news | Thursday September 12, 2024

You're Invited to the Talonbooks Fall 2024 Launch

You’re invited to celebrate the new autumn releases from Talonbooks! Please join us at Pyatt Hall on October 16 to welcome the following books to the world:

Chambersonic by Oana Avasilichioaei
Conversations with the Kagawong River by sophie anne edwards
cop city swagger by Mercedes Eng.
The Middle by Stephen Collis and
No Signal No Noise by A Jamali Rad.

The launch will be hosted by ryan fitzpatrick, author of Coast Mountain Foot.

Pyatt Hall is wheelchair and scooter accessible. Attendance is free! Snacks and drinks will be served. A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube channel, so tune in remotely if you can’t attend in-person. We hope to see you there!

Talonbooks Fall 2024 Launch
Pyatt Hall
Vancouver, BC
October 16, 2024
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; readings begin at 7:30 p.m.

news | Thursday September 26, 2024

Dorothy Dittrich Interview in the Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle

A production of the Governor General’s Literary Award–winning play The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key by Dorothy Dittrich is running at Chemainus Theatre. Dittrich and director Sarah Rodgers chat with Chadd Cawson in The Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle.

An excerpt from the piece: ‘Dorothy Dittrich, who has been a playwright for more than two decades and now calls the valley her home, brings arts enthusiasts a script that critics have called a beautiful meditation on grief, loss, and the healing power of music.

“The subject of grief struck me as one that isn’t often given centre stage,” said Dittrich. “I wanted to bring grief forward to be seen and shared, accepted and ultimately healed and I wanted to talk about music, friendship and connection as ways to move forward.”

Dittrich not only received the Governor General’s award last April in the English-Language drama category for her play she was also honoured with the Jessie Richardson Award for outstanding original script.’

Read the complete article here.

news | Wednesday September 25, 2024

Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi on #postdildo

Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi wrote a wonderful piece about #postdildo by Danielle LaFrance in the t3mz review!

An excerpt from the article: “While settling into #postdildo’s poetics, LaFrance’s vi(r/t)al poetics became a lone flashlight in the room where elephants seemed to outnumber people. By that, I mean #postdildo contains a nuclear paradox within its core.”

Read the full piece here.

news | Wednesday September 11, 2024

Talonbooks's Full Fall Poetry Line on CBC Poetry Collections to Watch For

CBC Books has put out a list of poetry collections to check out in the back half of 2024 and we couldn’t be more proud to announce that all five of the forthcoming poetry books on our fall 2024 list have been named as collections to keep your eyes peeled for! The titles launching this fall are Conversations with the Kagawong River by sophie anne edwards, Chambersonic by Oana Avasilichioaei, The Middle by Stephen Collis, No Signal No Noise by A Jamali Rad, and cop city swagger by Mercedes Eng.

Peruse all of CBC Books’ autumn poetry recommendations here, and if you want to watch our authors reading from these stellar titles live, come to the Talonbooks fall 2024 launch on October 16 at Pyatt Hall! For more details on the fall launch, click here.

news | Tuesday September 10, 2024

Another Order Reviewed in BC BookWorld

Trevor Carolan reviewed Another Order: Selected Works by Judith Copithorne and edited by Eric Schmaltz in the latest issue of BC BookWorld.

From the review: “Her probing crossmedia experiments with visual and concrete poetry broadened the limits of what Canadian literary adventuring could be … With this compelling, 340-page book compiled by editor Eric Schmaltz, the fuller nature of Copithorne’s creative explorations … is displayed convincingly.”

news | Tuesday September 3, 2024

ryan fitzpatrick Announced as University of Alberta's Writer-in-Residence

Author and editor ryan fitzpatrick has been announced as University of Alberta’s Writer-in-Residence! fitzpatrick is the author of Coast Mountain Foot, Fortified Castles and more. They are currently working on a collection of essays on asexuality that is forthcoming from Book*hug Press in 2025. Congratulations, ryan!

Read the formal announcement here.

news | Sunday September 1, 2024

Junie Désil Named 2024 Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence!

Author of eat salt | gaze at the ocean and Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize–finalist Junie Désil has been named the 2024 Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence at SFU! Désil will be available for student consultation from September 13th until December 13th, 2024.

Keep your eyes peeled for Désil’s forthcoming spring 2025 poetry collection allostatic load. Congratulations, Junie! We are so excited for the work you’re doing and all of the students who’ll have the opportunity to work with you.

Check out the formal announcement here.

news | Wednesday August 28, 2024

sophie anne edwards on CBC

sophie anne edwards chatted with CBC Sudbury about her forthcoming poetry and visual art collection Conversations with the Kagawong River.

An excerpt from the article: ‘“So over two or three years, I started leaving little cardboard and paper letters on the river for the river to engage with. So I would find, for instance, an otter trail and leave [poetry] along the otter trail, or I would hang pens from trees for the trees and the wind to write together.”

The letters might get moved around by animals, and the resulting combinations might not spell words in either English or Anishinaabemowin, but Edwards saw the process as one of collaborating, she said.

The process forced her to slow down and pay attention and taught her how the ecosystem changes over time.’

Read the article here.


news | Wednesday August 28, 2024

Sangeeta Wylie on On The Coast with Gloria Macarenko

On Friday, tune into CBC Radio’s On the Coast with Gloria Macarenko to hear an interview with debut Talonbooks author Sangeeta Wylie! Learn about Wylie’s outstanding debut play we the same, her upcoming launch, and much more. You didn’t hear it from me, but there may even be a chance to win a copy of we the same, so don’t miss this segment on August 30th at 3:30 p.m. PDT. We can’t wait!

news | Tuesday August 27, 2024

Leanne Dunic Interviewed in Plenitude

L’amour Lisik interviewed Leanne Dunic about her new poetry and photography collection Wet for Plenitude Magazine.

An excerpt from their conversation: “At one point in the novel, we learn “I remember being / on a trip with my ex. / […] He was asleep in my arms / and still / I was empty.” There’s a distinct sense of loneliness, compounded by the photos featuring empty urban landscapes, lifeless figurines, and occasionally people, their faces obscured by shadows, masks, or distance—a juxtaposition between how the narrator feels and the bustling city-state she lives in. How did you go about taking and choosing the photos to include in this project? What was the process for arranging them amongst the poems?

I’m glad that loneliness came through. I think the idea of loneliness as a consequence of climate disaster is often overlooked. If folks didn’t have to quarantine, or stay indoors due to extreme weather, I’d like to think we’d be connecting. I went to Singapore after a seven-year absence, only to arrive with Covid for the first time, and so I was isolated for nearly two weeks—very similar to the character in Wet. The cover is a photo I took in the hotel bathroom while isolating. I took the rest of the photos in the two days that I was no longer testing positive. It was very hard to narrow down and curate the sequences, but I’m happy with the arrangements.”

Read their full interview here and be sure to catch Leanne Dunic at the Victoria Festival of Authors this October! Details here.

news | Friday August 23, 2024

Sangeeta Wylie Interview

Charlie Smith interviewed Sangeeta Wylie about her debut book we the same and her forthcoming book launch with TAIWANFest Vancouver.

An excerpt from the article: ‘The play was inspired by a family’s true story. However, Wylie created different characters and added various elements to the story based on her research and imagination.

“I was in such awe and admiration of this woman to have survived in those conditions with six children under the age of eight,” Wylie, who’s also a dentist, tells Pancouver. “I know the family—so many of the people—and the way that they have survived has been with a lot of grace and kindness and warmth.”

The playwright travelled to Vietnam and Malaysia to trace the family’s journey. And this first trip to Vietnam changed her.’

Read the full article here, and don’t miss Wylie’s book launch on September 2. Get your tickets here.

news | Wednesday August 21, 2024

Two Talonites in BC Booklook's Alphabet

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize–finalist Samantha Nock, author of A Family of Dreamers and author of lettuce lettuce please go bad Tiziana La Melia are letters “N” and “T” respectively in BC BookLook’s Who’s Who alphabet. Learn your authorial ABCs here.

news | Wednesday August 21, 2024

Dorothy Dittrich Interviewed in Monday Magazine

Tim Collins interviewed Dorothy Dittrich about The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key, her Governor General’s Literary Award–winning play, in Monday Magazine.

An excerpt from the article: ‘“The play explores the power of music and the power of the human spirit,” Dittrich says. “It’s also about the power of friendship. Erin meets a friend who guides her from her nightmares. The lesson, I suppose, is that while the emotion of grief is a private one, it doesn’t mean that we have to go through it alone.”’

A production of The Piano Teacher runs at Chemainus Theatre starting September 26. To purchase tickets, click here. To read the complete article in Monday Magazine, click here.

news | Tuesday August 20, 2024

Taylor Marie Graham Interviewed in Cambridge Today

Doug Coxson interviewed Taylor Marie Graham about Cottage Radio & Other Plays and Corporate Finch which will be performed at the International Fringe Theatre Festival in Cambridge Today.

An excerpt from the article: ‘Now that her plays are available to a wider audience in print, Graham hopes there are still a few people out there who enjoy reading them as much as she does.

“You get to become the director. You get to make all those decisions, those visual decisions. You get to decide with the actors sound like you get to decide what the lights look like you get to design the set,” she says.’

Read the complete piece here.

news | Tuesday August 6, 2024

August is Women in Translation Month!

August is Women in Translation Month! We want to take this opportunity to showcase and celebrate some of the incredible women who extend the reach of great literature to English-speaking audiences and the authors who allow us to interpret and share their work. Here are a handful of books in translation we’ve had the honour of working on that we would love to recommend to mark the occasion:

Hot off the press is the winner of the 2020 Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal The Boys’ Club: The Many Worlds of Male Power by Martine Delvaux and translated by Katia Grubisic! Acclaimed Québec feminist writer Martine Delvaux turns her sharp eye and sharper pen on the brazen misogyny of men in power in every field, including Hollywood, politics, tech, law enforcement, architecture, religion, and the military. In this piercing study of patriarchy, Delvaux points out the deleterious effects of the tunnel vision that results from only seeing and reflecting the male experience. A study of the social impacts of visual media, The Boys’ Club looks at the history of gentlemen’s clubs and male fraternity on a global scale. The Boys’ Club exposes a culture of consumption which profits off the female experience while disregarding the female voice.

As Always: A Memoir of a Life in Writing by Madeleine Gagnon and translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott is an engaging memoir from one of Canada’s greatest literary figures. Re-examining the influences of her early life in a large, rural Catholic family, Madeleine Gagnon not only explores her rejection of unexamined values as part of her intellectual development but also her refusal to be categorized by her gender.

Winner of the 1998 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation Bambi and Me by Michel Tremblay and translated by Sheila Fischman consists of 12 autobiographical pieces about how movies shaped the young life of Michel Tremblay, one of their biggest fans. Bursting with wit, charm, and the profound resonance of youthful self-discovery, check out Bambi and Me today.

Canoes is a gorgeous collection of short stories written by Maylis de Kerangal and translated by Jessica Moore. In Canoes seven stories orbit a central novella, creating a collection that resonates with the vibrations and frequencies of women’s voices. Daughters, friends, sisters, young and old, talkative or daydreaming – in this moving and poetic collection, Maylis de Kerangal casts light on them all.

Winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Drama Tom at the Farm by Michel Marc Bouchard and translated by Linda Gaboriau follows urban ad executive Tom as he travels to the country to attend the funeral of his lover and to meet his mother-in-law, Agatha, and her son, Francis – neither of whom know Tom even exists. In a play that unfolds with progressively blurred boundaries between lust and brutality, between truth and elaborate fiction, Bouchard dramatizes how gay men often must learn to lie before they learn how to love.

Finally, if you haven’t had a chance to check out Medusa by Martine Desjardins and translated by Oana Avasilichioaei, there’s no better time than now! Medusa walks with her head down, face hidden behind her hair to spare others the sight of her Deformities – eyes so horrible they repel women and petrify men. Medusa is a modern gothic of women’s body shame and men’s body shaming, phallocratic oppression, and the redemptive power of a feminist imagination. With ironic wit, Medusa confesses her incendiary story, throwing light, both raw and refined, on monstrosity.

This month and every month we are so grateful to the brilliant, award-winning women working in translation who allow us to share their words.

news | Thursday August 1, 2024

Dina Del Bucchia Selected for Poetry in Transit 2024/2025!

Great news! The witty and wonderful Dina Del Bucchia has been selected for the 2024/2025 Poetry in Transit Program! Poetry from her new collectionYou’re Gonna Love This will be brightening your commute around Vancouver’s Lower Mainland and the Greater Victoria Area starting September.⁠
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Now in its 28th year, Poetry in Transit, brought to us by Books BC in partnership with TransLink and BC Transit, is a program that features the work of 10 BC poets on transit cars and shelters throughout the province. Congratulations to this year’s fantastic roster of authors!

news | Thursday August 1, 2024

A Net of Momentary Sapphire Reviewed

Poetry collection A Net of Momentary Sapphire by R. Kolewe was reviewed by rob mclennan. A Net of Momentary Sapphire is a broken long poem and an interrogation of the aftermath of twentieth-century modernism, looking both backwards and forwards – an eternal return.

From the review:

“If literary writing can be considered a kind of study … Kolewe is one of our more thoughtful contemporary practitioners, allowing a wildly diverse series of threads to weave through his deceptively-straightforward lyric collage.”

Read the full piece here.

news | Wednesday July 31, 2024

Three Talonbooks Authors at Vancouver Writers Fest

We are pleased to share that three Talonbooks authors will be reading at the upcoming 2024 Vancouver Writers Fest!

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize–winning writer Stephen Collis will be reading from his forthcoming collection The Middle.

The award-winning Daniel Zomparelli will share poems from his spring 2024 collection Jump Scare.

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize–winning author Mercedes Eng will present work from her forthcoming collection cop city swagger.

Vancouver Writers Fest runs from October 21–27, 2024. Be sure to check out their roster of books and artists on their website, and watch the page for event updates!

news | Wednesday July 31, 2024

Leanne Dunic at the 2024 Victoria Festival of Authors

Great news: multidisciplinary author Leanne Dunic will be performing work from her new poetry and photography collection Wet at the 2024 Victoria Festival of Authors!

Dunic will be reading with Jody Chan, Zehra Naqvi, and Jaz Papadopoulos at the event “Edge Effect: Poetry of Transgression and Transformation.” The event will be moderated by Melanie Siebert. Learn more about this dynamic evening of poetry here.

The Victoria Festival of Authors runs from October 16–20, 2024. Check out all of their programming here.

news | Tuesday July 30, 2024

Sharon Thesen Recording Featured on SoundBox Signals

The first episode of the second season of literary podcast SoundBox Signals has landed. This episode features Sofie Drew and Emily Chircop, two students at University of Exeter, conducting a close listening of a 1980 recording of Sharon Thesen reading work from her inaugural poetry collection Artemis Hates Romance.

Listen to the episode here.

news | Tuesday July 30, 2024

Playwright's Guild of Canada's Featured Playwright: Chantal Bilodeau

Chantal Bilodeau, author of No More Harveys, Sila, and more is the Playwright Guild of Canada’s featured playwright for July 2024! Check out this wonderful interview with her here.