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news | Friday February 14, 2025
Happy Valentine’s Day, Talonites! To help you celebrate this day of love and grammatically questionable candy hearts, we’ve got some book recommendations that crank the affection up to eleven.
1. The World Afloat by M.A.C. Farrant is a perfect Valentine’s Day read! The winner of the 2014 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, The World Afloat offers delicious bite-sized stories that ask the important questions, like what happens when a whimsical spirit becomes captive to a middle-aged body? At the end of a Love Your Package workshop, what does the wrap-up dinner look like? Can a soggy tomato salad really end someone’s marriage? Sexuality and depravity, childhood and bad parenting, and love and divorce are all deftly handled in this hot flash of a book that goes straight to the heart of things. Order a copy of The World Afloat here.
2. Wet, the latest collection by the current Writer-in-Residence at the University of the Fraser Valley Leanne Dunic, combines poetry, fairytale, and photography. Utterly engrossing, Wet follows a transient Chinese American model working in Singapore as she thirsts for the unattainable: fair labour rights, the extinguishing of nearby forest fires, breathable air, healthy habitats for animals, human connection. In photographs and language shot through with empathy and desire, Wet unravels complexities of social stratification, sexual privation, and environmental catastrophe. Pick up your copy here.
3. The Heart Laid Bare by Michel Tremblay and translated by Sheila Fischman is a thoroughly touching novel that is a capital “L”, capital “S” Love Story. Jean-Marc has fallen in love. The object of his affection is Mathieu, a young actor working as a salesman at Eaton’s while waiting for his big break. As a dowry to their new relationship, Mathieu brings Sébastien, his son. Jean-Marc, a fusty academic, is not sure about being able to make room in his life for this four-year-old boy. Their story is told with all the warmth and empathy that is so characteristic of Tremblay’s writing. Order a copy of The Heart Laid Bare here.
As a fun bonus, if you like your romantic novels with a little slice of history, an excerpt from The Heart Laid Bare was shared to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Parliament of Canada’s passing of Bill C150, which included the decriminalization of homosexuality. More on that here.
Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us here at Talonbooks!
news | Thursday February 13, 2025
Steven Ross Smith reviews The Middle by Stephen Collis in The British Columbia Review. The Middle, released in October of 2024, extends Collis’s investigation of threatened climate futures into a poetics of displacement and wandering. Focusing on the human-plant relationship, each of The Middle’s linked sequences employs various forms of citational practice, rooted in the idea of a “poetic commons,” a kind of literary seed dispersal where words are blown, carried, and scattered from one textual field to another, akin to all the plants and animals in motion on our dangerously heating planet.
An excerpt from Smith’s article: “This book is a dense, rich reflection on the natural world and … human impact. Collis considers poets and their writings, as woven in … a “poetic commons,” the current and historic ecology that poets and language’s evolution share. There is sorrow, there is hope … Stephen Collis sees the interweaving, seeks understanding, and expresses awe and awareness.”
Read the full review here.
news | Wednesday February 12, 2025
Check out Queen’s University’s coverage of “Learning to Listen to Rivers, ” a two-day event conducted by sophie anne edwards. The Conversations with the Kagawong River author was recently Queen’s University’s Geopoet-in-Residence.
From the article: “‘The ethos for our time together is one of listening and responsiveness, rather than finely defined step-by-step instructions,” Edwards explains. “While we were all invited to create, and to share, we were not focused on creating finished pieces or performances: rather, we leaned into process, loosening the static boundaries of productivity. We asked questions that invite long consideration, and perhaps never a finished answer.’”
Read more here.
news | Saturday February 8, 2025
February is Black History and Black Futures Month! To mark the occasion, we want to suggest some outstanding titles by Black authors to add to your to-be-read pile. Whether it’s a new release, a classic from the vault, or a soon-to-land title, we’re excited to spotlight these remarkable talents.
First up is Redbone Coonhound by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton. This scorching satire published in 2024 won six METAs (Montréal English Theatre Awards) and was named one of the Toronto Star’s “Ten Best Theatre Shows in 2023.” Out for a walk in their Vancouver neighbourhood, interracial couple Mike and Marissa meet a dog with an unfortunate breed name: Redbone coonhound. This detail unleashes a cascading debate between them about race and their relationship that manifests as a series of micro-plays, each satirizing contemporary perspectives on modern culture. Through hard-hitting comedic elements, Redbone Coonhound explores the intricacies of race, systemic power, and privilege in remarkable and surprising ways.
Here’s an excerpt from the play:
“MIKE: …“Redbone coonhound.” Really? Looking me straight in the
eyes when they said it, too … Like, really? Really?
MARISSA: Should they have not looked at you when they said it?
I think that would have been weird.
MIKE: They shouldn’t have said it at all.
MARISSA: Well, you did ask them. And it’s not like they came up
with it. They’re not nineteenth-century Quaker folk.
MIKE: They chose it.
MARISSA: If a Dalmatian was called a honky cracker, I’d
still want one.
MIKE: Disney would not have made One Hundred and One Honky Crackers.”
Pick up your copy of Redbone Coonhound here.
Have you read Je me souviens by the late, great Lorena Gale? A finalist for the 2002 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, Je me souviens is a striking dramatic monologue that reconstructs the author’s childhood in Montréal. Her autobiographical protagonist is unabashedly one of those spoil-sport “ethniques” who, for political factions led by the likes of Parizeau, undermined and destroyed the separatist “pur-laine” vision of a new Quebec nation, sparkling and clean in its coat of only three colours—the seamless snow-white of the landscape, the royal blue of the sky, and the golden yellow of the sun (king), all allusions to the symbology of the imperialists who founded this “new nation,” this “new France.”
An excerpt from Je me souviens:
“Don’t talk back.
Don’t raise your voice.
Don’t wear loud colours.
Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself.
Smile even when it hurts.
Just try to fit in.
And don’t rock the boat.
If anyone stops to speak to you, answer them
politely and only if you have to. Otherwise
keep on moving.
Walk like you know where you’re going.
Keep focused on what’s ahead of you.
If you run into some commotion, don’t stand
around gawking.
Don’t try to help.
Just keep on moving.
If it looks like trouble is coming towards you,
then cross the street.
If it looks like trouble is sneaking up behind
you, then run.”
Order your copy of Je me souviens here.
Coming this spring is allostatic load, the much-anticipated second poetry collection by Junie Désil. allostatic load navigates the racialized interplay of chronic wear and tear during tumultuous years marked by global racial tensions, an ongoing pandemic, the commodification of care, and the burden of systemic injustice. Moving between diaristic intimacy and the remove of news reportage, this collection invites readers to hold the vulnerability and resilience required to navigate deep healing in a world that does not wish you well, in a world that is inflamed and consequently inflames us, in a world where true restoration and health must co-occur with the planet and with each other. Watch this space for more news, and pre-order your copy here.
Also forthcoming is a brand new poetry collection by the University of California Berkeley’s current Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry, Cecily Nicholson! Crowd Source parallels the daily migration of the crows who, aside from fledgling season, fly across metro Vancouver every day at dawn and dusk. This durational study echoes their flight, occasionally touching down to reflect on human-crow interactions. Continuing Nicholson’s engagement with the contemporary climate crisis, social movements, and Black diasporic relations, this is a text for all concerned about practising ecological futurities befitting corvid sensibilities, caw. Pre-order a copy of Crowd Source here.
We hope your Black History and Black Futures Month is full of the kind of books that stick with you long after you’ve finished reading them. Good reading, all!
news | Friday February 7, 2025
rob mclennan interviews sophie anne edwards about her debut book Conversations with the Kagawong River, her influences, and life as a writer.
From the interview:
“5 – Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I didn’t know I would enjoy readings. I live in a pretty rural place, so readings are a rarity. The Talon launch in Vancouver was my first public reading (apart from reading stuff in workshops and at residencies). So now, as a seasoned (ha) reader after four or five events, I’m finding that I enjoy reading the work aloud. The voice does something with the work that isn’t found on the page, and I love the quiet vibe when folks are really into it.”
Read the complete piece here.news | Wednesday February 5, 2025
Nevada Alde writes about the upcoming stage production of Behind the Moon by Anosh Irani at The Belfry Theatre for Victoria Buzz. Dazzling for stage and page alike, Behind the Moon is a story of love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and how we begin a new life.
Read Alde’s piece here.
news | Tuesday February 4, 2025
the berry takes the shape of the bloom by andrea bennett has been awarded second place in the 2024 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry! The poems in the berry takes the shape of the bloom entwine around enmeshed experiences of gender, family, trans pregnancy, abuse, fear, and becoming. Read about all of the winners of the eleventh annual Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry here. Congratulations, andrea!
news | Monday February 3, 2025
We are so pleased to announce that Uiesh / Somewhere, winner of the Prix des libraires, the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for French Prose, the Prix littéraire des enseignant.e.s de Français, and the Coup de Cœur Renaud-Bray, and finalist for the Prix Alain-Grandbois, is now available for English language readers! Written by phenomenal Innu poet Joséphine Bacon and translated by Jessica Moore, Uiesh / Somewhere is a dual-language collection, with all poems appearing in both Innu-aimun and English.
An excerpt from Uiesh / Somewhere:
“I have a hundred words to tell you
the story of my old age
my wrinkles
Gone, my lightness of foot
Short of breath now
but in my dreaming I walk on
tireless
I know how to hear the leaves
I learn the world
my age grows old with me
I haven’t got a hundred words
I haven’t lived a hundred years”
The poems in Uiesh / Somewhere are rooted in Innu Elder Joséphine Bacon’s experiences of moving between the nomadic ways of her Ancestors in the northern wilderness of Nitassinan and the clamour of the city. Wherever she is, Bacon is attentive to the smallest details of her environment, from the moon and the stars, the Northern Lights, and the falling snow, to the sirens of fire engines and the noise of a busy bar night. Pick up your copy of Uiesh / Somewhere here.
news | Friday January 31, 2025
A brand new play by the award-winning playwright and novelist Anosh Irani has arrived! Behind the Moon is a story of love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and how we begin a new life. In a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, a late-night visit from a mysterious stranger rattles the cage and shatters the peace. Now the restaurant’s employee Ayub must face reality, the family he’s left behind, and the dreams he’s abandoned, all while keeping the restaurant shiningly clean.
An excerpt from Behind the Moon:
“AYUB: The register’s closed for the day.
JALAL: You take it then.
AYUB: It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.
JALAL: No, no, that’s not right. Please, I want to –
AYUB: I insist. It’s a gift. One dead chicken. Smeared in butter. Way
past the best-before date.
JALAL: I really appreciate it.
AYUB: It’s okay.
JALAL: My name is Jalal.
JALAL offers his hand. AYUB shakes it. But does not
introduce himself.
And you are …
AYUB: Late. I’m late. I have to go.
….
JALAL: I’m really sorry. But I have to ask.
AYUB: Ask what?
JALAL: Why did you give me the food?
AYUB: You said it was an emergency.
JALAL: I’m not sure if you believed me.
AYUB: Does it matter?
JALAL: I would be grateful if you told me.
AYUB: Fine. I gave you the food because you passed the test.
JALAL: Test? What test?
AYUB: You did not touch the glass. When you chose your food,
you did not touch the glass.”
With stage productions running in Victoria and Vancouver this season, Behind the Moon is not to be missed. Pick up your copy here.
news | Thursday January 30, 2025
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Kwakwaka’wakw Hereditary Chief Bill Wilson. Father to Kory Wilson and Jody Wilson-Raybould and husband to Bev Sellars, former Chief and Councillor of the Xat’sull (Soda Creek) First Nation in Williams Lake, Wilson was a lifelong defender of Indigenous Rights. Wilson was one of the founders of the BC First Nations Congress (now the First Nations Summit). Some of his personal story and prose are included in Sellars’s Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival. Wilson’s work, words, and activism were instrumental in enshrining Indigenous Title to Land and Treaty Rights in the Canadian Constitution. We extend our condolences to his loved ones and all who are mourning this terrible loss.
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