The No-Sale Sale Shopping Suggestion: Support a Local Author

From now till December 31, when you buy two Invisible Publishing books from your favourite indie booksellers, we’ll send you a free, limited-edition SURPRISE in the mail! It’s all part of The No-Sale Sale and our invitation to you to buy local! All details here.

Want to support a local author? Here are some suggestions!

Kamloops, the unceded territory of the Secwepemcúl’ecw
Susan Buis, Gatecrasher: “We do not have to wait long with Susan Buis’s first volume, Gatecrasher, to realize that we are in the presence of a formidably original poetic talent.”—The Ormsby Review

Prince George, the unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh
Gillian Wigmore, Glory: “[A] twisting journey of love and survival. Sensitive, taut, and observant, each voice in Wigmore’s complex tapestry brings this small town brilliantly to life.”—Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam
Susannah M. Smith, The Fairy Tale Museum: “A dream within a dream within a book. A wonderland-like journey through magic and imagination. If you like dark fairy tales, you’ll probably like this.”—McNally Robinson Staff Pick

Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Port of Being, with so many nominations, including the City of Vancouver Book Award, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and WINNER of the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry: “Port of Being fearlessly exhumes the fibre-optic nervous system undergirding our metropolises and oceans, and intercepts the mixed signals that traffic our airwaves.”—Quill and Quire

Banff, the unceded territories of the Blackfoot, the Tsuut’ina, the Stoney Nakoda, and also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III
Mark Black, NoMeansNo: Going Nowhere: “[S]olemn reflection, interviews with the band, personal interpretation and the annals of punk [written] with a self-deprecating sense of humor that helps insert breathers in an otherwise tightly packed chronology.”—VICE

Calgary, the unceded territories the Blackfoot, the Tsuut’ina, and the Stoney Nakoda, and also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III
Tyler Hellard, Searching for Terry Punchout, shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize: “A story of a father, a son and hockey that set[s] heart and mind reeling.”—Atlantic Books Today

Winnipeg, the unceded territories of the Cree, Inninnowuk, Dene, Saulteax, Oji-Cree, Anishinabe, and Métis
Seyward Goodhand, Even That Wildest Hope, finalist for the Manitoba Book Awards’ Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book: “[A] sea of serious subject matter through 10 stories that range from addressing identity crises, health issues and existentialism [,] this book should be on the reading list of many who are still searching for that wildest hope in their lives.”—Uniter

Toronto, the unceded territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat
Andrew Kaufman, Small Claims: “There are very few Canadian authors…willing to submerge that deeply into magic…[Kaufman’s] prose is so refreshingly heartfelt and natural that he makes it easy to believe.”—The Coast

Marie-Helene Larochelle, trans. by Michelle Winters, Daniil and Vanya, a 2020 Book of the Year (Quill & Quire): “An unflinching psychological horror story, both sinister and awe-inspiringly good.”—Chatelaine

Teri Vlassopoulos, Escape Plans and Bats or Swallows, shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award: “Bats or Swallows manages to evoke not just the uncertainty and fear of young adulthood, but it’s magic and inexplicable excitement as well.”—Quill & Quire

Faye Guenther, Swimmers in Winter: “Swimmers in Winter is a wonderful debut and offers a hauntingly beautiful meditation on uncertainty, pain, love, sexuality, and selfhood.”—The Miramichi Reader

Marcus McCann, Shut Up Slow Down Let Go Breathe, 2017 Book of the Year (Quill & Quire): “Swaying flirtatiously between themes of aging, apology, self-awareness, and sex [and] a reminder of why intimacy, along with all its attendant disappointments, is still worth striving for.”—Quill & Quire

Zoe Whittall, The Emily Valentine Poems: “This reminds me that I would like to know everything about this person.”—Eileen Myles

Prince Edward County, the unceded territories of the Anishnabek, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)
Tanya Finestone & Leigh Nash (editors), Nell Casson (illus.), Don’t Honk Twice: A Prince Edward County Anthology: “This charming book of stories recounts tales of living in and moving to PEC [and] will resonate with anyone who knows country life or has upended and moved elsewhere.”—Reader review, perhaps one who upended and moved elsewhere (We hope you’re doing well!)

Natalie Wollenberg & Leigh Nash (editors), County Heirlooms: Recipes and Reflections from Prince Edward County: “The world may be falling apart, but you can pull together a simple and satisfying sauce for your pasta. […] You can share a feast with your community, and find the space for yourself when your sense of self feels stolen. Everything can feel wrong, but we can still conjure gratitude, pleasure, and plenty. We can still enjoy a meal.”—Stacey May Fowles on cooking during the COVID-19 pandemic

Honorary County-member, Paddy Scott (from nearby Trenton), The Union of Smokers: “Funny, intelligent, and unexpectedly poignant… never feeling forced. The Union of Smokers is pure exhilaration, a personal favourite of Spring 2020.”—Atlantic Books Today

Ottawa, the unceded territory of the Anishinabeg
Monty Reid, Garden: “Life is this inconceivable cabbage patch, says Reid, and no reader of this book will wish it otherwise; ostensibly about a garden, these poems are about what it means to be human.”—Mary Ruefle, finalist, 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Amanda Earl, Kiki: “[G]rab a pack of Gauloises and a bottle of absinthe and slip into Kiki’s time machine. . .”—Camille Martin, Looms

rob mclennan, The Uncertainty Principle: “Imagine a Venn diagram, with one circle labelled ‘Stories’ and another labelled ‘Poetry’ and yet another labelled ‘The Journal from an Imagined Life’ and where the circles intersect, you would have The Uncertainty Principle. Each story, and thus each page, is a surprise, a discovery, and a reminder that art exists in even the smallest nooks and crannies.”—Arjun Basu, Shorty Award for Literature

Jeremy Hanson-Finger, Death and the Intern, shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize: “[A] page-turning crime novel with a shot of dark comedy and enough medical jargon to keep things interesting without bogging down the narrative flow.”—Winnipeg Free Press

Cameron Anstee, Book of Annotations, shortlisted for the Archibald Lampman Award and the Nelson Ball Prize: “Wise and playful, the epigrammatic poems in Book of Annotations push past the limits of each word and into a space tense with imagination and truth.”—Archibald Lampman Award jury citation

Montreal, the unceded territories of the Kanien’keha:ka and the Anishinabeg
Bindu Suresh, 26 Knots, a CBC Best Book of 2019: “One of the most striking Canadian literary debuts of the year.”—Montreal Gazette

Hugh Thomas, Maze: “The poems in Maze, as the title suggests, articulate a navigation through language and languages, deliberately allowing for misunderstanding, and opening up the possibility for what might otherwise be impossible.”—Vallum

Anna Leventhal, Sweet Affliction, winner of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize and a CBC Best Book of 2014: “Sweet Affliction’s reviews have been positive across the board, and rightly so. It’s a collection that reads more like a mid-career statement than a tentative debut.”—Montreal Gazette

Jonah Campbell, Eaten Back to Life: “Campbell specializes in literary artisanal prose, which means it is mannered and amusing.”—Toronto Star

Halifax, the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq
Peter Counter, Be Scared of Everything: “The essays in Be Scared of Everything are the best body horror amalgam of criticism and biography.”—The Bookshelf

Stephanie Domet, Homing and Fallsy Downsies: “Homing is a touching journey through the lives of friends and strangers all dealing with loss and grief that gloriously intersects for a heart-warming end. A re-invented ghost story. Wonderful, thought-provoking.”—just-the-best reader review!

Anna Quon, Migration Songs and Low, from “a new hopeful voice” (The Coast): “Low is a genuine and gentle novel about family, identity, and the road to recovery.”—Quill & Quire

Bart Vautour, The Truth About Facts, longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award: “These are the facts and truths, and their implosions and undoings, that you want to sit with, savour, and, with childlike vigour, question everything you thought you already knew.”—Kate Siklosi, po po poems

Nolan Natasha, I Can Hear You, Can You Hear Me?: “Nolan Natasha’s collection maps the large cultural shift we’re all feeling about identity, about vulnerability, about body, about community with insight and acuity.”—Sue Goyette, Anthesis