free Press. The article was published online on October 16, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Huebert writes,

“Hingston traces the story of one of the strangest kingdoms in the world … a fascinating account.”

Pick up your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

THE POWER OF STORY

The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era by Harold R. Johnson (October 11, 2022) has been excerpted in the Globe and Mail. The excerpt, “What story of colonialism do you want to believe in?” was published on October 15, 2022.

Read the full excerpt here.

Get your copy of The Power of Story here!

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE

A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski (April 26, 2022) has been reviewed by Antanas Sileika on CBC’s The Next Chapter. The segment aired on October 15, 2022. Listen to the full segment here.

In the segment, Sileika says,

“I love this book … What he’s after is a kind of authenticity of human experience … He awakens in me that first understanding I had about books and literature when I was young … It was a wonderful read.”

Grab a copy of A Factotum in the Book Trade here!

THE DAY-BREAKERS

The Day-Breakers by Michael Fraser (April 5, 2022) has been featured on CBC Books as part of “22 books by past CBC Literary Prizes winners and finalists that came out in 2022.” The list was published online on October 17, 2022.

You can read the complete list here.

Get your copy of The Day-Breakers here!