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BEST CANADIAN 2021 SERIES Virtual Launch Video

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“The legacy of this series is massive … a literary institution.” —Ottawa Citizen

Last night we celebrated the virtual launch of the 2021 Best Canadian Series! The event kicked off with a discussion and Q&A between publisher Dan Wells and editors Bruce Whiteman, Diane Schoemperlen, and Souvankham Thammavongsa. This was followed by selected readings by contributors from each anthology: Eva-Lynn Jagoe from Essays, David Romanda from Poetry, and Metcalf-Rooke Award-winner Colette Maitland from Stories. The night finished off with a series giveaway.

And even if you missed the live event, you can still watch here!

ABOUT BRUCE WHITEMAN

Bruce Whiteman is a poet, translator, culture historian, and book reviewer. His reviews appear regularly in Canadian Notes & Queries, The Hudson Review, and elsewhere. Recent poetry collections include Intimate Letters (2014), Tablature (2015), and The Sad Mechanic Exercise (2019). His translation of Fanny Daubigny’s study Proust in Black: Los Angeles: A Proustian Fiction was published in 2019.

ABOUT DIANE SCHOEMPERLEN

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Diane Schoemperlen has published several collections of short fiction and three novels, In the Language of Love (1994), Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), and At A Loss For Words (2008). Her 1990 collection, The Man of My Dreams, was shortlisted for both the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium. Her collection, Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures won the 1998 Governor General’s Award for English Fiction. In 2008, she received the Marian Engel Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. In 2012, she was Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s University. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

ABOUT SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of five books: Small Arguments (2003), winner of the ReLit Prize; Found (2007), now a short film; Light (2013), winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry; Cluster (2019); and the short story collection How to Pronounce Knife (2020), winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She has been in residence at Yaddo and has presented her work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

 

Order your copy of Best Canadian Poetry here!

Order your copy of Best Canadian Stories here!

Order your copy of Best Canadian Essays here!

Get the Best Canadian 2021 Bundle here!

ROMANTIC Virtual Launch Video

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Last night we celebrated the virtual launch of Mark Callanan’s new poetry collection, Romantic (October 12, 2021)! Mark Callanan had a wonderful discussion with fellow poet Luke Hathaway, who showed up dressed in shining armor for the event! The reading was followed by an audience Q&A, and a successful book giveaway!

And if you missed the live launch, you can still check it out below!

 

ABOUT ROMANTIC

Drawing on Arthurian myth, the Romantic poets, the ill-fated “Great War” efforts of the Newfoundland Regiment, modern parenthood, 16-bit video games, and Major League Baseball, these poems examine the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, both as individuals and as communities, in order to explain how and why we are the way we are. At its heart, Romantic interrogates our western society’s idealized, self-deluding personal and cultural perspectives.

ABOUT MARK CALLANAN

Mark Callanan is the author of two previous poetry collections. He was one of the founding editors of the St. John’s, Newfoundland-based literary journal Riddle Fence and co-edited The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry. He lives in St. John’s with his wife, poet and critic Andreae Callanan, and their four children.

 

Get your copy of Romantic from Biblioasis here!

STRANGERS Virtual Launch Video

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On Thursday, May 27 we celebrated the launch of Rob Taylor’s poetry collection, Strangers! Rob Taylor was joined for a great discussion by Sadiqa de Meijer and Sue Sinclair. The night finished off with an audience Q&A and book giveaway! The event was co-hosted with Massy Books in Vancouver, BC.

And ICYMI, you can still watch the launch in the video below!

ABOUT STRANGERS

“It makes no sense. You would be strangers / if not for this.”

In Strangers, Rob Taylor makes new the epiphany poem: the short lyric ending with a moment of recognition or arrival. In his hands, the form becomes not simply a revelation in words but, in Wallace Stevens’ phrase, “a revelation in words by means of the words.” The epiphany here is not only the poet’s. It’s ours. A book about the songlines of memory and language and the ways in which they connect us to other human beings, to read Strangers is to become part of the lineages (literary, artistic, familial) that it braids together—to become, as Richard Outram puts it, an “unspoken / Stranger no longer.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rob Taylor is the author of four poetry collections, including Strangers (Biblioasis, 2021) and The News (Gaspereau Press, 2016), which was a finalist for the 2017 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. He is also the editor of What the Poets Are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation (Nightwood Editions, 2018) and the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2019 (Biblioasis, 2019). Rob lives with his family in Port Moody, BC.

Order your copy from Biblioasis here!

You can also order from Massy Books, or your local bookstore!

Poetry Month with Biblioasis Poets: Part II

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National Poetry Month may be over, but poetic excellence lives on! If you happened to miss our posts on social media, thankfully you can still enjoy listening to our fantastic poets read from their works, collected below! Check out out these virtual readings from the last half of the month (and you can find those from the beginning of the month here).

Erín Moure kicks off this round reading from her poem, “Odiama,” featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and first published in Arc Poetry Magazine.

Frances Boyle reads from “Pegging Out Washing,” which was in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally in Queen’s Quarterly.

Andrea Thompson both reads, and explains the inspiration behind her poem, “To Whyt/Anthology/Editors,” which appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in Arc Poetry Magazine.

Babo Kamel reads from her poem “It’s Always Winter When Someone Dies,” which was featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and first appeared in Contemporary Verse 2.

Abby Paige shares from her “Selected Hoems.” Her work can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was originally published in Arc Poetry Magazine.

Selina Boan discusses and reads from her poem, “Minimal Pairs Are Words Holding Hands,” which can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was originally published in Room Magazine.

Maureen Scott Harris shares with us “A Room Of My Own,” which can be read in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in The New Quarterly.

Have a listen to Tanis MacDonald’s reading of “Feeding Foxes,” which is featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in Contemporary Verse 2.

Join Anita Lahey in her reading of Adele Wiseman’s “Never Put Off a Poem,” which can be found in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was first published in Juniper.

Last, but certainly not least, finishing off the month is Margret Bollup, reading from her poem “Dementia and common household objects,” which is featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and was originally published in The New Quarterly.

We hope you enjoyed our celebration of Poetry Month, and continue to dive into the works of our wonderful poets.

Purchase Best Canadian Poetry 2020 from Biblioasis here, or from your local bookstore!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT, STRANGERS, DEBT, VILLA NEGATIVA, ON TIME AND WATER, SEA LOVES ME, DRIVEN: Latest News!

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We’ve gotten some fantastic coverage on a number of our titles here at Biblioasis in the last couple of weeks. Take a look at these reviews!

IN THE NEWS

Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat was highlighted in the New York Review of Books, and in a starred review by Foreword Reviews! You can read the New York Review of Books article here, and the Foreword Reviews article here.

New York Review of Books reviewer Ange Mlinko writes:

“Ní Ghríofa is a poet through and through: in this prose work she writes lyrical sentences that make the physical world come alive … It was around Ní Chonaill’s time that a new poetic form was invented: the aisling, a dream vision of Ireland revealing itself to the poet as a beautiful woman in need of saving. Ní Ghríofa certainly gives us a new, feminist vision of a woman saving another woman, righting a historical imbalance that persists in women’s continued sacrifices.”

Michelle Anne Schingler writes in Foreword Reviews:

“History mutes women; it also depends on them. This paradox is at the heart of a A Ghost in the Throat, an extraordinary literary memoir that finds life in buried spaces … Feminist and feminine, A Ghost in the Throat gives defiant voice to hushed womanhood, in all of its pain and glory. Her images incandescent and brutal, Ní Ghríofa writes about the omens represented by starlings and about unearthed fragments of teacups, but also about caesarean scars, bleeding hangnails, and the consuming fire of her husband’s touch … A Ghost in the Throat is an achingly gorgeous literary exploration that establishes a sisterhood across generations.”

Visit their websites for the full reviews!

Order your copy from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore.

 

Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water, and Mia Couto’s Sea Loves Me were both featured in reviews by the Winnipeg Free Press! The piece on Magnason can be read here, and the one on Couto can be read here.

Of On Time and Water, reviewer Joseph Hnatiuk had this to say:

“Compelling … This clarion call to action on the climate issue, coming from award-winning Icelandic poet and novelist Andri Snær Magnason, should be required reading for deniers of the greatest crisis humans have ever faced … A memoir and polemic featuring mythological stories, Icelandic folklore, cultural histories and science-driven extrapolations which effectively combine to send a strong message about the planetary damage humans are causing.”

While Rory Runnells wrote about Sea Loves Me:

“Extraordinary … Begin anywhere, with any story, and you as reader are safe within Couto’s world. The imagination is without limit, the poetic force is exhilarating and often disturbing, while the surprise of some is breathtaking … Couto is as much a master of the pointed anecdote as the longer tale.”

Check out the Winnipeg Free Press website for the full reviews.

Purchase your copy of On Time and Water from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

Order Sea Loves Me today from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

 

Strangers by Rob Taylor, Villa Negativa by Sharon McCartney, and The Debt by Andreae Callanan were all featured on CBC’s 55 Canadian poetry collections to check out in spring 2021 list! For a look at our poetry collections and more, check out the full list here.

Order your copy of Strangers at Biblioasis

Order your copy of Villa Negativa at Biblioasis

Order your copy of The Debt at Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

 

And just last week, Marcello Di Cintio’s Driven was given a glowing shout-out on twitter by none other than Margaret Atwood!

Atwood wrote:

“An astonishing book about folks from all over, many of whom have been through total hell but have somehow made their way out … You never know who’s driving you. Each person contains multitudes.”

Purchase your copy of Driven at Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

THE DEBT Virtual Launch Video

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Over the weekend we celebrated the launch of Andreae Callanan’s poetry collection, The Debt! Andreae Callanan was joined in conversation by Elaine Feeney, and the event was emceed wonderfully by Mark Callanan. The launch finished off with an audience Q&A, and a successful book giveaway. The event was also co-hosted by Running the Goat Books in Tors Cove, NL.

And if you couldn’t make it, don’t worry! You can still watch here:

ABOUT THE DEBT

Set against the backdrop of a post-moratorium St. John’s, Newfoundland, The Debt explores tensions between tradition and innovation, and between past and present in a province unmoored by loss and grief. The Debt is about development and change, idleness and activism, ecological stewardship, feminism, motherhood, the personal and the political. It is also about resistance—against the encroaching forces of greed and capitalism, even against the accumulated notions of the self. The poems are an argument for community and connection in an age increasingly associated with isolation of the individual. The Debt explores the dues we all owe: to nature, to those who came before us, and to one another.

ABOUT ANDREAE CALLANAN

Andreae Callanan’s poetry, essays, and reviews have been read in The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, Canadian Verse 2, Riddle Fence, CBC.ca, and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is a recent recipient of the Cox & Palmer SPARKS Creative Writing Award at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and she holds a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship for her doctoral work in English literature. Her chapbook, Crown, was published by Anstruther Press in 2019. Andreae lives in St. John’s with her husband and their four children.

 

Pre-order your copy from Running the Goat Bookstore

Learn more about The Debt, or pre-order your copy, from Biblioasis

Celebrating Poetry Month with Biblioasis Poets!

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It’s National Poetry Month, and Biblioasis is celebrating virtually with our brilliant poets! Each day we’re featuring a different poet on our social media, who not only reads from their work, but gives a little insight into their poetry as well. Join us for this exciting month of paying tribute to poetic excellence by checking out their readings so far below!

 

Starting off the month was a throw-back to an event from last year, A Best Canadian Poetry Virtual Event, with Anita Lahey and Luke Hathaway. Featuring readings from, and discussions about, Best Canadian Poetry 2020 anthology!

Sanna Wani is the first of our individual poet readings, beginning with her poem “As I pray”, which was in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in canthius:

Geoff Pevlin reads and discusses “clumper crackies/Ice Pan Puppies”, from Best Canadian Poetry 2020, originally published in The Fiddlehead:

Fiona Tinwei Lam leads us into her poem “Ode to the Potato”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in The New Quarterly:

Next up, Dallas Hunt reads “Louise”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in Contemporary Verse 2:

Susan Haldane gives a lovely reading of “Thin-Skinned”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in Grain Magazine:

Rob Budde discusses his poem “Blockade”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and first published in The Goose Journal:

Kevin Spenst’s poem, “It Will Rain Like Rods On the Hillside in Sweden” is read not by one, but various people to to articulate the presence of rain across the world. Spenst is featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and his poem was originally published in Taddle Creek.

Dell Catherall brings us outside with her poem “Fig Sestina”, featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and originally published in The New Quarterly:

Rounding out the first half of the month is Erín Moure, reading “Odiama”, which was featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020, and first published in Arc Poetry Magazine:

 

But Poetry Month’s not over yet! Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube throughout the rest of April to continue listening to more from our amazing poets!

 

Purchase Best Canadian Poetry 2020 from Biblioasis here, or from your local bookstore!

VILLA NEGATIVA and SMITHEREENS Virtual Double Launch Video

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We had a wonderful time last night celebrating the double poetry launch of Sharon McCartney’s Villa Negativa, as well as Terence Young’s Smithereens from Harbour Publishing! The two authors each read from their books, and had a lively discussion, before finishing the event with an audience Q&A and giveaway.

And if you missed it, don’t worry! You can still watch the video here:

Order your copy of Villa Negativa by Sharon McCartney here.

Visit Harbour Publishing’s site to learn more about Smithereens by Terence Young here.

ABOUT VILLA NEGATIVA

The anticipated seventh collection of poetry from the celebrated Canadian poet.
How can we know who we are when we can never step away from ourselves? Villa Negativa posits that we can only know what we are not and explores that conundrum against the backdrop of a sibling’s illness and death, an eating disorder and a couple of really dismal dating relationships. Though it could be sombre territory, Villa Negativa looks for the laughter behind the darkness: the housebreaker who takes off her shoes first, the fabricator whose most intimate relationship is with fibreglass, the anorexic who sends the Diet Coke back because it tastes too good.

ABOUT SMITHEREENS

In Smithereens, Terence Young ranges widely among forms, subjects, tones and moods, invoking the domestic world of family and home, as well as the associated realms of work and play. He describes the simple pleasure of losing one’s bearings and seeing the world anew in “Tender is the Night,” and in “The Bear” he records the near-magical appearance at a summer cabin of a creature that hasn’t been seen in the area in over fifty years. The ironic benefits of a house fire, the late-night sounds of a downtown alley, the smells of a summer morning in the Gulf islands—all of these serve as vehicles for reminiscence, meditation and humour. Elsewhere in the collection, he summons an elegiac mood, remembering in poems like “Surcease,” “Fern Island Candle,” “The Morning Mike Dies,” and “Gary” some of the friends who have left his world. More than any of his previous books, though, Smithereens features poems that are playful, in which language is often associative, surprising and fun. It is a collection that will reward readers, whatever their temperament upon picking it up, and it will also invite them to return to its pages again and again.