news | Friday October 16, 2026

The Tao of the World a Quebec Writers Federation Prize Finalist!

The new play The Tao of the World by Jovanni Sy is a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Playwriting! Sy’s new spin on a restoration comedy premiered to great acclaim at this year’s Stratford Festival. We are so excited to see this work among all of the wonderful finalists for this year’s Quebec Writers’ Federation awards. Congratulations, Jovanni! Check out all of the details here.

news | Thursday October 15, 2026

Panax Has Landed!

The first Talonbooks fall 2026 poetry collection has arrived! Panax by Rob Budde is a deeply engaging work that blends ecocriticism, animal studies, and decolonial and countercolonial thought. Readers travel through time and get to know the plant Hoolhghulh, known in English as Devil’s Club.

From the poem “Toponym / Four”:

“hands in humus is humility – i am
of this place – and interactions without
interpretation run the show

that the sentient plants
reveal themselves – that moment
of pity on my screened, gridded eyes – and
dissolve the software codes means
the system is correcting itself

opened up eyes/lungs/hands/
mindful of more, a new awareness –
into the overgrown path of noncompliance – taught
by leaf and decumbent stem and
crimson berry, there, you
bow in piteousness

how fungal infections run
their course and then – a capacity
exceeded in tenement towers and flown-in cheeses – collapse
inward like an economy

the ecologies of Hoolhghulh teach
the frailty of fiction and – a thorn
in one thigh and wonder – bestow
the rich thick smell of recovery”

Join Rob Budde on this remarkable poetic and autoethnographic journey, and get to know Hoolhghulh as you never have before. Get your copy here.

news | Sunday October 11, 2026

An Interview with Daphne Marlatt in Touch the Donkey

There’s an interview with Daphne Marlatt (Intertidal, Then Now, and more) in Touch the Donkey. Learn more about the multi-award winning author here.

news | Saturday October 10, 2026

Jenn Ashton Named a Mentor for Deaf and Disabled Writers

Jenn Ashton, author of Growing My Way Home, is one of the mentors for The Writers Union of Canada’s Creating Mentorship for Deaf and Disabled Writers program this year! Congratulations, Jenn! Learn more about the program and this year’s mentors here.

news | Thursday October 8, 2026

ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok Is Now Available as an Audiobook!

The winner of the 2026 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction and the 2026 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English is now available as an audiobook! Read by the author, ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another is a philosophical and educational guide to ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. Long-time educator ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn uses the spirit markers to teach ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. Each spirit marker holds a law meant to lead us in ways that support us in life.

Reviews are calling ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok “a vital contribution to Indigenous language revitalization, Indigenous political thought, and the grounded resurgence of nêhiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ lifeways” and “a cultural treasure that will leave a legacy for future generations.”

Whether you’re an auditory learner or love to be read to, pick up your copy of the audiobook of ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another. It’s available for purchase on the Talonbooks website or through your favourite local independent bookstore on libro.fm.

news | Tuesday October 6, 2026

Sailors Can't Swim Is Here!

The winner of the 2023 Prix des libraires du Québec, the 2023 Prix Jacques-Brossard de la science-fiction et du fantastique, and the 2023 French Prix Imaginales is now available in English!

Maritime adventure is back in Dominique Scali new book Sailors Can’t Swim (translated by Jessica Moore). Part oceanic fairy tale, part bildungsroman, part history of an alternate eighteenth century, Sailors Can’t Swim is set on the Atlantic island of Ys where safety lies behind the one high-walled city. There, citizens live in opulent security while the shore-dwellers below rebuild their ruined homes after each great tide.

It is on the shore that we meet Danaé Poussin, an orphan with a rare gift: the ability to swim. Danaé yearns for life within the safety of the walls. As her life flows between the city, the shore, and the sea, she must learn how to navigate the classist indignities of the calm before revolution.

An excerpt from Sailors Can’t Swim:

“From one day to the next, the water turned icy. Danaé Poussin only realized it once she was already immersed. She had dived in to gather up a structure of planks linked like a raft, and two barrels of a liquid that only adults were allowed to drink. Far off the shape of the pier loomed, a dark, hazy spot in the mist. She crossed the shore, shoulders hunched. Reaching the shed she went up to Brunante Coquerane and tugged on her sleeve.
— What is it you want? Can you not see I’m up to my elbows in guts?
The girl stepped back out, then returned to place one of the two small barrels at Brunante’s feet.
— There’s another like this one, and a good deal of planks besides.
The woman’s eyes widened. She put down her knife and wiped her hands on her apron.
— God’s blood, lass!
She moved closer to the girl and began wringing out her hair.
— I got very cold, said Danaé, teeth chattering.
— Aye, I’ll warrant you’re very cold, poor lamb.
— May I have some wood to make a fire?
— Course not, Danaé. You know that well enough. Were I to give you wood, I should have to give it to the others too.
The girl nodded, holding back her tears. She took refuge in the orphan’s cottage, pushing the door open with her shoulder. At the back of the room was a boy. He quickly stashed away the object he was playing with, a silver ball that flashed a glint in the dim light. Danaé stood frozen, her wet hair dripping onto her cheeks.
— What’s that?
— Nothing.
— Liar. ’Tis a coast guard button, I saw it plain. Where’d you get it?
She stepped towards the boy, grabbed his jacket, and tried to turn out his pockets.
— You’ve no right to keep it.
— Let me alone! he said, struggling.
— You must give it to Brunante – that’s the rule.
— There is no rule, the boy shouted. She’s the one gave it me. She gives me all manner of things, Brunante does, as I’m her favourite. The rest of you are naught but a pack o’ nippers nobody wanted.
He pushed her away and bolted out the door, disappearing into the thick white fog. The girl wrapped herself in a blanket, shaken by spasms that could have been shivers just as well as sobs.”

Sailors Can’t Swim is a squall of a novel that fixes its gaze on the meanness of meritocracy, and the reality that all that belongs to someone once belonged to someone else first. Order your copy of this stellar new novel here.

news | Friday September 18, 2026

Cecily Nicholson Delivers the 2026 Sharon Thesen Lecture

Cecily Nicholson, author of Crowd Source, HARROWINGS, and more, is delivering the 2026 annual Sharon Thesen lecture presented by the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Check out this article about Nicholson penned in the lead up to the lecture.

news | Thursday September 17, 2026

Dina Del Bucchia's WeirdLit Book Recs

Dina Del Bucchia (You’re Gonna Love This, It’s A Big Deal!, and more) recommends some great, weird Canadian literature to check out including The World Afloat by M.A.C. Farrant and the latest novel by Daniel Zomparelli (author of Jump Scare, Davie Street Translations, and more). See all of Del Bucchia’s recommendations here on 49th Shelf.

news | Wednesday September 16, 2026

George Bowering and Jónína Kirton Selected for Poetry in Transit

We are thrilled that the iconic George Bowering and the incredible Jónína Kirton have been chosen as two of the writers for this year’s Poetry in Transit program! Our commutes around the lower mainland and the Greater Victoria area just a whole lot better. Keep an eye out for Bowering’s poem “There Is Delight in Singing” from Pearl and Kirton’s poem “what widows know” from Save Your Prayers – Send Money on vehicles and bus shelters near you.

Pearl is Bowering’s final poetry collection. Holding grief and levity together, this book reflects on a life well-lived.

Save Your Prayers – Send Money is a hybrid work of poetry and prose that shoulders the heft of chronic illness and takes aim at the wellness industry. Save Your Prayers – Send Money weaves intergenerational trauma and its impact on health through the daily realities of chronic pain and illness.

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. The program is in its milestone 30th year. Congratulations to this year’s awesome roster of authors!

news | Tuesday September 15, 2026

Tao of the World in The New York Times

Helen Shaw writes about themes of forgiveness at this year’s Stratford Festival in The New York Times with a special shout out to the brand new play The Tao of the World by Jovanni Sy. The Tao of the World is a hilarious and incisive look at the lives and foibles of Singapore’s ultra-rich. Read Shaw’s article here.