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July 2017

Thursday July 20, 2017
Play: “Billy Bishop Goes to War” in Toronto

Friday July 28, 2017
Book launch: From Oral to Written, Vancouver

Saturday July 29, 2017
Drum Is Calling Festival (Vancouver): Tomson Highway and Patricia Cano concert

September 2017

Wednesday September 6, 2017
Maylis de Kerangal at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town, South Africa

Thursday September 7, 2017
Coast to Coast: Canada’s Literary Women featuring Meredith Quartermain in Niagara Falls, Ontario

Friday September 22, 2017
Sidney Literary Festival, featuring M.A.C. Farrant

October 2017

Tuesday October 3, 2017
Play: “1 Hour Photo” by Tetsuro Shigematsu at the Cultch in Vancouver

Thursday October 26, 2017
Play: "Only Drunks and Children" at the Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay, ON

November 2017

Friday November 3, 2017
Stephen Collis at the Festival of Readers (St. Catharines, ON)

Saturday November 11, 2017
Play: “Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth” in Vancouver, BC

January 2018

Tuesday January 16, 2018
Play: Empire of the Son at Alberta Theatre (Alberta, AB

Thursday January 25, 2018
Play: “Jitters” by David French in Vancouver

June 2018

Friday June 15, 2018
Play: “Hosanna” at the Centaur Theatre, Montreal

From Oral to Written has gone from written to published!

Tomson Highway’s new book is here! A survey of Indigenous literature published in Canada between 1980 and 2010, From Oral to Written is now available!

From Oral to Written is the story of the Indigenous literary tradition, written – in multiple Indigenous languages, in French, and in English – by a brave, committed, hard-working, and inspired community of exceptional individuals – from the Haida Nation of Haida Gwaii to the Inuit of Baffin Island to the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island. Leading Indigenous author Tomson Highway surveys what he sees as the first wave of Indigenous writers published in Canada, highlighting the most gifted authors and the best stories they have told, offering non-Indigenous readers access to reconciliation and understanding, and at the same time engendering among Indigenous readers pride in a stellar body of work.

Order your copy today for $29.95, and join us for the book launch in Vancouver on Friday, July 28!

Abel proves able: Jordan Abel wins the Griffin!

Above (L–R): At the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize dinner, Kevin Williams, Talonbooks publisher; Jordan Abel, winner of the Griffin; Chelsea Novak, reporter and wife of Abel

Well, this is just the greatest day. Injun by Jordan Abel is the Canadian winner of the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize! Abel and Alice Oswald – winner in the International category, for her collection Falling Awake – each received $65,000 in prize money.

Read the official Griffin announcement, and see coverage of Abel’s win by the Globe & Mail, CBC Books, CBC Radio q, the Ottawa Citizen (also syndicated in the Montreal Gazette, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, and others), Global News, BC BookLook, and Castlegar News (a nice hometown shout-out; Abel currently resides in Castlegar, BC).

And get your hands on a copy of Injun for $16.95.

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Home again, home again after the convention circuit

Talonbooks publisher Kevin Williams and sales pro Spencer Williams were very pleased to attend a number of conventions over the last few weeks on behalf of the press. We so appreciate these opportunities to meet face-to-face and one-on-one with our readers, who include scholars, thespians, playwrights, poets, booksellers, librarians, and the reading public. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booths and said hello!

First up were the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences and the convention of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research, both held at the same time this year in Toronto, Ontario.

Above: the Talon booth at Congress 2017 (shared with our friends at Playwrights Canada Press)

Above: Tetsuro Shigematsu performs from Empire of the Son for the CATR crowd

Above: Jovanni Sy gives a raucous performance of his new play, A Taste of Empire

Next, the Williams men flew to the Big Apple for Book Expo America and Book Con, which together make up the largest book trade show and public convention in North America.

Above: outside the Javits Center, a long line-up forms on the first morning of Book Con

Above: the Talon booth at Book Expo America

Kevin and Vicki Williams, Talonbooks owners, will also be at the annual American Library Association (ALA) convention in Chicago, June 22 through 27. If you’re at ALA, please come visit us at booth #3223 and pick up advance copies of Fall books, including Anima by Wajdi Mouawad (translated by Linda Gaboriau) and Zora, A Cruel Tale by Philippe Arseneault (translated by Fred A. Reed and David Homel). Talon’s latest novel, In Search of New Babylon by Dominique Scali (translated by W. Donald Wilson), will also be available.

Donato Mancini will be writer in residence at the University of Windsor this fall

Donato Mancini has been named by the University of Windsor’s Department of English as their Writer in Residence for Fall 2017.

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50 years of Talonbooks, and a new catalogue that includes every title in print!

The Talonbooks 2017 catalogue is now available! This 100-page document includes every title currently in print: more than 500 plays; novels; collections of poetry, short stories, essays; ethnography and Indigenous studies; biographies; and literary criticism. Inside you’ll find our Spring 2017 titles, Fall 2017 titles, and all backlist titles available for purchase.

If you are on our print catalogue mailing list, you’ll receive your copy soon. You can also browse the catalogue online.

50 years since Expo 67, and a book bundle to celebrate!

Being the 50th anniversary of both Expo 67 and Talonbooks, 2017 is the perfect year to read this delightful series! In honour of the anniversary, Tremblay’s Notebook series is on sale until October. Get all three novels for just $25!

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Bev Sellars books shortlisted for First Nation Communities READ 2017–2018 award

We are pleased to announce that both books by Bev Sellars – Price Paid and They Called Me Number One – are on the shortlist for this year’s First Nation Communities READ 2017–2018 award, the Periodical Marketers of Canada Aboriginal Literature award! More than 50 books were nominated in this year’s Young Adult/Adult category, and the prize is worth $5,000. The winner will be announced in late May.

Mend the Living wins Wellcome Book Prize!

Congratulations to author Maylis de Kerangal and translator Jessica Moore! Their 2016 novel, Mend the Living, has won the 2017 Wellcome Book Prize!

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Save the date! Our Spring 2017 Poetry Launch is on April 27 in Vancouver

On Thursday, April 27, Talonbooks launches four poetry titles all in one night! Come out to the Western Front for readings by Jónína Kirton, R. Kolewe, Donato Mancini, and Catriona Strang (reading Nancy Shaw), hosted by Jeff Derksen. There will be new books, drinks, and so much cheese! RSVP on Facebook, if you wish.

Jordan Abel’s Injun short-listed for the Griffin!

Congratulations, Jordan Abel!

Abel’s latest collection of poetry, Injun, is one of three Canadian books of poetry short-listed for this year’s Griffin Poetry Prize!

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Listen: Nancy Shaw reads her poems

The Gorge: Selected Writing by Nancy Shaw launched in April, 2017 at the Western Front in Vancouver. To launch Shaw’s book, published posthumously, editor Catriona Strang read from The Gorge, and then this video was played to a rapt audience. In the video, you’ll hear the voice of Nancy Shaw, reading poems from her book Cold Trip (2006; co-authored with Catriona Strang).

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“The result is not simple”: Two Poems from Inspecting Nostalgia

By R. Kolewe

Inspecting Nostalgia is a new collection of poetry by R. Kolewe. This, his second collection, brings together found text and fragments of various writers’ work with scraps from his own journals.

In this third week of National Poetry Month 2017, and in advance of Kolewe’s Toronto launch on May 8, please enjoy two poems from the collection on Meta-Talon.

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An excerpt from “Reading Wordsworth in the Tar Sands” by Stephen Collis

By Stephen Collis

Stephen Collis’s latest collection of poetry is nominated for the 2017 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. It rethinks the relationship between human beings and the natural world and searches for ways we can continue to resist. Today on Meta-Talon, we offer a section from “Reading Wordsworth in the Tar Sands,” the second long poem in Once in Blockadia.

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“REDress”: A poem by Jónína Kirton, from An Honest Woman

By Jónína Kirton

For you, in solidarity, during this National Poetry Month, a poem from Jónína Kirton’s new collection.

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