On AllLitUp.ca, readers of emerging, quirky, & unabashedly Canadian literature will find exclusive content to discover & both print and ebooks to purchase.
All Lit Up is an online bookstore and blog featuring books published by members of the Literary Press Group, an association of Canadian-owned literary publishers.
"I’d glance up at the club on my way to and from work, offer the dancers my shy, small-town smile, and cover my ears as Tony bellowed FULL-NUDE, FULL-CONTACT dances! to all who deigned to look."
Read the prologue "The Hustler's Curse" of Angel B.H.'s debut novel ALL HOOKERS GO TO HEAVEN (Invisible Publishing): https://alllitup.ca/excerpted-all-hookers-go-to-heaven/
"I also hope that readers who share lived experiences with these characters feel the joy in how they are out in front as the stars, and not put in as an afterthought."
We had the absolute pleasure chatting with speculative fiction writer Cait Gordon, Author about her disability-hopepunk adventure book SEASON ONE: IRIS AND THE CREW TEAR THROUGH SPACE! (Presses Renaissance Press) and the importance of representation in literature and beyond.
alllitup.ca/our-lives-reflected-in-stories-should-never-be-banned-an-interview-with-cait-gordon/
"We discovered my father had been recruited into Churchill’s Secret Army – the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – to fight a clandestine, guerilla war against the German N***s and Italian Fascists. Definitely novel material, I thought."
Genni Gunn tells us about the process of writing her new novel THE CIPHER (Signature Editions) - one that also involved delving into her father's secret wartime past.
https://alllitup.ca/under-the-cover-the-cipher-that-was-my-fathers-wartime-past/
It might still be summer, but it sure feels like fall over here at ALU HQ with our staff book picks for the upcoming season. Check out just some of the books our staffers will be reading this fall.
Find them at the click! alllitup.ca/alu-staff-picks-this-fall-2024/
"It didn’t seem to bother any of them that one of their own had just been killed seconds ago. They kept on swimming."
So opens today's featured excerpt: the story “The Third or Fourth Casualty” from the upcoming anthology THYME TRAVELLERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION (Fernwood Publishing), available September 5.
https://alllitup.ca/excerpted-thyme-travellers-an-anthology-of-palestinian-speculative-fiction/
Sneak peek two poems from Samantha Jones's forthcoming debut ATTIC RAIN (NeWest Press), a collection of poems that puts obsessive-compulsive disorder centre stage through explorations of time, space, and relationships. These poems are part of an ongoing act of resilience and an honest account of moving through a world obsessed with normality.
alllitup.ca/two-poems-attic-rain-by-samantha-jones/
As both the summer and wind down for 2024, we look at what to read next: specifically, what will make us laugh, think, and rage like our August pick THE RAGE LETTERS (Metonymy Press). We picked four books (+ one bonus!) that we think will do the trick:
https://alllitup.ca/alu-summer-book-club-what-to-read-after-the-rage-letters/
"All my characters come from some small or large part of myself."
Award-winning writer Hollay Ghadery talks to us about her forthcoming book of flash fictions WIDOW FANTASIES (Gordon Hill Press),a much-anticipated collection of stories about the shadowed lives of girls and women and the often subversive act of fantasizing.
alllitup.ca/all-my-characters-come-from-some-small-or-large-part-of-myself-an-interview-with-hollay-ghadery/
"People are fundamentally mysterious when you get down to it, and sometimes you’re better off as a writer trying to preserve and communicate that mystery."
Damian Tarnopolsky talks to us about his approach to writing characters and his forthcoming book, EVERY NIGHT I DREAM I'M A MONK, EVERY NIGHT I DREAM I'M A MONSTER (Freehand Books), an inventive collection of linked stories that circle around the same characters.
alllitup.ca/people-are-fundamentally-mysterious-when-you-get-down-to-it-an-interview-with-damian-tarnopolsky/
For today's , Trisia Eddy Woods reads two poems from her debut collection A ROAD MAP FOR FINDING WILD HORSES (Turnstone Press), which examines the (sometimes fraught) relationship between humans, horses, and the natural environments required to sustain wild horse populations.
https://alllitup.ca/poetry-in-motion-trisia-eddy-woods-a-road-map-for-finding-wild-horses/
The ALU team discusses Montreal in literature, reclaiming power, linked short story collections, and more in our meeting about August pick THE RAGE LETTERS (Metonymy Press). Get our questions for your own book club right here:
https://alllitup.ca/alu-summer-book-club-team-discussion-the-rage-letters/
"The thing I love about the fantasy genre is that it often ticks multiple boxes. It can be a character study and a thrilling adventure. It can be a romance and an action-packed tale. It can have strong horror elements while also being light-hearted fun at times. Every story is a unique mixture of themes and characters, and I think fantasy is the most compelling way to blend this mixture together."
Debut fantasy writer Coltrane Seesequasis talks to us about world-building, what he loves about the fantasy genre, and writing his thrilling YA fantasy novel SECRETS OF STONE, the first in a four-part series from Kegedonce Press.
alllitup.ca/writers-block-coltrane-seesequasis/
"According to the housekeeper, moreover, the wreckedness of my mother’s body had required the tailors and funeral house staff to work for three days non-stop, while the makeup artist needed only a little over an hour. When I finally got in, her face was already properly made up, powdered, and mascaraed, the way she never was in daily life."
Today's featured excerpt is from Thuận’s Elevator in Sài Gòn (Bookhug Press), translated by Nguyễn An Lý.
https://alllitup.ca/excerpted-elevator-in-sai-gon-by-thuan/
Tim Bowling's newest collection IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF AUTUMN (Wolsak & Wynn Publishing Ltd) is a mastery of language and imagery with poems that trace universal themes of loss, the passage of time, and finding home.
Read two poems from the collection here: alllitup.ca/two-poems-in-the-capital-city-of-autumn/
"NK Jemisin once said something (and I’m very loosely paraphrasing) about how the act of worldbuilding also involves creating a cosmology, whether you intend to or not. And that stuck with me. Having grown up around evangelical Christianity, I would be remiss not to spare the characters from a judgemental sky daddy."
We talk with August pick THE RAGE LETTERS (Metonymy Press) author Valérie Bah about writing in chunks, racial capitalism, the intersection between photography and writing, and much more.
https://alllitup.ca/alu-summer-book-club-an-interview-with-valerie-bah-author-of-the-rage-letters/
"It takes time, effort, and energy to write a blurb. And, because of the unspoken-but-upheld Model of Good Faith, this is free labour we offer one another."
Palimpsest Press's Vanessa Shields tells us about the art of book blurbing in our In House series:
alllitup.ca/in-house-book-blurbing-a-model-of-good-faith/
"What I know from personal experience is this: there is nothing laughable about someone who is unable to leave their bedroom for weeks. But personal experience has also taught me that deep family love can remain and even grow during mental health struggles, and that—with recovery—humour and love can once again infuse a household."
Author Leanne Shirtliffe tells us about the inspiration behind her debut middle-grade novel, THE GENIUS HOUR PROJECT (Thistledown Press) in our Under the Cover series.
alllitup.ca/under-the-cover-the-genius-hour-project-by-leanne-shirtliffe/
"Who have we betrayed so
That there can be no forgiveness for us?
There are no walls, no roof
Only the Northern Lights
And a few shared histories
Opened anew, like little doors."
Read a selection from HOLY WINTER (Bookhug Press), a profoundly moving book-length poem by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale here on All Lit Up:
alllitup.ca/two-poems-holy-winter-by-maria-stepanova-translated-by-sasha-dugdale/
Summer isn't half-over: we prefer to think of it as entering its "rage stage." Especially since we're reading August pick THE RAGE LETTERS! Read our intro interview with publishers Metonymy Press and translator K**a La Mackerel (and get 15% off your own copy) right here:
https://alllitup.ca/alu-summer-book-club-intro-to-the-rage-letters/
Writer Raymond Beauchemin - most recently of the book of novellas THE EMPTIEST QUARTER (Signature Editions) - answers our questionnaire, where he offers some kind advice to those experiencing writer's block, themselves: "It’s fine. There’s no reason to beat yourself up about it."
https://alllitup.ca/writers-block-raymond-beauchemin/
Mark Blagrave’s new novel FELT (Cormorant Books) is a deeply moving multi-generational story about family, immigration, and memory that follows a museum curator who returns home to his mother in New Brunswick to help her through her developing Alzheimer’s.
Read an excerpt here: alllitup.ca/excerpted-felt-by-mark-blagrave/
We read from Joelle Barron's new collection EXCERPTS FROM A BURNED LETTER (Nightwood Editions), a collection that brings the queerness that figures from history and fiction previously kept hidden to the fore.
https://alllitup.ca/two-poems-excerpts-from-a-burned-letter/
"Disabled people know about death. Our bodies and our illnesses bring us close to it. And knowing about death helps us to really feel into being alive. It’s the knowing that this is all temporary that brings us closer to exaltation."
Author Kaleigh Trace writes about disability, death, and editing her younger self during the republishing of her award-winning book HOT, WET & SHAKING: HOW I LEARNED TO TALK ABOUT S*X (Invisible Publishing).
Read her ALU exclusive essay, "Gripping the Pen: On Writing and Death" here: alllitup.ca/gripping-the-pen-on-writing-and-death-by-kaleigh-trace/
Richard Van Camp's perfect writing day? "Get up, enjoy two cups of coffee as I write, shut the computer down, make notes for what I’ll work on tomorrow morning, let go and enjoy the day as a human being and do my best to leave each person and each place better than I found them."
That's life advice, right there! Read the rest of our delightful interview with Richard - including a sneak-peek of his new horror graphic novel ROTH (Renegade Arts Entertainment Ltd) - right here: https://alllitup.ca/writers-block-richard-van-camp/
Peek a chapter from Andrew Battershill's much-anticipated PET, PET, SLAP (CCoach House Books, an underdog sports story meets existential mystery novel, featuring a younger “Pillow Fist” Pete Wilson from the Giller Prize-longlisted novel, PILLOW.
alllitup.ca/excerpted-pet-pet-slap-by-andrew-battershill/
Poet concetta principe's new collection DISORDER (Gordon Hill Press) troubles the idea of home as safety when one lives with mental illness. Read two poems from this searing collection here:
https://alllitup.ca/two-poems-disorder/
You've finished Jade Wallace's ANOMIA (Palimpsest Press) — now what? Try these four spectacular follow-ups!
alllitup.ca/alu-summer-book-club-follow-up-reads-after-anomia/
"I wrote this book because I’ve spent a lifetime concerned with the bigger picture, and I did not want to let go of an opportunity to share that perspective, especially before the worldly chaos of adulthood arrives."
We chat with teenage science writer Nathan Hellner-Mestelman, who shares impressive knowledge of the cosmos in fun, accessible write-ups and illustrations in his new book for teens COSMIC WONDER (Linda Leith Publishing - Linda Leith Éditions).
https://alllitup.ca/writers-block-nathan-hellner-mestelman/
Head into the weekend with an excerpt from Natasha Kanapé Fontaine’s gorgeous new novel NAUETAKUAN, A SILENCE FOR A NOISE (Bookhug Press ), translated by Howard Scott.
alllitup.ca/excerpted-nauetakuan-a-silence-for-a-noise-by-natasha-kanape-fontaine-translated-by-howard-scott/
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Cozy Fest is back: more readings, same comfy concept! Our on-demand style literary festival is especially made for those who need a little pick-me-up after a busy year and for those who’ve always wanted to attend a book fest in their pyjamas. Grab your favourite hot beverage and comfiest pjs and join us for a warm and fuzzy way to close out 2023! Learn more about Cozy Fest and get the full schedule of readings at the link: alllitup.ca/cozy-fest-2-0-print-and-pyjamas/
Eid al-Adha Mubarak to everyone celebrating it this weekend! This week, we picked out some titles by our publishers that cover many issues and dilemmas faced by Muslim-Canadians. Click the link in bio to read more! @brick.books @atbaypress @dundurnpress @bayeux_arts @inannapub @mawenzihouse @renaissancebookpress #eidmubarak2022 #eidaladha #eid2022 #mulismauthors #muslimcanadians #muslim #Top10Books #canadianimmigrantstories
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All Lit Up is an online bookstore and blog featuring books published by members of the Literary Press Group, an association of Canadian-owned literary publishers.
