news | Thursday June 13, 2024

It's Pride Month!

Pride Month is here! Why not celebrate with a new book? We’ve had the pleasure of working on several sensational titles from LGBTQIA2S+ authors this year. We would love to recommend just a handful of new and forthcoming works in honour of pride.

the berry takes the shape of the bloom by andrea bennett is a remarkable new poetry collection that delves deeply into family dynamics. The collection began as a linear narrative, offering a window into one trans person’s life after they felt contented and secure. But in the end these poems, which capture particular moments in time, may recur in any given present: sometimes what surfaces is anxiety or anger, sometimes love or eagerness.

An excerpt from the berry takes the shape of the bloom:

“As the summer breaks, I collect five new things
to wake me in the middle of the night. Some
floods will brook rain boots and others need
boats. You can do the right right right thing
and end up travelling in the same direction. You
can convince yourself: I am buoyant but forget
about sewage and currents.”

Pick up a copy of the berry takes the shape of the bloom here.

Wet by Leanne Dunic is a collection of poetry and photography that follow a transient Chinese American model working in Singapore as she thirsts for the unattainable: fair labour rights, the extinguishing of nearby forest fires, breathable air, healthy habitats for animals, human connection. In photographs and language shot through with empathy and desire, Wet unravels complexities of social stratification, sexual privation, and environmental catastrophe.

An excerpt from Wet:

“Strawberry Cheesecake and I stand at the edge of our building’s
rooftop. Someone has brought up some potted plants. Possibly the
same person set up the clothesline that bisects the space.

I sink a finger into the soil of one of the plants and it’s surprisingly
damp. The colour of the soil isn’t far off from the colour of the air.

Dusk can’t dull the shine of Strawberry Cheesecake’s lips.”

Order your copy of Wet here.

Jump Scare by Daniel Zomparelli meets at the intersection of poetry and comedy to examine mental health, neurodivergence, grief, dreams, monstrosity, sexuality, pop culture, queer consumer culture, and the commodification of identity. Jump Scare tackles isolation and loss head-on and works through the tangles of how to position ourselves in our lonely, scary, compelling lives.

An excerpt from “HOW TO GET WASHBOARD ABS – FAST!”:

“you keep saying / you’re from the future but your bmw is a ’95 and I
can’t even fucking let go of the past.

the guy who designed crop tops
has all of our money, let’s get him. //

the economy will be saved with same-sex
themed wedding cakes. // don’t ask / don’t tell / don’t miss out on
this offer / and for the next three minutes
we’ll throw in a second slap chop for free. //

wait, wait, wait, are you a jack gay or a will gay? // wait, wait, on the
old one or the reboot? // meet me at the corner of commerce and gay
culture, you get the best g there. // have you planned your gaycation
yet?”

Grab your copy of Jump Scare here.

Forthcoming this fall, Withrow Park by prolific playwright Morris Panych arrives! The play opens on three people who gaze out of their living room window at Withrow Park as the days pass them by. Then suddenly, there comes a knock at the door. Time has found them, hiding in plain sight. Or possibly it’s just a man in a wrinkled suit. But Janet, Marion, and Arthur must act now or forever be devoured by their own indifference. They can no longer live on the periphery of their own lives. They must invite the young man to dinner. Full of Panych’s trademark wit, Withrow Park tugs at anxieties around aging, isolation, and the constantly shifting world around us.

An excerpt from Withrow Park:

“ARTHUR
Here we are. Pictures of our lives.

MARION
I have no pictures of myself because I refuse to have them taken.
I don’t want anybody to remember me when I’m gone.

JANET
There’s little worry of that.

MARION
I won’t even have a funeral because I feel I’ve already had one.

JANET
What if we decide to have a funeral? A great big, bloated affair.
With a brass band and gospel choir.

MARION
You can’t. It’s my last request as of now. No fuss. There, I’ve said
it. You’re all witnesses.

JANET
But you’ll be dead and quite unable to stop us. I might decide
to dedicate a bench to you in the park. “In memory of Marion
Wallace, who loved this park so very much and spent many
thoughtful hours here thinking up ways to disrupt the lives of
others until mercifully she ended her own.”

MARION
That’s a lot to fit on one bench.

JANET
We’ll make it a long bench.”

Learn more about Withrow Park here.

Finally, a new poetry collection from A Jamali Rad will arrive this autumn! The beginning of a poetic series, No Signal No Noise follows protagonist Zero as they stumble upon a mysterious manuscript and are thrown into a journey across centuries, continents, and concepts. They travel throughout the Muslim world, from Sumeria to India to Baghdad. They learn about Europe as other and outside. They’re guided by the cryptic mirror the manuscript provides as it traces a history of the number zero.

An excerpt from “Thinking Without Knowing”:

“Zero contains what was previously assumed uncontainable.

Its coming to being makes everything containable: land,
bodies, behaviour, desire, decisions, movements, time,
memory, absence, a forgotten lullaby, seven flights of
stairs and a broken elevator with technicians on strike in
the not-for-profit senior housing, jaws hinging loading
with spices and empty calories, a sublime nothing,
trembling yellowed leaves in a swift breeze dropping,
mulched, and returned to earth. 

Zero discloses through enclosing.”

Read more about No Signal No Noise here.

We’re so thankful for the LGBTQIA2S+ authors and queer voices creating works of truth and wit and vulnerability and beauty. Happy Pride Month! We hope yours is full of great art and great joy.