Cormorant Books

30/10/2024

Congratulations Zilla Jones, winner of the 2024 Lush Triumphant Fiction prize!
Zilla's debut novel, The World So Wide, will be coming out from Cormorant Books in April 2025.
Zilla Jones subTerrain magazine

After a particularly strong shortlist year, our editors have narrowed down the finalists for our 2024 Lush Triumphant Literary Awards!

FOR POETRY

*Winner*
This Poem, Like So Many Other Rites of American Manhood, Has S*x, Drugs and a Truck, et al by Brent Schaeffer

*Runner-up*
UPRIVER OR DOWN by Jonathon Greenhause

*Honourable Mention*
STORIES FROM PSYCHOLAND by Robin Richardson

FOR FICTION

*Winner*
Unchained by Zilla Jones

*Runner-up*
The Laburnum Tree by Martin Borden

*Honourable Mentions*
Glacier Springs by Todd Besant
Four Stories by Evan J

FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION

*Winner*
As Long As It Takes by Tricia Dower

*Runner-up*
Ultra by Richard Kelly Kemick

*Honourable Mention*
Split Ends by Jill Talbot

30/10/2024

I'm a firm believer I am in letting the work speak for
itself.
So… one night last week I left my copy of FELT on my desk beside a
pad of paper and a pen, with a simple prompt: “tell us about yourself.”
This is what I found in the morning….
Do you have any idea how hard it is being a book? Always being
judged by your cover. People always trying to crack your spine or
peek at your isbn. And the skimmers…turning your pages so fast it
makes your header spin. Don’t get me started on bookstores and the
blatant classism in those places. Who decides who gets to be a spine
and who gets to be a face? It’s so unfair .... Although… I wouldn’t
necessarily mind being judged by this cover; and my French flaps. I
am pretty aren’t I? Would you say I was pretty? How pretty, do you
think? —Mark Blagrave, at the launch of FELT

29/10/2024

29/10/2024

https://www.cbc.ca/books/zilla-jones-debut-novel-explores-a-mixed-race-woman-s-search-for-identity-and-belonging-1.7362589

29/10/2024

28/10/2024

Quill and Quire reviews ’s newest novel, White World, calling it poetic and horrifying.
Filled with religious segregation and dystopian ideas, Farooqi paints an incredible picture of loss, love, and triumph.

25/10/2024

Spotted in the wild at Ben McNally Books
On Canadian Democracy by Jonathan Manthorpe

23/10/2024

We at Cormorant Books were saddened to learn of the death of Stan Persky, October 15, the day after Thanksgiving. Stan was 83, not quite a grand old age – which is what he should have lived to.

Stan was a poet, an author, the founder of New Star Books, a teacher, and an all-around good guy. His literary career began in San Francisco, after he left the US Navy, where he was befriended by poets Jack Spicer, Robin Bl**er, George Stanley, and Robert Duncan. He moved to Vancouver to attend UBC, where he wrote for The Georgia Straight, helping to found its literary supplement. He taught at several community colleges, lastly Capilano University, where he taught pollical science and philosophy.

His list of books is long, but chief among them are Post-Communist Stories, which was published in 2014 by Cormorant; Then We Take Berlin, published by Knopf; Flaunting It: A Decade of Gay Journalism from The Body Politic, which he edited with Ed Jackson, published by New Star Books; At the Lenin Shipyard: Poland and the Rise of the Solidarity Trade Union, published by New Star Books; and Son of Socred, also published by New Star Books.

Stan was curious, opinionated, engaging, frustrating, clever, flirtatious, and he had wit. Conversation with him – even when it became listening to a monologue – was always delightful and educational. Those qualities are in all his books.

It’s writers like Stan, who see themselves as necessary public intellectuals, who are insufficiently acknowledged, but who make significant contributions to our culture. We will miss him.

22/10/2024

You can read about Arzu Yildiz's journey from Turkiye to Canada in THE UNCAGED VOICE: STORIES BY WRITERS IN EXILE.
https://cormorantbooks.com/the-uncaged-voice

18/10/2024

WHITE WORLD BY Saad T. Farooqi is now available. Watch his writer's journey. Here is Chapter 6.

17/10/2024

October 18th 7:00 PM – Signal Lost: Stories of Identity, Crime, and Dystopia. Featuring Jade Wallace – Anomia, Michael Melgaard – Not That Kind of Place, and Saad. T. Farooqi – White World.

Saad T. Farooqi holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Kingston University London and a BA in English...

16/10/2024

“Shane Peacock’s new mystery As We Forgive Others explores a subgenre that takes the reader to unsuspected depths that lie beneath a deceptively smooth surface – Southern Ontario Gothic.” — Cecilia Nasmith, Today's Northumberland
Available Nov 9

15/10/2024

https://todaysnorthumberland.ca/2024/10/08/local-authors-new-book-launches-northern-gothic-series/

By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland Local author Shane Peacock’s new mystery As We Forgive Others explores a subgenre that takes the

15/10/2024

⏰ [Next Week] Vince Pietropaolo: Toronto through an activist’s lens - https://mailchi.mp/e02e876c19f0/vince-pietropaolo-10328805

10/10/2024

Inspired by lived experiences, and the geopolitical issues that have gripped the countries that he's lived in, Saad T. Farooqi has always had a desire ...

10/10/2024

The Victoria Book Prizes Society has announced the 2024 City of Victoria Children's Book Prize shortlist. Congratulations to all of the nominees! Learn more at https://bit.ly/4eW6MRp

10/10/2024

“Pakistan’s historical treatment of religious minorities, including minority sects of Islam, makes the world Farooqi evokes feel all the more visceral – and horrifyingly possible. … White World is a gritty read that shocks, frightens, and challenges.” — Manahil Bandukwala, Quill & Quire, starred review
Saad T. Farooqi
https://quillandquire.com/review/white-world/

10/10/2024

"March Roars is an invitation to maintain hope in dark times.” — Yvonne Klein, Reviewing the Evidence, September 2024
https://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=12041
Maureen Jennings

MARCH ROARS is the fourth in the Paradise Caf series, Maureen Jennings' presentation of Toronto in the 1930's. It is toward the end of the decade, when the iron grip of the Great Depression is easing somewhat and the news from Europe is raising fears of another great war, especially among those who....

09/10/2024

White World by Saad T. Farooqi us featured on CBC Books and what to read this fall.
https://www.cbc.ca/books/white-world-by-saad-t-farooqi-1.7277136
Saad T. Farooqi

08/10/2024

WHITE WORLD BY Saad T. Farooqi is now available. Watch his writer's journey. Here is Chapter 5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tR-Ok8KZYQ