• About Us
• Academic
• Authors
• Awards
• Books
• Contact
• Upcoming Events
• Meta-Talon
• News
• Ordering
• Sales & Distribution
• Specials
• Submission Guidelines
• View Shopping Cart
•  
• Browse Books by Category
• Drama
• Fiction
• Non-Fiction
• Poetry

December 2013

Monday December 9, 2013
Interview: MAC Farrant on My Turquoise Years

Saturday December 14, 2013
Adeena Karasick – Annual Christmas Party AB Series

Monday December 16, 2013
Bev Sellars at Seattle Public Library

Wednesday December 18, 2013
Lunch Poems at SFU with Jordan Abel & Nicole Markotić

Thursday December 26, 2013
Boxing Day with Moses Lapinsky

Friday December 27, 2013
Dara Culhane’s “Hear Me Looking at You” in L.A.

January 2014

Saturday January 11, 2014
Michel Tremblay’s “Manon, Sandra, and the Virgin Mary” in Toronto

Friday January 17, 2014
Pacamambo by Wajdi Mouawad in Toronto

Monday January 20, 2014
Garry Thomas Morse at Vertigo Reading Series in Regina

Wednesday January 22, 2014
Seeds by Annabel Soutar, Starring Eric Peterson, at UBC Theatre

February 2014

Friday February 7, 2014
Adeena Karasick in Spokane, Washington

Sunday February 16, 2014
Bev Sellars Presents at Seattle Public Library

Friday February 21, 2014
Galiano Island Literary Festival

Tuesday February 25, 2014
Motherhouse - David Fennario - Centaur Theatre

March 2014

Tuesday March 11, 2014
Albertine, En Cinq Temps - Michel Tremblay - Théatre du Nouveau Monde

Wednesday March 26, 2014
Seeds - Annabel Soutar - NAC English Theatre

Thursday March 27, 2014
Waiting for the Parade - John Murrell - Sagebrush Theatre

Friday March 28, 2014
George F. Walker’s “The Ravine” in Niagara Falls, ON

May 2014

Friday May 16, 2014
Lucia Frangione’s “Espresso” at the Pacific Theatre, Vancouver

Saturday May 24, 2014
Dead Metaphor by George F. Walker in Toronto

June 2014

Tuesday June 3, 2014
George F. Walker’s “The Burden of Self-Awareness” in Ottawa, ON

December Deal: Free Shipping to Anywhere in North America!

From December 5 – December 24, buy books from Talonbooks.com, and we will cover the freight!

Generally we ship orders the same day we receive them. See Canada Post’s Suggested Mailing Dates for the 2013 holiday season.

Interview: Mariner Janes on The Monument Cycles

Vancouver poet Rob Taylor has conducted a thoughtful and interview with Talon poet Mariner Janes, whose first book, The Monument Cycles, launched in the spring of 2013. The interview, like the book (and like Mariner, perhaps), is conscientious and accessible. Here is some background provided by Taylor:

I first met Mariner when we were both undergrads at Simon Fraser University. … [Mariner’s] poetry back then was already fully formed – intelligent, politically sharpened, often quite funny. This guy was a pro. I figured that at any moment his first book would appear.

So I waited. And waited. A decade later I was still waiting. Mariner wasn’t, however. He was busy with other things – building a life, a family, and a career. …

Then, early in 2013 I heard the news that Talonbooks was putting out Mariner’s first book … The book arrived and I was thrilled with what I found. The Monument Cycles is a deep consideration of place, grounded in Vancouver’s monuments and the sights and stories of the city’s Downtown Eastside. Its poems are sometimes difficult, sometimes playful (with form, with language), and always thoughtful and rewarding. …

So here is my interview with Mariner, in which we talk about monuments, bombs, writing on the DTES, and the positives and negatives of slow-cooking your book. Both interview and book were very much worth the wait.

We suggest you go read the interview on Rob Taylor’s blog.

The Monument Cycles is available for $16.95.

Video: Dina Del Bucchia at the North Vancouver Public Library

This North Vancouver City Library Local Author Series video features Dina Del Bucchia (author of Coping Emotions with Otters [2013]), Joan Boxall, Barry Jakel, and Maria Tomsich. Dina’s introduction begins at 39:30, and the reading (in which the very funny Dina makes her audience hold hands like otters, for one thing) begins at 40:50.

> Go to story...

Review: The Winds of Change on They Called Me Number One

Sheldon Treteault for The Winds of Change – a community almanac for Pemberton, Lil’wat, Area C, and N’Quatqua – recently reviewed They Called Me Number One by Xat’sull Chief Bev Sellars. Treteault wrote that this very readable book gives Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal readers alike “a way to enter into the subject and find hope for personal recovery and national reconciliation” and declared that it “should be required reading for all Canadians.” The full review is available on The Winds of Change website.

They Called Me Number One by Xat’sull Chief Bev Sellars is the first full-length memoir to be published out of St. Joseph’s Mission, the residential school at Williams Lake, BC. Readers have flocked to the book and audiences to its author, finding this personal memoir moving, thoughtful, and significant to Canada’s national identity and the national identities of all its peoples.

This week also marks the book’s 30th week running on the B.C. Bestsellers list, a list compiled by the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia based on sales data from bookstores around the province!

Imperial Canada Inc. and Internodes in The Goose (Issue 12/13)

Two Talon books feature in the latest issue of The Goose (Issue 12/13 – 2013), a publication put out by the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC): Imperial Canada Inc. (Alain Deneault and William Sacher) and Internodes (Ken Belford).

> Go to story...

Minor Episodes / Major Ruckus Shortlisted for 2013 ReLit Award

Congratulations to Garry Thomas Morse, author of Minor Episodes / Major Ruckus, which has just been shortlisted for a 2013 ReLit Award! The ReLit Awards recognize outstanding work from Canada’s independent presses.

To see the rest of the shortlist in the novel category and other categories (poetry and short stories), see the ReLit blog.

Fortuitously for readers intrigued by ReLit shortlists, Garry Thomas Morse’s three works of fiction happen to be available in a special bundle for $35 throughout November! (Just one week to go!) The bundle includes Minor Episodes / Major Ruckus, Death in Vancouver, and Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour. Get your GTM Fiction Special today.

Gil McElroy Ties for 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award

Congratulations to poet, curator, and memoirist Gil McElroy on winning the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award! He and poet Sandra Alland tied for their respective chapbooks Ordinary Time: The Merton Lake Propers and Naturally Speaking. The prize – $1000 for winners and $250 for their publishers – is administered by Meet the Presses, a volunteer literary collective devoted to organizing public events showcasing works produced by independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. For more information visit the Quill & Quire blog.

Video: Jordan Abel Launches The Place of Scraps

Jordan Abel reads from The Place of Scraps (it’s the kind of video you can just listen to, if you’re in a mad rush and have to prioritize just one of your senses…)

The Place of Scraps is the first book by Nisga’a poet Jordan Abel. It launched on October 10, 2013 at the Western Front in Vancouver, British Columbia and has received much critical attention.

Drawing inspiration from Marius Barbeau’s canonical book Totem Poles, Abel explores in The Place of Scraps the complicated relationship between First Nations cultures and ethnography. His poems simultaneously illuminate Barbeau’s intentions and navigate the repercussions of the anthropologist’s actions. Abel also shares, in this video, more personal thoughts on the writing of his book.

In the first reading, of the title poem from The Place of Scraps, the overwhelming presence of Barbeau’s voice and sounds is gradually usurped by those of Abel, reflecting, perhaps, one of the purposes of The Place of Scraps: to make way, through and after historical noise, for the intonations of the people themselves.

The second reading represents no small feat either: Abel studied more than 80 pulp western novels, searching for the word “Injun” and composing a compelling cut-up poem.

Using only a loop station, his wits, and his dulcet tones, Abel created an atmospheric and thought-provoking environment, allowing his audience to soak up his language and the spirit of his poetry.

Get The Place of Scraps ($19.95) while it lasts!

TONIGHT: Talonbooks Fall Launch in Toronto! Wigrum, Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour, and Singed Wings

Join Talonbooks as we celebrate the launches of three exciting new Fall titles in Toronto, Ontario!

Where:
Type Books
883 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON

When:
November 18, 2013
7:00 p.m.
(no admission fee)

Author Daniel Canty and translator Oana Avasilichioaei will read from their inventory/novel, Wigrum – a typographically delightful book with lovely illustrations!

Garry Thomas Morse will read from his latest book, Rogue Cells / Carbon Harbour, which contains two of five “nodal” novels in his surreal and speculative The Chaos! Quincunx series.

Lola Lemire Tostevin will read from her latest book of poetry, Singed Wings.

There may or may not be operatic moments, charming French accents, and beautiful books for sale!

Guests with Facebook may RSVP to the evening here.

The Guardian on The Edward Curtis Project and Contemporary Native Art

In the Guardian on Monday, Helen Gilbert observed that

many Britons today are barely aware of the extent of their nation’s imperial history, but the wounds of colonialism are never far from the surface of indigenous arts in the dozens of countries that were once former colonies.

> Go to story...

Kafka’s Hat Up for Blog’s Readers’ Choice Award for Translation

Typographical Era, which hosts book reviews and discussion (focused on fiction), has inaugurated its own version of the GoodReads Choice Awards after noticing a significant omission:

Why … do the GoodReads Choice Awards not have a category dedicated to allowing users to vote for their favorite literary translation of the year? There are twenty categories. TWENTY. Yet translations are completely ignored. Thus the first ever Typographical Translation Award is born. Lovers of international fiction, this is your chance to speak up and be heard!

The two bloggers behind Typographical Era have chosen 20 fiction titles from 2013 (translated from any language to English and appearing in the United States in 2013) and leave the rest up to their readers. There is some real competition in their list, and we look forward to seeing the shortlist on November 28 and the final winner on December 19.

See Typographical Era’s blog for more information – and to vote!

Talon’s Best Gift Books for 2013

The holiday season is upon us, and perhaps you are considering giving the gift of a good book! Here are the most lovely and readable and immediately compelling books we have produced recently to help you in your quest. Order soon to have them delivered in the next couple of weeks! (And did you know that ours come nicely packaged?)

> Go to story...

Urban vs. Rural in Canadian Literature

by Chloë Filson

In a recent Meta-Talon article, “Reflections on Regionalism,” Megan Jones referred to the “quietly profound writers that dwell in far-off corners and dense urban hotbeds of this vast country.” This description points to one of the most important – or at least one of the most critically discussed – tensions in Canadian literature: urban vs. rural.

> Go to story...

Two Poems from Ken Belford’s Internodes

Today on Meta-Talon, we share two poems from Ken Belford’s latest book of poetry, Internodes.

> Go to story...

Selections from Minor Episodes / Major Ruckus

By Garry Thomas Morse

The Mole

“With this magazine cover, I know it’s only a prototype, but with this cover, we decided to concentrate on the mole. This may look to you and me like an ordinary, and might I add rather famous, mole on a human face. Yet if we were to make that assumption, we would both be making a rather naive supposition.”

Candy blinked and stifled a yawn.

“Because,” roared F with wild eyes, nearly startling Candy out of her seat, “the mole is not a real mole at all!”

“Okay, Doc, I believe you. Just chill, okay.”

> Go to story...