Category Archives: Guest

Q & A: Erica McKeen, Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize (Literary Fiction)

“Tear is a bold, unflinching bildungsroman that moves, chimera-like, between the real and the imagined; among the confusions and traumas of youth; from the humane to the monstrous. And therein author Erica McKeen accomplishes the truly remarkable. While walking in the steps of such gothic icons as Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson, McKeen manages to forge […]

Q & A: Jennifer Falkner (Above Discovery)

“Falkner’s stories are dark, transportive, and intimately detailed character studies. Her expansive interest in history is apparent, ingrained in the minutiae of each fiction [wherein] looking backward, the constraints of the past are unexpectedly and undeniably revealed as intertwined with those of the present. …[An] exciting debut.” —Quill & Quire, Starred Review This spring, we […]

Reading Guide: Jennifer Falkner’s Above Discovery

Our books are great conversation starters, and who better to start those conversations than the authors themselves! You can find all of our available reading guides here. Rarely do I want to write stories about the lives of kings or generals. That ground feels well covered by now. In Above Discovery, I wanted instead to […]

Reading Guide: Kate Siklosi’s Selvage

Our books are great conversation starters, and who better to start those conversations than the authors themselves! You can find all of our available reading guides here. Selvage, as the title suggests, reckons with the unfinished seams of our existence and how those messy ends are also new beginnings. But perhaps above all else, this […]

Reading Guide: ryan fitzpatrick’s Sunny Ways

Our books are great conversation starters, and who better to start those conversations than the authors themselves! You can find all of our available reading guides here. What do people have to forget, deny, and ignore to keep things moving forward in the way they have been? Or, to put it more optimistically, how do […]

Take this deepest dive into sparkling water with Francine Cunningham

Blog, featured image. Text reads, Waterfalls That Punch You in the Throat, by Francine Cunningham

Waterfalls That Punch You in the Throat: The Elusive Beverage Sparkling water. Some love it. Others hate it. And some, like me, are obsessed. I don’t drink alcoholic or caffeinated beverages, and I am not a huge fan of sodas and juices—I’ve gotta really be craving it to coat my mouth in that much sugar. […]

Things I Didn’t Know About Publishing a First Book Until I Published My First Book  

Samantha Garner’s debut novel The Quiet is Loud has been shortlisted for the 8th Annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction! To celebrate, we asked Sam to look back on her first year of publication. Here, she shares that journey, a lifelong dream that “actually happened“. It’s been a year since my debut novel […]

October in the Soo

Shelly (Tal) Bressette portrait

October in the Soo       Poetry and photography by Shelly (Tal) Bressette Staring out the hotel window at choppy river water rippling fast below, cold as Algoma Steel. Tom Thomson shades of muted rust and gold rim distant shorelines and unseen winds billow beneath playful gulls’ wings. Stacks of spongy clouds climb above […]

Extracting Hope from Poison: On Quitting the Writer’s Life

Art by author: Ashley Obscura

Extracting Hope from Poison: On Quitting the Writer’s Life Essay and artwork by Ashley Obscura When I was presented with the opportunity and encouragement to write this essay I was in the midst of a personal crisis. I had just received my first, hard-earned travel grant to attend my first AWP Conference last year in […]

The Courier’s Dinner

The Courier’s Dinner By Seema Shafei  T came home from work smelling like fries and grease. He wiped the thick layer of sweat that collected on the back of his neck with the front part of his electric pink company shirt. The cotton was already splotched with the colours of different food and dirt he […]