news | Monday March 30, 2026

Pearl Has Landed!

We are delighted to announce that Pearl by literary icon and Canada’s first ever Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Bowering has landed! The making of a poem is like the making of a pearl – you take something gritty and create a jewel. This collection sprawls in search of the next glimmering insight, tugging at different threads with a multifarious large-heartedness. This is a collection holding both levity and depth in its pages.

From “A Woodsy Wish”:

“Whose words these are I wish I knew.
I’d like to toss him in the slough.
If they’d been written by a horse,
I do not think they’d be much worse.

The terza rima is a snooze.
My crowd would give it three loud boos.
And all the dumby dumb de dumb
would make them ask, who is this bum?

The guy can hear a flake of snow;
with such an ear, where does he go?
To where you look at jumping sheep,
iambic numbers of his sleep.

To sleep, perchance to clip clip clop,
till you don’t think he’ll ever stop.
With miles to go and go, of course,
you’ll wish he’d fallen off his horse.”

and an excerpt from “Earth”:

“He found her mother’s grave
in a forlorn windswept cemetery
in middle Alberta,

her father saved the headstone
money for something else,
nice guy.

He got a photo of her mother’s
mother’s grave in a lovely
Mennonite graveyard in Oregon.

He leaned on his cane
while someone scraped the snow
and laid her with her own husband.

This is what newborn
children are for.”

Touching, ribald, and cheeky, Pearl reflects on a life well-lived and well-written. Get your copy of Bowering’s final poetry collection here.

news | Sunday March 29, 2026

Review of Convivialities in C Magazine

Nageen Shaikh reviews Convivialities: Dialogues on Poetics by Michael Nardone in C Magazine. Shaikh says Convivialities is “an eclectic range of perspectives grounded in social-materialist poetics, politics, translation, activism, and Indigeneity … a highly critical and self-aware compendium, offering clarity, if not outright solutions.” Read the complete piece here.

news | Saturday March 28, 2026

Canadian Lambda Finalists in CBC Books

CBC Books has written up a rundown of all of the 2026 Canadian Lambda Literary Awards finalists, including Talonbooks author Sarah Waisvsiz whose debut publication, Heartlines: A Love Story is shortlisted for the award for LGBTQ+ Drama. Now in their 38th year, the Lambda Literary Awards celebrate outstanding 2SLGBTQIA+ storytelling. Check out the wonderful assortment of authors shortlisted in one of twenty-six categories here.

news | Friday March 27, 2026

Save Your Prayers – Send Money Featured on CBC Books

Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton is featured on CBC Books’s list of forthcoming must-read Canadian poetry titles.

Save Your Prayers – Send Money boldly takes on the wellness industry. Kirton delves into disability politics through the lived experience of a seventy-year-old Métis woman and recovering New Ager. A hybrid collection that moves fluidly between prose and poetry, Save Your Prayers – Send Money weaves intergenerational trauma and its impact on health through the daily realities of chronic pain and illness.

View all of the CBC Books recommendations here.

news | Friday March 27, 2026

World Theatre Day 2026

March 27 is World Theatre Day! Plays are a significant part of Talonbooks’s publishing program. We love the mastery of dialogue, the depth of character, and (of course) the drama of it all. Comedy, heartbreak, commentary, satire, education, romance … theatre has been a place to explores and present all of these fundamental human experiences throughout history. Happy World Theatre Day, Talonites. To us, this is very much something to celebrate. Here are a handful of amazing plays from recent years we’d love to beam a fresnel light at for World Theatre Day.

1. Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show/Le Wild West Show de Gabriel Dumont by Jean Marc Dalpé, David Granger, Laura Lussier, Alexis Martin, Andrea Menard, Yvette Nolan, Gilles Poulin Denis, Paula-Jean Prudat, Mansel Robinson, and Kenneth T. Williams

Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show is a flamboyant epic, constructed as a series of tableaux, about the struggles of the Métis in the Canadian West. The creative team behind Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show – including ten authors, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, French- and English-speaking men and women – brings Dumont’s dream to life in a captivating, joyously anachronistic saga. Order your copy here.

2. Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life by Caroline Russell-King and Maria Crooks

Check out the winner of the Theatre BC Canadian Playwriting Competition, two Betty Mitchell Awards, and two Calgary Theatre Critics’ Awards, Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life! This play is a flight of fancy based on the incredible life of African American sculptor Dr. Selma Hortense Burke. Burke chronicled many of the extraordinary and devastating events of the past century in her outstanding work: lynchings, the Harlem Renaissance, the Holocaust, the assassination of Martin Luther King. Burke persisted in artmaking in the face of a society that didn’t always recognize her talents, a husband who demolished her work, and a government who stole it. Get your copy here.

3. Heartlines: A Love Story by Sarah Waisvisz

If you haven’t yet, check out finalist for the 2026 LGBTQ+ Drama LAMBDA Award Heartlines: A Love Story! Heartlines imagines the extraordinary love, art, resistance, and lives of gender pioneers Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Waisvisz takes the audience through the dizzying romance of their early life together in the Parisian avant-garde – and the subsequent fracturing of that life with the rise of nazism. Identities of all kinds are explored, suppressed, and liberated as their love withstands oppression, violence, and time itself. Pick up your copy here.

4. Fado: The Saddest Music in the World by Elaine Ávila

Fado: The Saddest Music in the World, is a tale of love and ghosts set in the back alleys and brothels of old Lisbon. Part concert, part theatre, the story of a young woman confronting her country’s fascist past and her own identity is interwoven with the heartbreaking national music of Portugal, fado. Fado won the Award for Favourite Musical in Victoria. Secure your copy here.

5. Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer by Kevin Loring

Little Red Warrior is the last remaining member of the Little Red Warrior First Nation. He discovers a development company has begun construction on his ancestral lands. Little Red attacks one of the engineers and is arrested for assault and trespassing on his own lands. In jail he meets his court-appointed lawyer, Larry, who agrees to help Little Red get his lands back. Larry convinces his wife, Desdemona, to allow Little Red to move into their basement while they sort out Red’s case. Desdemona and Red strike up an uneasy relationship. As sparks begin to fly between them Larry prepares to fight for Little Red’s Land Rights. An unexpected intervention by a greater power occurs in the court case, and nothing will ever be the same. Order your copy here.

6. White Noise by Taran Kootenhayoo

Hilarious, incisive, and potent, new play White Noise by the late, great Taran Kootenhayoo is available to read this month. In this blistering comedy, two neighbouring families, one Indigenous and one white, dine together during Truth and Reconciliation Week. As cultural misunderstanding, colonial violence, and racism both covert and overt surface, White Noise asks, “How do we deal with internalized racism? Do we keep pushing it away … or do we make a change?” Pick up your copy White Noise here.

7. Kuroko by Tetsuro Shigematsu

Maya is a hikikomori (引きこもり), an extreme recluse who hasn’t left her bedroom in five years, spending all her time in Virtual Reality. So her father hires an actor to befriend her online and entice her back into the real world. How? By visiting the scariest place on earth, Aokigahara, the “Suicide Forest.” When we lose what gives our lives purpose, when the distance between us and those closest to us seems impossible to bridge, where do we turn? Can virtual worlds offer real solutions? Is an honourable death better than a meaningless life? Get your copy of Kuroko here.

8. Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Project by Carmen Aguirre

Forthcoming this spring comes Fire Never Dies by award-winning, best-selling author Carmen Aguirre. Aguirre explores the intersection of art and revolution through the life of Italian photographer and activist Tina Modotti. Modotti’s story unfolds in 1920s Mexico City, where her art flourished and she engaged with icons like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. However, after seven years, she abandoned photography to join the antifascist cause, ultimately running the Red Aid Hospital during the Spanish Civil War. Modotti’s journey from working-class roots to revolutionary martyrdom raises urgent questions: What is the purpose of art in the face of fascism? Pre-order your copy here.

9. Asking for It and What I Call Her by Ellie Moon

Written in the wake of the Jian Ghomeshi scandal, Asking for It considers gender roles and the various ways sexual consent is understood personally, culturally, and legally. What I Call Her explores female generational rage, the loneliness of holding on to one’s own truth, and the gaps in how people perceive and understand the world they inhabit. Pick up your copy here.

Whether you’re taking in a matinee or simply keeping the dramatic spirit alive in your heart, we hope you have a wonderful World Theatre Day.

news | Thursday March 26, 2026

Growing My Way Home Is Here!

Guess what just arrived back from the printer? It’s Growing My Way Home, the new work of autofiction by award-winning Sḵwx̱wú7mesh author Jenn Ashton! From abuse to early involvement in the criminal justice system, Growing My Way Home traces Ashton’s experiences as a thirteen-year-old drug dealer, a fifteen-year-old parent, and finally an award-winning writer, artist, and filmmaker.

An excerpt from Growing My Way Home:

“Another thing I found I couldn’t say “no” to was the endless string of ‘dates’ my mother’s husband would set up for me. At first it was a joke but soon became a burden, as I rejected the men one after the other like a row of dominos, my mother and her husband not understanding what was ‘wrong’ with their plan. All the men worked in oil, were wealthy, in their late twenties or early thirties, often divorced, average looking, and all looking for a ‘wife,’ never minding the addition of a baby.

These dating rituals were a pretty good example of some of the forces shaping my life; they were the perfect summation of my past, my present, and everybody else’s expectations of me. I didn’t have any safety net surrounding me, so more often than not, I had to bumble my way through these strange events, evaluations put into my path by well- meaning people.

How it worked was that every Sunday, when the baby and I would go for dinner, my mom’s husband would just have happened to also invite a single man that he worked with, telling me he’d taken pity on him and wanted to feed him a good home- cooked meal. Then afterwards the man was asked if he would like to take a walk with me. Inevitably, this man would ask if I would like to meet up or go out with him. At first I said yes to many, not understanding the mating ritual I was part of, but after a few one-night stands and some scary events, I wound up screaming at the husband that I wanted him to stop trying to sell me like a piece of meat. He would come back with, ‘What else is a seventeen- year-old single mother going to do?’”

Ashton’s writings richly illustrate a life of survival and fortitude. Drawing on her teenage journals and fifty years of lived experience, Growing My Way Home documents a long journey to acceptance and understanding. Pick up your copy here.

news | Wednesday March 25, 2026

Hot Off the Press! SUBTEXT Has Arrived!

The new work of poetry by Nicole Raziya Fong is here! SUBTEXT collages the echoes of diasporic and colonial histories through poetry, drama, autobiography, and archival uncovering. Dwelling in the bubbling froth of dreamwork, these poems take a multifaceted approach to questions of diaspora and selfhood, incorporating visual and textual elements that dialogue with one another and ask readers to negotiate the unsteady shoals of identity and history.

An excerpt from SUBTEXT:

“Memory levels the spaces I’ve
set aside for transformation.
Transformation is bottomless,
protracted by a thin film of
memory. This film contains
images which gaze eternally into
themselves. The images expand
and evolve in their own way, but
this iterative fiction never forms
a conclusive body.”

SUBTEXT peers into the imperceptible psychic strata created by intergenerational trauma, confronting the challenge of finding one’s place in a sensorium of concealed realities and obscured memories. Order your copy of this thoughtful, multidisciplinary book here.

news | Tuesday March 24, 2026

th book uv lost passwords 1 longlisted for 2026 Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize

Wonderful to see th book uv lost passwords 1 by bill bissett on the stellar 2026 Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize longlist! What an awesome collection of books.⁠
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th book uv lost passwords 1 is a novel of poems that criss-crosses geographies, hopping on planes and between planes to get to th breth uv th pome and everywhere else. ⁠
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The Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize celebrates literary excellence from established Canadian poets.⁠
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A huge congratulations to bill bissett! Get to know all of the longlisted titles here.

news | Saturday March 21, 2026

World Poetry Day 2026

March 21 is World Poetry Day! If you’re looking for some exciting works of poetry to mark the occasion with, we’d love to recommend some recent titles for you to sink your teeth into.

1. Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: ᒪᒪᐦᑖᐃᐧᓯᐃᐧᐣ ᐸᑯᓭᔨᒧᐤ ᓂᑭᐦᒋ ᐋᓂᐢᑯᑖᐹᐣ mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân by Wanda John-Kehewin

A finalist for the Raymond Souster Award, Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: ᒪᒪᐦᑖᐃᐧᓯᐃᐧᐣ ᐸᑯᓭᔨᒧᐤ ᓂᑭᐦᒋ ᐋᓂᐢᑯᑖᐹᐣ mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân weaves together history with personal experience. Wanda John-Kehewin plays with form, space, and language, demonstrating which magics cannot be suppressed. Pick up your copy here.

2. No Depression in Heaven by ryan fitzpatrick

Shine up your spurs, gussy up for a visit to the Grand Ole Opry, and dig into No Depression in Heaven. Written during country music’s most recent ascent in popularity, this poetry “LP” features ten “tracks” that each tip language out of key. Order your copy here.

3. SUBTEXT by Nicole Raziya Fong

Divided into four parts, SUBTEXT peers into the imperceptible psychic strata created by intergenerational trauma, confronting the challenge of finding one’s place in a sensorium of concealed realities and obscured memories. These poems take a multifaceted approach to questions of diaspora and selfhood, incorporating visual and textual elements that dialogue with one another and ask readers to negotiate the unsteady shoals of identity and history. Get your copy here.

4. Pearl by George Bowering

George Bowering’s final book of poetry, Pearl, sprawls in search of the next glimmering insight, tugging at different threads with a multifarious large-heartedness. Touching, ribald, and cheeky, Pearl reflects on a life well-lived and well-written. Secure your copy here.

5. A Family of Dreamers by Samantha Nock

Longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, A Family of Dreamers delves into the complexities of growing up in rural northeast British Columbia and the love and grief that blooms there. In this debut collection, Samantha Nock weaves together threads of fat liberation, desirability politics, and heartbreak while working through her existence as a young Indigenous woman coming of age in the city. Pick up a copy here.

6. No Town Called We by Nikki Reimer

Longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Raymond Souster Award, No Town Called We writes through the death of elders, social panic, and the climate crisis via the lens of the multiply disabled, female-coded body approaching midlife. With an undeniable humour and irrepressible care, No Town Called We dissects griefs of many shapes. Order your copy here.

7. sometimes, forest by Elee Kraljii Gardiner

New poetry collection from Vancouver’s Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner sometimes, forest alternatively rails at and desires a fluid beloved, sometimes forest, sometimes lover, friend, mother, or an absence the speaker yearns for in herself. But the coastal temperate rainforest continues foresting, existing independently of the speaker’s wants or needs, a place of both refuge and harm. Get your copy here.

8. Verbal Violence by Danielle LaFrance

Verbal Violence weaponizes the email as a poetic form. This book confronts capitalism’s managerial style guide for saying nothing at all with the fiery and empathetic conscience of the managed, their cri de cœur cracking the straight-faced bureaucracy of our most banal communications. Pick up a copy here.

9. Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton

Save Your Prayers – Send Money takes on the wellness industry from the perspective of a seventy-year-old Métis woman and recovering New Ager. These poems explore where healing might lie and how a peace might be found whether we heal or not. Order your copy here.

10. Stigmata by Scott Jackshaw

Stigmata draws inspiration from a broad archive of texts and practices, including apophatic theology, body horror, gardening, queer theory, classic films, poststructuralism, and bad sex to create a treacherous adventure through the cross-currents of sexual deviancy and religion, helped along by a bitter sense of humour, to the limits of faith and body. Get your copy here.

11. Crowd Source by Cecily Nicholson

With eyes on the skies, Crowd Source continues Cecily Nicholson’s attention to contemporary climate crisis, social movements, and Black diasporic relations. This is a book for all fascinated by corvid sensibilities. Order your copy here.

12. Beautiful Unknown Future by Taryn Hubbard

Refusing false optimism, Beautiful Unknown Future layers the chaos of domestic life with the detachment of the corporate environment. Written in the shadow of compounding global crises, Beautiful Unknown Future looks critically to a future centred around tenderness, resilience, and love. Pick up your copy here.

Happy World Poetry Day, everyone!

news | Saturday March 21, 2026

Drew McEwan on bill bissett

Drew McEwan, author of tours, variously, pens an article about bill bissett (th book uv lost passwords 1, its th sailors life / still in treetment, and more) and lunaria in Canadian Literature 262.

From the abstract: “Drew McEwan explores the mythical planet both in lunaria and in the lunarian autobiographical paratexts as critical developments in bissett’s work and ideas. Further, it argues that these texts articulate a mad and queer temporality that provides a critical perspective on normative “erthling wayze.” bissett’s poetic and extra-poetic lunarian texts elaborate a utopian state of temporality, community, and nurturance borne in relation to the failures of those deemed too crazy, too queer, here on Earth.”

For more details and to order your copy of the journal, click here.