news | Wednesday October 28, 2026

sometimes, forest in The British Columbia Review

Neil Griffin reviews sometimes, forest by Vancouver’s poet laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner in The British Columbia Review, saying that “no book … has entered the woods with the verve, erotic thrill, and radical desire of Elee Kraljii Gardiner’s sometimes, forest … Gardiner reinvents ecopoetry … returning it to duff and dirt and mould, where it belongs.” Read the full article here.

news | Tuesday October 27, 2026

A Child's Seance Is Here!

The latest book of poetry by award-winning author Weyman Chan is here! A Child’s Seance opens with two siblings trying to reach their dead mother with a Ouija board and unspools out from there.

An excerpt from “By Age 3 I Forgot Who You Were”

“In the back I’m trying on Lil’s dress.

Just a phase.

Mom, there’s something about Lil’s hair I like, a
lineage repeating this Cassandra afternoon–
your pigtails cascade to a frieze

in those tiny photos of Guangdong,
fifties-scalloped edges of bamboo thicket.
Your village-tested slacks
air out tropical heat, the bridal photo’s breast mound
austere as sepia. 1975. My bowl cut
evoked those time-warp bachelors,
ten to a room. Bellies
gone transparent, like fish on a drying rack.”

A Child’s Seance is a witty, grieving, surreal, astral travelogue. Marrying the personal and the metaphysical, with a leitmotif of classical Chinese portraiture, this book looks at loss, mental health, sexual misfires, and of course, alien abduction. Order your copy here.

news | Saturday October 24, 2026

Bishop University on Taylor Marie Graham

Joannie St-Germain writes about Taylor Marie Graham ’s journey with her play Post Alice, which appears in Cottage Radio & Other Plays Read all about it here on Bishop University’s website.

news | Friday October 23, 2026

Growing My Way Home on All Lit Up

All Lit Up shares an excerpt from Growing My Way Home by Jenn Ashton! Growing My Way Home was a finalist for the 2026 Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society’s fourth annual Book Awards for BC Authors in the Indigenous Voices category! Read a slice of this honest and vulnerable work of autofiction here.

news | Thursday October 22, 2026

Elee Kraljii Gardiner on the Cancellation of Poetry in Transit

Arlen Redekop

Vancouver poet laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner, author of sometimes, forest, speaks on the end of the Poetry in Transit program in The Province. Kraljii Gardiner says,“Vancouver is notoriously a beautiful city. Vancouver is also a cruel city in its inequity. Very few places allow us to experience art without payment or art without constraint. Poetry in transit allows both the inconsequential and studied engagement with poetry, when one is least expecting it.”

Read the full article here. You can sign the petition to save Poetry in Transit here.

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.