Bookhug Press

01/16/2025

Little Ghosts Books presents Liz Worth, author of Inside Every Dream, a Raging Sea. Liz will be reading alongside Sephera Giron and Philip Rowan as part of “Horror & Poetry: Delight in Despair”.

Saturday, January 18, 2025
1:00 – 3:00 pm ET
Little Ghosts Books, 930 Dundas St. W, Toronto, ON
Free to attend!

More info here: https://www.littleghostsbooks.com/events

01/15/2025

The longlist for the 2024 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry has been announced and we’re thrilled that Kate Cayley (author of Lent) and Hana Shafi (author of People You Know, Places You’ve Been) are on it. Congrats to Kate and Hana, and all the longlisted poets and their publishers!

01/15/2025

Many of you have been waiting for this announcement for a while now: Our submissions portal is now open!

That’s right, Book*hug Press is once again open for direct submissions of innovative literary fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction. Our submission portal will remain open from January 15, 2025 until March 15, 2025.

Interested in submitting to Book* hug Press? Please take the time to carefully read our submission guidelines. Our team looks forward to reading your submissions.

https://bookhugpress.ca/bookthug-submission-guidelines/

01/14/2025

💥 The big news is here 💥

We could hardly stand the wait ourselves!

Today we are beyond excited to reveal our Spring 2025 lineup of books! Our entire team is working hard behind the scenes to get these titles ready for publication! Get out your pens and start making additions to your reading lists because you won't want to miss these phenomenal reads!

All titles are available to pre-order from our online store (link in bio), or from your local bookstore (support independent booksellers)!

Find more info about our Spring 2025 titles here: https://bookhugpress.ca/product-category/books/forthcoming/forthcoming-2025/

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

01/13/2025

Tonight!

Art Bar presents , author of Inside Every Dream, a Raging Sea! Liz will be reading alongside Peter Taylor!

Monday, January 13, 2025 (poster has wrong date)
7:00 pm ET
Free Times Cafe, 320 College Street, Toronto, ON
$10 entry!

More info here: https://www.artbarpoetryseries.com/

01/10/2025

Read "Hooky in the Homeland" by Omar Mouallem from Back Where I Came From in Maisonneuve. In Mouallem's essay, a visit to the family hometown in Lebanon during a tense time sets the stage for a comedy of errors.
https://maisonneuve.org/article/2024/09/26/hooky-homeland/

A visit to the family hometown in Lebanon during a tense time sets the stage for a comedy of errors.

01/09/2025

♥️2024 in review♥️

What a year it was, and what a year to come!

Big news coming soon!

01/08/2025

Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim "slides easily into the tradition of literature that challenges the boundaries of what is politically feasible.”

Michael Bryson on the latest novel from Jacob Wren for Zoomer Magazine:
https://everythingzoomer.com/zed-book-club/2024/10/28/what-were-reading-9/

01/08/2025

“With humour and honest self-reflection, the poems confront the pain of realizing you’ve given yourself to someone who will never do the same. No Credit River tries to make sense of the whiplash of little hurts and the broken promises of commitment.”

Hannah Carty reviews Zoe Whittall's No Credit River for Maisonneuve.

https://maisonneuve.org/article/2024/12/12/winter-2024-book-room/

01/07/2025

Thank you to Hamilton Review of Books for including Toxemia by Christine McNair in this great round up of favourite book covers of 2024.

As the nights get longer and darker, we love to brighten up our bookshelves with gorgeous book covers! Check out which ones made our personal libraries all the lovelier this year.

01/06/2025

rob mclennan's ‘best of’ list of 2024 Canadian poetry books is here and we're overjoyed to see several of our recent titles included here. Thank you to rob for including Medium by Johanna Skibsrud, No Credit River by Zoe Whittall, and Walking & Stealing by Stephen Cain, along with special shout outs to Adrienne Gruber's Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes, Authenticity is a Feeling by Jacob Wren, and Toxemia by Christine McNair.

Once more, I offer my annual list of the seemingly-arbitrary “worth repeating” (given ‘best’ is such an inconclusive, imprecise designation)...

12/26/2024

Welcome to Boxing Day. We made it! And now begins our favourite week of the year. This time of year’s slower, more relaxed pace is perfect for quiet reading, which is made even better by staying indoors in your jammies, where it is cozy and warm. And with that, cue the start of our Boxing Week Sale.

Save 25% off all eBooks and audiobooks until January 2, 2025. Simply use the code BOXINGWEEK24 at checkout to save. A link to download the eBook or audiobook file will be sent to you upon the completion of your purchase.

Bonus: We’ve extended our popular holiday book bundles until January 2. Choose from six options, carefully curated by our team. Go on and treat yourself! You deserve it.
PS) Did we mention our book bundles are discounted by 25%? They are! Plus, save the GST on all printed books until February 15, 2025!

Learn more: https://bookhugpress.ca/

12/20/2024

Happy Holidays from all of us at Book*hug Press! We wish all our readers, authors, and supporters a safe, joyful holiday season filled with good company and plenty of quiet reading time.✨

The Book*hug Press office will be closed for the holidays from Monday, December 23, 2024, until Monday, January 6, 2025. During this time, our team will take some needed downtime, but we’ll be back in the new year with an announcement about our forthcoming spring 2025 releases.

12/19/2024

There’s still a few days left to shop our annual holiday sale and book bundles! 🎁 📚

We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: books make great presents. This year, give the gift of reading to all the bibliophiles on your list. They’ll love you for it.

Save 20% off orders until December 24, 2024.*
Simply use the code HOLIDAYS24 at checkout to save.

Our discounted holiday book bundles are perfect for the discerning readers in your life. Choose from six options, carefully curated by the Book*hug Elves, including the Fierce Love Bundle, Worlds Reimagined Bundle, The Haunting Bundle, Hearts Laid Bare Bundle, Motherlines Bundle, and Reclamation Bundle.

Plus, save the GST on all printed books until February.

*Holiday Sale excludes all forthcoming books, and already discounted book bundles and subscriptions packages.

https://bookhugpress.ca/shop/

12/19/2024

Our 20th-anniversary celebrations wrap up today with one final Author Spotlight interview. Today, we’re shining a light on Shannon Bramer. We have had the pleasure of working with Shannon as a playwright, as well as a poet. In 2017 we published her poetry collection Precious Energy, and in 2020 we published her three-play-volume Trapsongs. Shannon is one of our Co-Publishers Hazel and Jay’s oldest friends in the literary scene, having met during University many moons ago, and it’s been a joy to grow alongside her as members of this community.

In our Q&A with Shannon, she shares what it means to be part of the Book*hug author family, and highlights multiple titles by fellow Book*hug author Marianne Apostolides that have left a lasting impression on her. Happy reading!

Our 20th-anniversary celebrations wrap up today with one final Author Spotlight interview. Today, we’re shining a light on Shannon Bramer. We have had the pleasure of working with Shannon as a playwright, as well as a poet. In 2017 we published her poetry collection Precious Energy, and in 2020 we...

12/18/2024

No Credit River by Zoe Whittall makes the Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List for November.🎉

Take a look at which independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores.

12/18/2024

Today, we’re pleased to bring you the second instalment in our annual Book*hug Wrapped: Books We Loved This Year, Staff Edition.

To celebrate the end of the year, which delightfully coincides with the season of book-gifting, we asked our staff members to recommend books they’ve read and adored this year, or are itching to read this holiday season. We hope you enjoy their selections and that some of these books end up on your reading list too!

Featuring contributions from Hazel Millar, Jay Millar, Malcolm Sutton, Britt Landry, and Reid Millar.

Happy reading!

Today, Book*hug Press is sharing some recommended reading from our staff! We can't wait for the holidays because it's time to finally read the books that have been piling up on our bedside tables! Please enjoy our picks, and we hope to see some of them end up on your holiday wish lists! Featuring

12/17/2024

"I hope to read Olga Ravn’s International Booker-nominated The Employees over this holiday break. Is it counterproductive to read a book about a band of interstellar employees under the thumb of (very) late capitalism when I’m supposed to be relaxing this holiday season? (Is the very idea of “counterproductive” exactly what Ravn is talking about?) All that aside: the promise of a critique of workplace productivity and LinkedIn-speak, in a sci-fi wrapper, that’s slim enough to tackle in a snowy afternoon, is exactly what I want in a holiday read."

Thank you to Lauren from All Lit Up for hunkering down this holiday season with Olga Ravn's wild ride of a book, The Employees.

We're counting down to the holidays so we can cozy up with more books. Check out our holiday reading list: https://alllitup.ca/what-were-reading-for-the-holidays/