Articles
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FictionAn epic landscape creates space to examine substance use and the passage of time
Calgary-based writer and editor Susan Forest’s debut novel, Bursts of Fire, is the first of a seven-part epic fantasy series called Addicted to Heaven, set in the seven kingdoms that make up Shangril. -
FeaturesUniversity of Manitoba Press has expanded, especially with Indigenous authors and subjects
Something old, something new, and a good mix of both – that could describe the rich and varied output of Winnipeg’s University of Manitoba Press. Founded in 1967, UMP was the first university press to be established in Western Canada. They publish a diverse array of Canadiana, with titles exploring ethnic history and identity of Indigenous cultures such as Inuit, Anishinaabe, Cree, and Métis, as well as immigrant cultures such as Italian, Japanese, Ukrainian, and Icelandic. -
FictionWeaving a tale of trauma with empathy, honesty, and hope
Where do writers get their ideas? In the case of her latest novel, This Has Nothing to Do with You, Manitoba author Lauren Carter responded so strongly to a book about sibling relationships and family secrets that she penned her own novel along similar themes. -
FictionHang out with Hendershot as he builds a life after hockey
A Canadian hockey player. A mysterious artist. An 83-year-old man chasing the IRA. These are the three characters brought together by Don Dickinson in Rag & Bone Man. Set in London, England, circa 1974, Rag & Bone Man follows Hendershot, a Saskatchewan athlete who travelled across the Atlantic Ocean to play hockey. -
FictionAnthology is grounded in artifacts that illuminate characters and alter history
If you’re looking for transformative literature, an anthology that mixes history and alchemy may just fit the bill. In the latest volume of the long-running Tesseracts series of speculative fiction anthologies, editors Lorina Stephens and Susan MacGregor have curated 23 stories set around the world and in many eras. The tales in Alchemy and Artifacts explore the use of artifacts that are some strange fusion of secret knowledge and artifice. -
FictionKat Cameron wrestles with ghosts of the past in short story collection
The characters in Edmonton-based Kat Cameron’s debut collection of short stories, The Eater of Dreams, find themselves navigating – and living – life in spite of, or because of, their past suffering. -
FictionArchivist turns to her own family history, and considers how to live with its legacy
All That Belongs, the latest novel by Dora Dueck, tells the story of Catherine, a newly retired archivist, who decides to spend the next year examining her life story and those of her deceased Mennonite predecessors to gain insight into her family history. -
PoetryPoetic exchanges between Monahan and Thompson lead to a book-length collection
A Beautiful Stone: Poems and Ululations, a new work of collaborative poetry by Lynda Monahan and Rod Thompson, has its roots in an old Japanese tradition. -
PoetryThis is what happens when Jonathan Ball aims for “a very normal poetry book”
Winnipeg-based writer Jonathan Ball calls himself the Poet Laureate of Hell, which is Ball in a nutshell: fun, inventive, and kind of dark. For Ball, it signals to readers that he doesn’t write conventional poems. “The weird Venn diagram I’m after is the audience that loves poetry but is sick to death of poetry,” Ball says. -
PoetryCam Scott explores life writing in works informed by sound artistry
Cam Scott, a poet and sound artist from Winnipeg, describes the earliest successful layers of his first collection of poetry as “an attempt at vacuum-packing a working notebook.” He conceives of ROMANS/SNOWMARE as a “personal response to some of the great life poems.”
