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THE HOLLOW BEAST a finalist for the 2024 GOVERNOR GENERAL’S AWARD IN TRANSLATION!

We are thrilled to share that this morning, The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler, was listed as a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation! You can check out the official finalists announcement here.

The winning books will be announced on November 13, 2024. 

Montreal-based Lazer Lederhendler is no stranger to this honour, having previously won the Governor General’s Award for French to English translation three times, including for two other Biblioasis books, The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux and If You Hear Me by Pascale Quiviger. The Hollow Beast marks his eleventh nomination overall.

Lazer commented on his nomination:

“It’s always gratifying to know that one’s work as a translator is appreciated by readers, particularly when those readers make up the peer assessment committee for this year’s GG translation award. I feel especially honoured to be part of such a remarkable group of finalists.”

“We’re very pleased that Lazer was recognized for his work translating this beast of a novel,” Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells said. “More than 150,000 words, complete with rural dialects, regional word-play, and as crazy a plot as has appeared in the past calendar year, Lazer’s work translating The Hollow Beast confirms as much as his three previous GG Awards for translation (and eight additional nominations!) that he has long been one of the pre-eminent translators in the country. This was heroic work, and I’m glad his jury of fellow translators gave Lazer an additional nod.”

The Canada Council for the Arts funds, administers and actively promotes the Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks) which celebrate literature and inspire people to read books by creators from Canada. The award provides finalists and winners with valuable recognition from peers and readers across the country. The monetary award for finalists is $1,000, and $25,000 for each winning book.

Congratulations to Lazer and The Hollow Beast from all of us at Biblioasis!

Grab a copy of The Hollow Beast here!

ABOUT THE HOLLOW BEAST

Don Quixote meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit in this slapstick epic about destiny, family demons, and revenge.

Credit: Monique Dykstra

1911. A hockey game in Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula. With the score tied two-two in overtime, local tough guy Billy Joe Pictou fires the puck directly into Monti Bouge’s mouth. When Pictou’s momentum carries them both across the goal line in a spray of shattered teeth, Victor Bradley, erstwhile referee and local mailman, rules that the goal counts—and Monti’s ensuing revenge for this injustice sprawls across three generations, one hundred years, and dozens of dastardly deeds. Fuelled by a bottomless supply of Yukon, the high-proof hooch that may or may not cause the hallucinatory sightings of a technicolor beast that haunts not just Monti but his descendants, it’s up to Monti’s grandson François—and his floundering doctoral dissertation—to make sense of the vendetta that’s shaped the destiny of their town and everyone in it. Brilliantly translated into slapstick English by Lazer Lederhendler, The Hollow Beast introduces Christophe Bernard as a master of epic comedy.

ABOUT LAZER LEDERHENDLER

Lazer Lederhendler is a full-time literary translator specializing in Québécois fiction and non-fiction. His translations have earned awards and distinctions in Canada, the UK, and the US. He has translated the works of noted authors, including Gaétan Soucy, Nicolas Dickner, Edem Awumey, Perrine Leblanc, and Catherine Leroux. He lives in Montreal with the visual artist Pierrette Bouchard.

THE WORLD AT MY BACK longlisted for the National Translation Award in Prose!

We’re thrilled to share the news that The World at My Back by Thomas Melle, translated from the German by Luise von Flotow, has been longlisted for the 2024 National Translation Award in Prose! The longlist was announced on September 5, and you can view the full announcement here.

The judges citation reads,

“With The World at My Back, author Thomas Melle takes us into the harrowing world of bipolar disorder, chronicling the effect it has had on him and his relationships. Yet he does this with such remarkable aplomb that the reader now laughs, now cries at his predicament. As an author, playwright, and translator, Melle is very much embedded in the cultural life of a German writer, and it is against that backdrop that the episodes swing from manic to depressive to clinical—all cleverly captured in Luise von Flotow’s remarkably nimble translation.”

The NTAs are awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. Established in 2018, the NTA, which is administered by American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), is the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of both the source text and its relation to the finished English work.

The shortlists for the National Translation Awards will be announced on October 10th, and the winners will be announced on October 26th at an Awards Ceremony as part of ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA47: Voices in Translation, in Milwaukee, WI. The winning translators will receive a $4,000 cash prize each.

Grab your copy of The World at My Back here!

ABOUT THE WORLD AT MY BACK

Longlisted for the 2024 National Translation Award in Prose • A Finalist for the German Book Prize • Translated into Eighteen Languages

Addicted to culture, author Thomas Melle has built up an impressive personal library. His heart is in these books, and he loves to feel them at his back, their promise and challenge, as he writes. But in the middle of a violent dissociative episode, when they become ballast to his increasingly manic self, he disperses almost overnight what had taken decades to gather. Nor is this all he loses: descending further into an incomprehensible madness, he loses friendships and his career as a novelist and celebrated playwright, but the most savage cruelty is that he no longer either knows or understands himself.

Vulnerable and claustrophobic, shattering and profoundly moving, Thomas Melle’s The World at My Back is a book dedicated to the impossibility of reclaiming what has been lost, its lines both a prayer and reminder that, on the other side of madness, other possibilities await.

ABOUT THOMAS MELLE

Born in Bonn, Germany, Thomas Melle studied at the University of Tübingen, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Free University of Berlin. His novels Sickster and 3000 Euros were finalists for German Book Prize in 2011 and 2014 respectively. Melle is also a prolific playwright and translator. His translations from English to German have ranged from plays by William Shakespeare to novels by William T. Vollmann. The World at My Back, also a finalist for the German Book Prize, was a bestseller in Germany. It was made into a highly successful stage play, and has been translated into eighteen languages. Thomas Melle lives in Berlin.

ABOUT LUISE VON FLOTOW

Luise von Flotow teaches translation studies at the University of Ottawa School of Translation and Interpretation. Her recent translations include, from German, They Divided the Sky by Christa Wolf, and Everyone Talks About the Weather…We Don’t by Ulrike Meinhof; and, from French, The Four Roads Hotel by France Théoret. She has twice been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Literary Translation.

A WAY TO BE HAPPY longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize!

Biblioasis is thrilled to share that Caroline Adderson‘s A Way to Be Happy (Sep 10, 2024) has been longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize! The longlist was announced this morning, on September 4 at 11:30 AM, and you can view the full list here.

In a statement, Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells writes,

“All of us at Biblioasis couldn’t be happier for Caroline. I’ve been a fan of Caroline’s work, and her short fiction in particular, since first coming across her initial collection, Bad Imaginings, in a used bookstore when I was in university: I found the stories in that collection—which we eventually reissued at the press—smart, elegant, sharp-eyed, and generously funny. The same is true of the stories in this, her third collection, A Way to Be Happy, which is as wide-ranging and deeply imagined as a collection can be, and should serve to cement Caroline’s reputation as among the leading writers in the country.”

The Giller Prize is awarded annually to a Canadian novel or short story collection published that year. The winner receives $100,000 and the shortlisted authors each receive $10,000. The shortlist will be announced on Wednesday, October 9, and the winner will be announced Monday, November 18. This year’s 2024 Giller jury was comprised of authors Kevin Chong and Noah Richler, and singer-songwriter Molly Johnson. Previous winners of the prize include Sarah Bernstein, Suzette Mayr, Esi Edugyan, André Alexis, Michael Ondaatje, and Souvankham Thammavongsa.

Get your copy of A Way to Be Happy here!

ABOUT A WAY TO BE HAPPY

Longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize

Short stories about disparate characters consider what it means to find happiness.

Credit: Jessica Whitman

Credit: Jessica Whitman

On New Year’s Eve, a pair of addicts robs a string of high-end parties in order to fund their own recovery. A recently separated woman relocates to a small northern town, where she receives a life-changing visitation, and a Russian hitman, suffering from a mysterious lung ailment, retrieves long-buried memories of his past. In the nineteenth century, a disparate group of women coalesce in the attempt to aid a young girl in her escape from a hospital for the insane. These are but some of the remarkable characters who populate these stories, all of them grappling with conflicts ranging from mundane to extraordinary. Caroline Adderson’s A Way to Be Happy considers what it means to find happiness—and how often it comes through the grace of others.

ABOUT CAROLINE ADDERSON

Caroline Adderson is the author of five novels (A Russian Sister, Ellen in Pieces, The Sky Is Falling, Sitting Practice, and A History of Forgetting), two previous collections of short stories (Pleased to Meet You and Bad Imaginings), as well as many books for young readers. Her award nominations include the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. The recipient of three BC Book Prizes, three CBC Literary Awards, and the Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement, Caroline lives and writes in Vancouver.

 

Media Hits & Awards: ON CLASS, MAY OUR JOY ENDURE, THE NOTEBOOK, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

MAY OUR JOY ENDURE

May Our Joy Endure by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler (Sep 3, 2024), appeared on Lit Hub‘s list of “27 new books out today.” The list was published on September 3, and you can check it out here.

The list features Heather O’Neill’s blurb:

“Baroque and philosophical, May Our Joy Endure captures the sensibilities and excesses of the elite. A novel about the housing crisis told from the perspective of those causing it . . . Lambert’s writing is lyrical and rapturous. In this book, he proves himself a satirical and whimsical Robespierre, hailing from small town Quebec.”

May Our Joy Endure also featured on All Lit Up‘s list of “Book Recommendations to follow The Rage Letters.” The article was posted on August 28, and you can read it here.

Grab May Our Joy Endure here!

THE NOTEBOOK

The Notebook by Roland Allen (Sep 3, 2024) was excerpted in The Walrus. The excerpt, titled “Moleskine Mania: How a Notebook Conquered the Digital Era,” was published online on August 30, and you can read it in full here.

Roland Allen contributed a feature to the Globe and Mail, which published online on August 30. You can check out the article, “In a world of screens, the humble notebook remains the best way to learn,” here.

The Notebook was also reviewed in Angelus News on August 30. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Heather King writes,

“[The Notebook] celebrates the age-old practice of writing things down—numbers, images, thoughts, dreams—and charts the evolution of this handy, humble little item that many of us consider indispensable.”

Grab The Notebook here!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2023) was featured on CBC Books’ list, “These 14 writers recently won some of Canada’s biggest literary awards.” The list, which highlighted The Future‘s 2024 Canada Reads win and Carol Shields Prize longlisting, was posted on August 30, and you can read it here.

Grab The Future here!

THE PAGES OF THE SEA

The Pages of the Sea by Anne Hawk (Sep 17, 2024) appeared on Toronto.com’s list of “25 books worthy of a place at the top of your to-read pile.” The list was posted on September 1, and you can read it in full here.

Grab The Pages of the Sea here!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie (May 21, 2024) was featured on 49th Shelf‘s list of recommendations, “Grappling With History.” The article was posted on August 26, and you can check it out here.

Marianne K. Miller writes,

“Mark Bourrie tackles the mythology around the Jesuit missionary priest, Jean de Brebeuf. It is a different story than the one you thought you knew.”

Get Crosses in the Sky here!

HELLO, HORSE

Hello, Horse by Richard Kelly Kemick (Aug 6, 2024) was reviewed in Everything Zoomer! The review was posted online on August 15, and you can read it here.

Everything Zoomer writes,

“The year 2024 has Richard Kelly Kemick, whose wild imagination and fresh insights cast a spell in Hello, Horse; every entrancing story casts off in a different direction, with a genuine ‘wait? what?!’ moment you did not see coming . . . Kemick, a poet and playwright and National Magazine Award gold medal-winner, is one to watch.”

Grab Hello, Horse here!

AWARDS NEWS!

ON CLASS

We’re thrilled to share that On Class by Deborah Dundas is a nominee for the 2024 Heritage Toronto Book Award. The nominees were announced on September 3, 2024, and you can check out the full list here.

The Heritage Toronto Book Award highlights the breadth and depth of Toronto’s heritage, covering topics from music history, to public infrastructure, to immigration and multiculturalism. The award ceremony will take place on Monday, October 28, 2024 at The Carlu (444 Yonge Street).

Grab a copy of On Class here!

DREAMING HOME shortlisted for the 2024 Fred Kerner Book Award!

We’re excited to share that Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs has been shortlisted for the Canadian Authors’ Association’s 2024 Fred Kerner Book Award! The shortlist was announced on July 21, and you can check out the full list here.

On Dreaming Home, one judge commented,

“From the opening sentence we know we’re in the hands of a master craftsman. This novel opens up through multiple, connected points of view into a landscape that’s deeply problematic: from the damaged father, through the gay son who refuses to accept the deal he’s been dealt, to the sister who propelled them into this abyss. Trauma impacts them all in unexpected and illuminating ways. Challenging and poignant, but ultimately joyful.”

Another judge praised,

“A poignant and sensitively written story of the profound repercussions of a forced outage of a young boy by his sibling and the decades-long fallout that ensues for him, his family members, and his lovers. Told from multiple perspectives, the narrative is compelling and heartbreaking, with a gentle hint of humour.”

The Fred Kerner Book Award is awarded annually to a Canadian Authors member who has the best overall book published in the previous calendar year, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

The winner will be announced at a virtual Fred Kerner Book Award readings event in early September, with the event date to be announced in August.

Get a copy of Dreaming Home here!

ABOUT DREAMING HOME

Shortlisted for the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize • Shortlisted for the 2024 Fred Kerner Book Award • A Globe and Mail Best Spring Book • One of Lambda Literary Review‘s Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of June 2023 • A Southern Review Book to Celebrate in June 2023 • A 49th Shelf Best Book of 2023

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.

Credit: Marc Lostracco

ABOUT LUCIAN CHILDS

Lucian Childs is a fiction writer whose debut, Dreaming Home (Biblioasis 2023), was shortlisted for the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in literary fiction. He was a Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Short Story Award. He is a contributing editor of the Lambda Literary finalist, Building Fires in the Snow: a collection of Alaska LGBTQ short fiction and poetry. His stories and reviews have appeared in the journals Grain, The Puritan, Plenitude, and Prairie Fire, among others. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, he currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.

Media Hits: A WAY TO BE HAPPY, THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, THE NOTEBOOK, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

A WAY TO BE HAPPY

A Way to Be Happy by Caroline Adderson (Sep 10, 2024) has received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews! The starred review will appear in their August print issue, and was published online on July 4. Check it out here.

Kirkus writes,

“Adderson . . . is a deft, masterful storyteller whose literary fiction surely deserves more attention.”

Order A Way to Be Happy here!

HELLO, HORSE

Hello, Horse by Richard Kelly Kemick (Aug 6, 2024) was listed in Reactor‘s “Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for July and August 2024.” The article was posted on July 3, and you can read it here.

Tobias Carroll writes,

“These stories include a number of strange visions of the not-so-distant future—and throw some ghosts into the mix as well. “

Get Hello, Horse here!

THE NOTEBOOK

Roland Allen, author of The Notebook (Sep 3, 2024), was interviewed on Ryan Holiday’s podcast The Daily Stoic. The episode aired on June 26, and is available to listen to here.

Order The Notebook here!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024), was reviewed in the Manhattan Book Review. The review was published online for their June issue, and is available to read here.

Reviewer Eric Smith writes,

“Bernard’s hilarious tome is a hundred-proof fever dream of bizarre scenarios and Canada’s most outlandish cast of characters . . . But readers beware. Your technicolor nightmares will be fueled by The Hollow Beast.”

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

AWARD NEWS!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) has been longlisted for the 2024 Toronto Book Awards! The longlist was announced on July 4, and you can read it here.

Toronto Public Library has created a special reading list of the 2024 longlisted titles, here. The shortlist for the 2024 Toronto Book Awards will be announced later this summer and a winner will be named in a prize ceremony November 7.

Grab The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Or, check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here.

Media Hits: THE FUTURE, BARFLY, COCKTAIL, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2024), was reviewed in Alberta Views! The review was published online on May 31, and is available to read here.

Reviewer C. S. Wiesenthal writes,

“While the setting of The Future is indeed dystopian—a ruined and toxic Fort Détroit—the story told here is one that won’t leave you despairing . . . the novel’s overall vision [is] of regenerative potential: the cycle of time and the transformation of all life forms offer possibilities for redemption and hope.”

Get The Future here!

BARFLY

Barfly by Michael Lista (June 4, 2024) has been reviewed in The Seaboard Review by Michael Greenstein. The review was posted online on June 3, and you can read it here.

Greenstein writes,

“With liquid refreshment, firehose, and fire escape, besotted Barfly is a sobering experience.”

Barfly was also featured in Lit Hub‘s list of ’26 new books out today’ along with an excerpt! The list was published on Jun 4 and can be viewed here, and you can read June 7’s excerpted poem, “Auld Lang Syne” here.

Grab Barfly here!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) was featured in CBC’s article “10 books you heard about on CBC Radio recently.” The article highlighted Alex Pugsley’s recent interview on CBC’s The Next Chapter. The list was posted on June 4, and you can check it out here.

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Pick up the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

WORK TO BE DONE

Work to Be Done: Selected Essays and Reviews by Bruce Whiteman (Mar 12, 2024) was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was published online on June 1, and you can read it in full here.

Reviewer Ron Robinson writes,

“Poet, translator, culture historian, book reviewer and lover of language, Bruce Whiteman has sifted and scrutinized 50 years of his critical writings and selected those that still have delight to offer the curious reader.”

Grab Work to Be Done here!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

Josh Cook, author of The Art of Libromancy (Aug 22, 2023), was interviewed on Lit Hub‘s podcast Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers. The interview, about the behind-the-scenes of selling books, was posted online on June 3, and you can give it a listen here.

Grab The Art of Libromancy here!

IN AWARDS

COCKTAIL

Cocktail by Lisa Alward (Sep 12, 2024) has won the New Brunswick Book Awards’ Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction! The announcement was made on June 1, and you can check out the full list of award winners here. Congratulations to Lisa!

Grab a Cocktail to celebrate here!

PRESS SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Joanna Gigliotti

Biblioasis Press made the news this week, featured in the Globe and Mail! The article by Ira Wells focused on Biblioasis’ place and recognition in the publishing trade.

The article was published online on June 3, and you can check it out here.

ON COMMUNITY a finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Awards!

We’re excited to share that On Community by Casey Plett has been announced as a finalist for the CLMP’s 2024 Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction! The list of finalists was published on May 15, 2024, and can be seen here.

The Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), the national nonprofit organization that for 57 years has supported the work of independent literary publishers. The Firecracker Awards, now in their tenth year, are given for the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence.

The winners of the Firecracker Awards will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony on June 27, 2024, at 6PM ET.

Get your copy of On Community here!

ABOUT ON COMMUNITY

Finalist for the 2024 Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction • Finalist for the 2024 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature • One of CBC Books‘ Canadian Nonfiction to Read in the Fall • A Tyee Best Book of 2023 • A CBC Books Best Nonfiction Book of 2023 • A Hamilton Review of Books Best Book of 2023 • An Autostraddle Best Queer Book of 2023

We need community to live. But what does it look like? Why does it often feel like it’s slipping away?

We are all hinged to some definition of a community, be it as simple as where we live, complex as the beliefs we share, or as intentional as those we call family. In an episodic personal essay, Casey Plett draws on a range of firsthand experiences to start a conversation about the larger implications of community as a word, an idea, and a symbol. With each thread a cumulative definition of community, and what it has come to mean to Plett, emerges.

Looking at phenomena from transgender literature, to Mennonite history, to hacker houses of Silicon Valley, and the rise of nationalism in North America, Plett delves into the thorny intractability of community’s boons and faults. Deeply personal, authoritative in its illuminations, On Community is an essential contribution to the larger cultural discourse that asks how, and to what socio-political ends, we form bonds with one another.

Photo Credit: Hobbes Ginsberg

ABOUT CASEY PLETT

Casey Plett is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, and A Safe Girl to Love, the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers, and the publisher at LittlePuss Press. She has written for the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, the Guardian, Globe and Mail, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Winnipeg Free Press, and other publications. A winner of the Amazon First Novel Award and the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, her work has also been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY a finalist for the Trillium Book Award!

This morning the finalists for the Trillium Book Award, worth $20,000, were announced, and they include Sleep Is Now a Foreign Country by Mike Barnes, published by Biblioasis press on November 14, 2023. The prize is the province of Ontario’s leading literary award. You can view the full list of finalists here.

Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells says,

“Mike Barnes has been with the press for the entirety of our twenty-year history, over which time we’ve published nine books with him, including poetry, fiction, fable, and memoir: he never enters the same stream twice. He ranks, in my estimation, as among our very best writers: intelligent, adventurous, unerring, generous, and humane, and it gives me real pleasure that some long overdue acknowledgment has come for Sleep Is Now a Foreign Country, as courageous and felt a book as we’ve been part of at the press. I speak for all of us in offering Mike congratulations, and in thanking the jury for recognizing the astounding work this is.”

Barnes has written eleven books spanning many genres. His last nonfiction book, Be With: Letters to a Caregiver, was praised by Margaret Atwood as “Timely, lyrical, tough, accurate.” His most recent novel, The Adjustment League was a Maclean’s Editor’s Pick described as “masterful.” Barnes was born in Rochester, Minnesota, and he now lives in Toronto.

The Ontario government established the Trillium Book Award in 1987 to recognize excellence and foster increased public awareness of the quality and diversity of Ontario writers and writing. The quality of Ontario authors and writing speaks for itself with the international acclaim achieved by past Trillium winners including Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Timothy Findley and Anne Michaels. The winner of the 2024 Trillium Book Award will be announced at a gala event at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on June 20, 2024, hosted by CBC Anchor Heather Hiscox. More information about the Trillium Book Award can be found here.

Get your copy of Sleep is Now a Foreign Country here!

ABOUT SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award • One of CBC Books’ Canadian Nonfiction to Read in the Fall

A poet recounts his experience with madness and explores the relationship between apprehension and imagination.

In the summer of 1977, standing on a roadside somewhere between Dachau and Munich, twenty-two-year-old Mike Barnes experienced the dawning of the psychic break he’d been anticipating almost all his life. “Times over the years when I have tried to describe what followed,” he writes of that moment, “it has always come out wrong.” In this finely wrought, deeply intelligent memoir of madness, its antecedents and its aftermath, Barnes reconstructs instead what led him to that moment and offers with his characteristic generosity and candor the captivating account of a mind restlessly aware of itself.

ABOUT MIKE BARNES

Mike Barnes is the author of twelve books of poetry, short fiction, novels, and memoir. He has won the Danuta Gleed Award and a National Magazine Award Silver Medal for his short fiction, and the Edna Staebler Award for his photo-and-text essay “Asylum Walk.” His most recent book of nonfiction, Be With: Letters to a Caregiver, was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Award and has been praised by Margaret Atwood as “Timely, lyrical, tough, accurate.” He lives in Toronto.

Media Hits: SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE, HOLLOW BEAST, YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (March 5, 2024) has been reviewed in The Washington Post. The review was published online on March 16, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Michael Barron writes:

“I couldn’t put it down.”

Your Absence Is Darkness was reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on March 31, 2024. Read the full review here.

Alison Manley writes:

“Stefánsson is a brilliant storyteller, and Roughton’s translation is well-done, capturing the meandering tone of the characters as they wander through the decades.”

Your Absence Is Darkness was also featured in Lit Hub as one of “The 22 Best Book Covers of March.” See the full article here.

Grab Your Absence Is Darkness here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simic (Feb 6, 2024) was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press on March 16, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Harriet Zaidman writes:

“Sajko’s taut, innovative writing has a pounding tempo; she unleashes a stream of consciousness that combines all the hopes, regrets and resentments competing in the minds of her characters . . . Every word has been chosen carefully.”

Love Novel was also reviewed in The Miramichi Reader, published online on March 16, 2024. Check out that review here.

Anne Smith-Nochasak writes:

“A necessary read . . . brief yet intricate, raw but profoundly touching.”

Grab Love Novel here!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christopher Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (April 2, 2024) has been listed by CBC Books as one of “52 works of Canadian fiction coming out in spring 2024.” The list was published online on March 2, 2024 and can be read here.

The Hollow Beast was featured in the Globe and Mail’s Spring Preview, published online on April 4, 2024. Check out the full preview here.

Emily Donaldson writes:

“The seed of Bernard’s big, high-octane novel, which won several Quebec prizes, and was a finalist for the 2018 Governor-General’s Award in French, is a 1911 hockey game in Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula whose bizarre, controversial ending results in a generations-long vendetta.”

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE

Sorry About the Fire by Colleen Coco Collins (April 23, 2024) was featured in CBC Books as one of their “37 Books to Watch for Spring 2024.” The article was published online on April 2, 2024. Check out the full article here.

Sorry About the Fire was also reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The article was published online on April 1, 2024. You can read the full article here.

Critic Michael Greenstein writes:

“Drawn to rims, arising patterns, nervy and peripheral flow, a hard-won lexicon, oblique echoes of crow, and twist of contrapposto, the Irish-French-Indigenous poet windhovers and burns through words and pages until the nadir of ember and ash.”

Get Sorry About the Fire here!

WORK TO BE DONE

Bruce Whiteman, author of Work to Be Done (March 12, 2024) was interviewed on Open Book. The interview was published online on April 2, 2024, and you can read the full interview here.

Get Work to Be Done here!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky by Mark Bourrie (October 8, 2024) was featured in the Globe and Mail’s Spring Preview, published online on April 4, 2024. Check out the full preview here.

Emily Donaldson writes:

“Bourrie’s latest, like its Charles Taylor Prize-winning predecessor, Bush Runner, focuses on the clash between European and Indigenous cultures in 17th-century colonial North America. Here, it’s the events leading to the violent ruin of Huronia, traditional home of the Huron-Wendat people, as they were experienced by the French Jesuit missionary and mystic Jean de Brébeuf.”

Order Crosses in the Sky here!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 14, 2024) has been reviewed in Booklist! The review will be published online on April 11, 2024.

In the review Michael Cart writes:

“Pugsley has done a particularly good job of character development in this fine, extremely well-written novel that will hold readers’ attention until the end.”

The Education of Aubrey McKee was listed by CBC Books as one of “52 works of Canadian fiction coming out in spring 2024.” The list was published online on March 2, 2024 and can be read here.

Order The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

AWARDS NEWS!

ON COMMUNITY

On Community by Casey Plett (November 7, 2023) has been longlisted for The Publishing Triangle 2024 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. The longlist was announced March 18, and can be seen here.

On Community has also been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction! The shortlist was announced on March 25, and you can check it out here.

Get On Community here!

COCKTAIL

Cocktail by Lisa Alward (Sep 12, 2023) has been shortlisted for the 2023 New Brunswick Book Award Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction. The shortlist was announced on March 20, 2024.

You can read the full list here.

Grab Cocktail here!