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Media Hits: WORK TO BE DONE, EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, CROSSES IN THE SKY, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

WORK TO BE DONE

Work to Be Done: Selected Essays and Reviews by Bruce Whiteman (Mar 12, 2024) was reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on May 15, and you can read it in full here.

Reviewer John Oughton writes,

“Whiteman is an erudite and very well-read lover of books in general, and literature in particular. He brings a finely honed critical perspective, a fine prose style of his own, and a sturdy sense of humour to the various essays and reviews collected here. “

Work to Be Done was also reviewed by Catherine Owen in FreeFall! The review was published online on May 13, and you can check out the full review here.

Catherine praises,

“Whiteman’s scholarship is prodigious and his style engaging as he addresses subjects that might be viewed as archaic or passé in a unique way, his tone intelligently conversational, quirky and eminently readable . . . His attention to the crucial choice of diction for translators and the essential sensitivity to sonority for the poet is relentlessly compelling. And he can be quite funny.”

Get Work to Be Done 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 in the Toronto Star! The review was published online on May 15, and you can read it here.

Reviewer Ken McGoogan writes,

“In 2019, Mark Bourrie published Bush Runner, a biography of the adventurer Pierre-Esprit Radisson that was ‘compelling, authoritative, not a little disturbing—and a significant contribution to the history of 17th-century North America,’ as I wrote at the time. The same can be said about Bourrie’s latest, Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia . . . In reinterpreting the Jesuit’s martyrdom against the backdrop of Huronia’s destruction, Bourrie presents a revisionist history.”

Mark Bourrie was also interviewed about the book on The Andrew Carter Morning Show! The interview was posted online on May 17, and is available to listen to here.

Order Crosses in the Sky here!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada alongside the first book in the Aubrey McKee Novels, Aubrey McKee! The review was published online on May 17, and will be printed in their June 2024 issue. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Liam Rockall raves,

“Bold and dynamic, Pugsley’s novels are lively and vivid, filled with individuals who are benevolent and cruel and with scenes that are captivating and terrifying. Aubrey McKee and The Education of Aubrey McKee are the first two acts of a sweeping personal drama, and any remaining volumes cannot come fast enough.”

Alex Pugsley was interviewed about The Education of Aubrey McKee, on CBC Main Street NS with Jeff Douglas! The interview was posted online on May 14, and you can give it a listen here.

Grab The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Sleep is Now a Foreign Country by Mike Barnes was featured in articles from Windsor News Today and The Windsor Star about its Trillium Award nomination! The Windsor News Today article was posted online on May 11, and can be read in full here, and The Windsor Star article was posted on May 17, and can be read here.

Get Sleep is Now a Foreign Country here!

BIBLIOASIS SPRING SEASON LAUNCH

Biblioasis’s own publisher Dan Wells was interviewed on AM 800’s The Shift with Patty Handsides on May 16, about our upcoming Spring Season Launch! The launch, which will take place in Windsor on May 23, will celebrate five of our newest titles: Crosses in the Sky by Mark Bourrie, The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley, Sorry About the Fire by Colleen Coco Collins, Barfly by Michael Lista, and Work to Be Done by Bruce Whiteman.

Listen to the full interview here!

More details about next week’s launch here.

Media Hits: EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, HOLLOW BEAST, COCKTAIL, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

Happy pub week! Alex Pugsley, author of The Education of Aubrey McKee (May 7, 2024) was interviewed by Jason Jeffries for the Bookin podcast. The interview was published on May 6, 2024. You can listen to the full episode here.

In the interview, Jason Jeffries called Education:

“The best book of 2024 period.”

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) received a starred review in Quill & Quire! The review was published online on May 8, 2024. Check out the review here.

Critic Cassandra Drudi writes:

“Bernard weaves a multicoloured, shimmering tapestry of the Gaspé . . . The many threads aren’t necessarily gathered into a neatly finished selvage by the time the reader gets to the end of the book, but the journey they have been taken on is so immersive, so grounded in a place and the characters that inhabit it, that it hardly matters.”

Author Christophe Bernard was interviewed on CBC All in a Weekend. The interview aired on May 5, 2024 and can be heard in full here.

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

COCKTAIL

Lisa Alward, author of Cocktail (Sep 12, 2023) was interviewed on CBC Information Morning for Fredericton! The interview aired on May 7, 2024, and you can listen to the full interview here.

Lisa Alward was also interviewed in The New Quarterly. The interview was published on May 9, 2024, and you can read the full interview here.

Cocktail was featured on CBC Books’ list of “14 Canadian short story collections to read for Short Story Month” on May 10, 2024! Check out the full list here.

Grab a Cocktail here!

 

CASE STUDY & DUCKS NEWBURYPORT

It’s a blast from the past: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet and Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann were both featured on the Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000 in the New York Times! Check out the full list here.

Pick up Ducks Newburyport here!

Get Case Study here!

 

Media Hits: HOLLOW BEAST, EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) was featured in Words Without Borders‘ April Watchlist! The article was posted online on April 29, and can be read here.

Tobias Carroll writes,

“The Hollow Beast is a sprawling story of generational feuds and old hostilities that refuse to die . . . the novel also unfurls like a knowing parody of such epics, blending hallucinatory moments and possibly nonexistent cryptids with a decades-spanning narrative.”

Christophe Bernard, author of The Hollow Beast, was interviewed in Open Book online on May 3. You can read the full interview here.

Open Book writes,

“[Bernard] aims to leave a mark on the broader landscape of CanLit. The author travelled far and wide before diving into novel writing, and absorbed important lessons from modern literary greats, channelling his experiences and influences into a singular voice.”

Get The Hollow Beast here!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

Alex Pugsley, author of The Education of Aubrey McKee wrote an article for The New Quarterly, “What’s Alex Pugsley Reading?” The article was posted online on May 1, and can be read here.

The New Quarterly also published an excerpt from Pugsley’s The Education of Aubrey McKee, “The Calvin Dover Show.” The excerpt can be read online here, and is also published in their Spring 170 print issue.

The Education of Aubrey McKee was also reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly on May 2, and you can read the full review here.

Publishers Weekly writes,

“The novel has an inventive structure, beginning with a short story set sometime in the future about Aubrey working as a writer on a sketch-comedy show and ending with a play by Aubrey.”

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

And check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE

Colleen Coco Collins, author of Sorry About the Fire, was interviewed in Open Book! The interview was published online on April 26, and can be read here.

When asked what the best and worst parts of being a poet is, Coco answered,

“I think the work of poetry is the best about being a poet. The weaving of the mesh that draws disparates into proximity and through their ensuing reciprocal rubs, enlightens, delights, unveils, enrages, and begets meaning, and question, and reckon..”

Get Sorry About the Fire here!

THE FULL-MOON WHALING CHRONICLES

The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel has been nominated for the 2024 Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association’s Elgin Award! The full list of nominees can be found here.

Get The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles here!

Media Hits: ALL THINGS MOVE, YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, WORK TO BE DONE, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

WORK TO BE DONE

Work to Be Done by Bruce Whiteman (Mar 12, 2024) was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada! The review was published online on April 15, and will appear in the May print issue. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Keith Garebian writes,

“Divided into five parts, Work to Be Done reveals a mind steeped in the classics, particularly the works of Hesiod, Virgil, and Ovid. The book is rigorous in exercise and academically precise, and it strives for a perspective that sometimes seems Olympian in tone.”

Grab Work to Be Done here!

SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE

Colleen Coco Collins, author of Sorry About the Fire (April 2, 2024), was interviewed for All Lit Up‘s ‘There’s a Poem For That’ series! The interview was published online on April 16, and can be read in full here.

Grab Sorry About the Fire here!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Mar 5, 2024) was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada, in the article ‘Found in Translation.’ The review will appear in the May print issue.

The review states,

“[Your Absence Is Darkness] . . . lends itself to any number of superlatives: Masterful. Intelligent. Haunting. Biblical and modern in equal measure.”

Your Absence Is Darkness was reviewed in the Tulsa Book Review online on April 19. Check out the full review here.

Reviewer Kevin Winter writes,

“If you are into slightly weird, esoteric literary fiction . . . then this book is for you.”

Get Your Absence Is Darkness here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simic (Feb 6, 2024) was also reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada’s article ‘Found in Translation.’ The review will appear in the May print issue.

The review states,

“[Sajko’s] sentences mimic how, in the heat of argument, thoughts converge, events conflate, and emotions surge until one forgets where it all began.”

Get Love Novel here!

THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) was featured in the Toronto Star‘s “Spring preview: 21 books to put at the top of your reading list.” The article was posted online on April 17, and can be read here.

Deborah Dundas writes,

“This latest is the second book in what is expected to be a four-book series, which began with 2020’s Aubrey McKee, which our reviewer called ‘exuberant, freewheeling stories’ with the general theme of ‘the insanity of being human.'”

Order The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book in The Aubrey McKee Novels, Aubrey McKee, here!

BARFLY

Barfly by Michael Lista (June 4, 2024) was also featured in the Toronto Star‘s “Spring preview: 21 books to put at the top of your reading list.” The article was posted online on April 17, and can be read here.

Deborah Dundas writes,

“The language is punchy, it can be raunchy, benefits from being read aloud, and when you do, like a Hole song, it’s full of bravado and vulnerability.”

Order Barfly  here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by Jeannie Marshall was featured in Vanity Fair‘s article “11 Books to Read This Month”! The list was published online on April 16, and can be read here.

Keziah Weir calls the book,

“Rich, meditative . . . The book is part art history, part memoir; a case for slowing down, curiosity, a closer look.”

Get All Things Move here!

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

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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!