news | Thursday June 4, 2026

Pride 2026 Reading List

It’s Pride Month! We’re happy to take any opportunity to celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ voices, perspectives, art, and self-expression. Talonbooks has put together a reading list of books by queer and gender diverse authors to put on your radar for Pride. Whether you want a zippy poetry collection, a pithy play, or a novel that will rake your emotions over the coals, we’ve got you covered.

1. SUBTEXT by Nicole Raziya Fong

SUBTEXT is the hot-off-the-press poetry collection by Montréal-based artist and poet Nicole Raziya Fong. 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. Check out this interview Nicole Raziya Fong gave with All Lit Up about SUBTEXT and pick up a copy of your very own here.

2. full-metal indigiqueer by Joshua Whitehead

This triumphant poetry collection focuses on a hybridized Indigiqueer Trickster character named Zoa who brings together the organic (the protozoan) and the technologic (the binaric) in order to re-beautify and re-member queer Indigeneity. Following oral tradition (à la Iktomi, Nanaboozho, Wovoka), Zoa infects, invades, and becomes a virus to canonical and popular works in order to re-centre Two-Spirit livelihoods. They dazzlingly and fiercely take on the likes of Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and John Milton while also not forgetting contemporary pop culture figures such as Lana Del Rey, Grindr, and Peter Pan. This is a must-read collection. Get your copy here.

3. Dear Chekhov by Michel Tremblay, translated by Linda Gaboriau

The scene is this: a table set outside in beautiful fall weather. A turkey roasting in the oven. Everything seems set for a festive family dinner – except that the playwright wants to rewrite his play. In classic Tremblay fashion, family dynamics take centre stage in this masterful play. Coming this fall, Dear Chekhov holds a mirror up to theatre. Pre-order your copy here.

4. Jump Scare by Daniel Zomparelli

This 2024 poetry collection is both hilarious and grief-y. In Jump Scare, Zomparelli uses horror movies as a vehicle to explore queer pop culture, the commodification of identity, neurodivergence, and grief. Written in an irreplicable, empathetic, irreverent voice, Jump Scare is a friendly ghost of a collection. Snag a copy of your own here.

5. Verbal Violence by Danielle LaFrance

Danielle LaFrance’s brand new book of poetry Verbal Violence weaponizes the email thread as a form, shredding the language of the managerial class. Here, they hack apart neoliberal doublespeak, ideological reproduction and progressive-except-Palestine rhetoric. This collection has edge, verve, and a bent towards justice carried always in its heart. Pick up a copy here.

6. Heartlines: A Love Story by Sarah Waisvisz

A finalist for a 2026 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama, Heartlines centres around the lives, love, art, activism, and resistance of gender pioneers Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Heartlines 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. Copies are available here.

7. the berry takes the shape of the bloom by andrea bennett

the berry takes the shape of the bloom began as a linear narrative, offering a window into one trans person’s life after they felt contented and secure. In the end these poems, which capture particular moments in time, may recur in any given present: sometimes what surfaces is anxiety or anger, sometimes love or eagerness. Some poems bear witness; others hold grudges or shake free of them. Together, they entwine around enmeshed experiences of gender, family, trans pregnancy, abuse, fear, and becoming. the berry takes the shape of the bloom took second place in the 2024 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Check out this review of the collection in Arc Poetry Magazine and pick up a copy here.

8. Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule

This formative sapphic novel first hit bookstands in the 1960s. It remains an essential work. Evelyn Hall is a literature professor who travels to Reno, Nevada in the summer of 1958 in order to obtain a divorce and thus put an end to her disastrous sixteen-year marriage. She is divorcing her husband on the advice of his psychiatrist because, this being the ’50s, he believes that Evelyn’s success is causing her husband’s depression. During her six-week stay at a boarding house (a residency requirement) Evelyn meets Ann Childs. The two fall in love and must navigate their feelings in the face of strain from inside and outside of their relationship. Get your copy here.

9. tours, variously by Drew McEwan

tours, variously takes readers on a guided tour, considering how we take up space within the imagined rooms of language and definition. The poems in this book lead the reader through an interrogation of the ways we tour the spaces of language, always stepping between the sayable and the unsaid. rob mclennan said of tours, variously that it writes “an exploration of betweenness, becoming and having become, having been the whole time, achieving an exploration not of uncertainty but of seeking, plumbing the depths of language into a solid ground.” Order a copy here.

Happy Pride, everyone! We wish you good reading and good resisting.

news | Wednesday June 3, 2026

Hajer Mirwali Wins the Gerald Lampert Award!

Hajer Mirwali has won the 2026 Gerald Lampert Award for a debut book of poetry! Mirwali’s book Revolutions looks at shame, pleasure, and Muslim daughterhood. In an extended conversation with Mona Hatoum’s artwork + and –, Revolutions asks how young Arab women – who live in homes and communities where actions are surveilled and categorized as 3aib or not 3aib, shameful or acceptable – make and unmake their identities.

The Gerald Lampert Award jury says of Revolutions: “Mirwali’s writing style is cutting edge and playful making for an incredibly admirable breakthrough book. Reading Revolutions is like having a companion that provides a familiar, daring feeling of clarity all while positioned within severe and surveilled conditions.”

Remarkable in both content and style, Revolutions is a mighty debut. Way to go on this well-deserved honour, Hajer! See all of the winners of this year’s League of Canadian Poets Book Awards here.

news | Tuesday June 2, 2026

Crees in the Caribbean in The Niagara on the Lake Local

The Niagara on the Lake Local highlights the forthcoming Lighthouse Festival productions of Crees in the Caribbean by Drew Hayden Taylor. From the article: “Interim artistic producer David Leyshon says the production perfectly balances comedy with emotional depth.

‘Drew Hayden Taylor has an extraordinary ability to make audiences laugh while also opening the door to meaningful conversations,’ said Leyshon. ‘Crees in the Caribbean is warm, funny, and full of heart, but beneath the comedy is a beautiful exploration of relationships and human connection.’”

Read the full article here.

news | Monday June 1, 2026

Indigenous History Month 2026

June is Indigenous History Month! We’re fortunate at Talonbooks to have the opportunity to publish a growing roster of Indigenous authors, playwrights, poets, visual artists, activists, humorists, and more. If you want to mark the occasion with a book to immerse yourself in a myriad of Indigenous perspectives, we’ve put together a reading list of some truly excellent titles that range from personal to public, funny to unsettling, and deep to the whimsical. Check it out below.

1. Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton

This brand new poetry-and-prose collection by seventy-year-old Métis woman and recovering New Ager Jónína Kirton takes on the wellness industry. Save Your Prayers – Send Money is a book for all interested in intersectional Disability justice. Learn more about both Kirton and her new title in this interview on Windspeaker.org. Save Your Prayers – Send Money is also Black Walnut Books’s Indigenous & Lit Book Club pick for their July 19 session, check out all of their book club picks here. Frank, warm, angry, and witty, pick up your copy of Save Your Prayers – Send Money here.

2. Growing My Way Home by Jenn Ashton

In the new work of autofiction Growing My Way Home by award-winning Sḵwx̱wú7mesh author, visual artist, filmmaker, and historian Jenn Ashton, we follow one woman’s struggle through events all too common among a people who have been separated from their culture and their language. Based on Ashton’s teenage journals, we follow our protagonist as she recounts abuse, early involvement in the criminal justice system, her experiences as a thirteen-year-old drug dealer, a fifteen-year-old parent, and then finally an award-winning multidisciplinary artist. Growing My Way Home was one of CBC Books’ list of fiction titles they’re excited about this spring. Get a copy of your own here.

3. Uiesh / Somewhere by Joséphine Bacon, translated by Jessica Moore

Uiesh / Somewhere is an award-winning, dual language collection where poems appear side-by-side in Innu-aimun and English. This title is a finalist for the 2026 Pat Lowther Memorial Award (read about all of the finalists here) and the winner of the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation (see all of the winners here). Evocative, reflective, and unforgettable, 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. Order your copy of Uiesh / Somewhere here.

4. White Noise by Taran Kootenhayoo

White Noise is a new dark comedy play by the late, great Taran Kootenhayoo. Originally produced by Savage Society and Firehall Arts, this laugh-out-loud drama follows two neighbouring families, one Indigenous and one white, as they dine together during Truth and Reconciliation Week. As cultural misunderstanding, colonial violence, and racism both covert and overt surface, White Noise asks how to navigate internalized racism. Featuring Pokémon, influencers, and a helpful little book entitled How to Deal with White People, this is a play that can’t be missed. Pick up your copy here.

5. Space Girl by Frances Koncan

Forthcoming this autumn is Space Girl: A Cosmic Comedy by Frances Koncan! As the first person born on the moon, Lyra lives a charmed life as a beloved social media influencer until her twenty-first birthday when two disasters strike: the birth of a rival “baby influencer” and the discovery of an enormous asteroid that threatens to destroy Earth (and all of her social media followers). Pre-order your copy here.

6. ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another by ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn

A finalist for the 2026 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction Book (view all of the finalists here) and the 2026 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose (see all of the finalists here), ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok has been called “a major event for students and scholars of nêhiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ thought and communities” by Rob Jackson in Rocky Mountain Review. In ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another, nêhîyaw educator ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn uses the spirit marker writing system as a foundation for teaching ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. Sometimes called the star chart, this system holds forty-four large spirit markers and fourteen small spirit markers. Each large spirit marker holds a law; these laws are meant to guide us in ways that support us in life, in living well with the elements: fire, land, water, and air. Copies are available here.

7. A Family of Dreamers by Samantha Nock

This gorgeous debut is a love song to northern cuzzins, dive bars, and growing up. 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. A Family of Dreamers was a finalist for the 2024 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was longlisted for the 2024 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Get your copy here.

8. Lha yudit’ih We Always Find A Way: Bringing the Tŝilhqot’in Title Case Home by Lorraine Weir with Chief Roger William

Winner of a 2026 Jeanne Clarke Local History Award (see the announcement here), Lha yudit’ih We Always Find A Way is a community oral history of Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, the first case in Canada to result in a declaration of Aboriginal Rights and Title to a specific piece of land. Told from the perspective of the Plaintiff, Chief Roger William, joined by fifty Xeni Gwet’ins, Tŝilhqot’ins, and allies, this book encompasses ancient stories of creation, modern stories of genocide through smallpox and residential school, and stories of resistance including the Tŝilhqot’in War, direct actions against logging and mining, and the twenty-five-year battle in Canadian courts to win recognition of what Tŝilhqot’ins never gave up and have always known. Get your copy here.

9. Price Paid by Bev Sellars

Price Paid is based on a popular presentation Sellars created for treaty-makers, politicians, policymakers, and educators when she discovered they did not know the historic reasons they were at the table negotiating First Nations rights. Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival begins with glimpses of foods, medicines, and cultural practices North America’s Indigenous peoples have contributed for worldwide benefit. It documents the dark period of regulation by racist laws during the twentieth century, and then discusses new emergence in the twenty-first century into a re-establishment of Indigenous land and resource rights. The result is a candidly told personal take on the history of a culture\‘s fight for their rights and survival. It is Canadian history told from a First Nations point of view. Order your copy here.

10. Seven Sacred Truths by Wanda John-Kehewin

In Seven Sacred Truths, Wanda John-Kehewin makes new meaning of the past, present, and future through a consideration of Love, Wisdom, Truth, Honesty, Respect, Humility, and Courage. By sharing her views on these Seven Sacred Truths and what they meant to her growing up, John-Kehewin instigates a therapeutic process of restoration and transformation. Seven Sacred Truths was a finalist for the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry in English. Get copies here.

11. Injun by Jordan Abel

Injun is a long poem about racism and the representation of indigenous peoples. Composed of text found in western novels published between 1840 and 1950 – the heyday of pulp publishing and a period of unfettered colonialism in North America – Injun then uses erasure, pastiche, and a focused poetics to create a visually striking response to the western genre. The textual explorations in Injun help to destabilize the colonial image of the “Indian” in the source novels, the western genre as a whole, and the Western canon.Injun won the 2017 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. Pick up your copy here.

12. On Thin Ice by Drew Hayden Taylor

Forthcoming this fall is Drew Hayden Taylor’s first thriller, On Thin Ice. In this new play, an Indigenous couple makes their way to an isolated cottage after their car falls through an ice road on a cold winter evening. Suffering from hypothermia, they are saved by the arrival of the non-Indigenous cottage owners, one of whom is a nurse. Once the injured couple are resuscitated, the cottage owners discover that the “accident” was not necessarily accidental, and the histories and alternative agendas at play converge in a shocking and brutal ending. Pre-order your copy here.

These are just a slice of the amazing Indigenous-authored titles we’ve had the privilege to publish. Talonbooks also has an ever-updating Indigenous catalogue that we recommend perusing. We wish you good reading this month and all months.

news | Friday May 29, 2026

rob mclennan Reviews Pearl

rob mclennan writes a lovely, personal piece about Pearl, the final collection by Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Bowering. mclennan says that in Pearl, “Bowering gets … close to the bone on his life’s work through poetry.” Pearl is a collection overflowing with wit, observation, tenderness, and grief. Read the mclennan’s review here and be sure to check out Pearl by the incomparable George Bowering.

news | Thursday May 28, 2026

A Review of Behind the Moon in Sesaya Arts Magazine

David Wong

Liuba de Armas reviews Teesri Duniya Theatre’s production of Behind the Moon by Anosh Irani in Sesaya Arts Magazine. de Armas says, “Behind the Moon offers vividly realized and compelling characters and … succeeds in shining a light on the exploitation of undocumented migrant workers in Canada with empathy and tact.” Behind the Moon is Irani’s 2024 play that looks at love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and the myriad ways we start again. Read the full review here.

The photo above is of Aladeen Tawfeek & Adolyn H. Dar in Behind The Moon. Photo credit to David Wong.

news | Wednesday May 27, 2026

Three Talonbooks Authors on League of Canadian Poets Book Awards Shortlists!

Three Talonbooks titles are on the League of Canadian Poets Book Award shortlists!

Cecily Nicholson’s latest work of poetry Crowd Source is shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award! Crowd Source parallels the daily migration of crows who, aside from fledgling season, journey across metro Vancouver every day at dawn and dusk.

Revolutions, the debut collection by Toronto-based poet Hajer Mirwali is on the Gerald Lampert Award shortlist! In an extended conversation with Mona Hatoum’s kinetic sculpture + and –, Revolutions looks at how young Arab women make and unmake their identities.

Finally, the 2025 Governor General’s Award for Translation winning–book Uiesh / Somewhere by Joséphine Bacon and translated by Jessica Moore has been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award! The poems in this collection move between the nomadic ways of Bacon’s Ancestors in the northern wilderness of Nitassinan and the clamour of the city, keyed in to minute and vibrant details.

The League of Canadian Poets has three annual book awards: The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for a debut collection of poetry, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for a book of poetry by a woman or nonbinary person, and the Raymond Souster Award for a book of poetry penned by a member of the League of Canadian Poets.

A massive kudos to Cecily, Hajer, Joséphine, and Jessica for this outstanding achievement! Check out all of this year’s shortlisted authors here. And be sure to tune in online to hear readings from the shortlisted authors including Nicholson, Mirwali, and Moore on June 2 at 8 p.m. EDT. For more details and to register, click here.

news | Tuesday May 26, 2026

Hello from the CATR Conference!

Hello from the 50th anniversary Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference in Victoria! Come visit Talonbooks in the lobby of the Phoenix Theatre at the University of Victoria. It’s looking like it’s going to be an amazing conference, check out the full conference schedule here. We’ll be here until May 29. Come by and say hi! Can’t wait to see you and talk theatre!

news | Tuesday May 26, 2026

bissett Reading Covered in The Halifax Examiner

Recently, poetry legend bill bissett toured poems from his latest collection th book uv lost passwords 1 to Canada’s East Coast, including a performance at Main & Station Nonesuch in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. He performed alongside his longtime sister in poetry, Honey Novick. Journalist Philip Moscovitch attended the performance and penned a personal essay about the experience of being at a bill bissett performance for The Halifax Examiner. th book uv lost passwords 1 was longlisted for the 2026 Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize. Read Moscovitch’s piece here.

news | Saturday May 23, 2026

bill bissett in The New Wark Times

There’s an article about bill bissett, his politics, and his recent Nova Scotia poetry performances from th book uv lost passwords 1 in The New Wark Times, the blog of journalist Bruce Wark. Read the piece here and you may hear a recording of bill bissett reading his poem “did u c th moon last nite.”