news | Wednesday July 1, 2026

Talonbooks Summer Sale

More than halfway through 2026 and Talonbooks has had a very exciting year! So many Talonbooks authors have been receiving recognition for their outstanding titles and we knew we had to celebrate.

From now until July 31, enjoy 30% off of any of these commended titles when you purchase them through the Talonbooks website. Enter the Code SUMMER2630 at check out. The offer is valid until July 31, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Get yourself a brand new beach read* this summer with Talonbooks’ summer sale. Learn more about the Talonbooks titles that have appeared on book prize lists so far this year:

The Book of Z by Rahat Kurd was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award and is a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize! This gorgeous work of poetry is written in an imagined voice of Zulaykha, the “wife of Aziz” in the Qur’an and the biblical “wife of Potiphar.”

th book uv lost passwords 1 by bill bissett was longlisted for the Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize! This “novel of pomes” is the latest offering from one of Canada’s most legendary and beloved literary icons.

Crowd Source by Cecily Nicholson was longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award! Crowd Source is a book of poetry for corvid lovers everywhere.

Heartlines: A Love Story by Sarah Waisvisz was a finalist for a LAMBDA Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama. This debut play imagines the queer lives and love of gender pioneers, artists, and nazi resisters Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.

ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another by ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn won the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction and the Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English! This personal and educational book uses the spirit marker writing system as a foundation for teaching ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin.

Lha yudit’ih We Always Find a Way: Bringing the Tŝilhqot’in Title Case Home by Lorraine Weir with Chief Roger William won the 2026 Jeanne Clarke Local History Publication Award! This essential book is a community oral history of Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, the first case in Canada to result in a declaration of Aboriginal Rights and Title to a specific piece of land.

Revolutions by Hajer Mirwali won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry! This innovative debut poetry book examines pleasure, shame, and Muslim daughterhood and is powerful in both form and content.

Uiesh / Somewhere by Joséphine Bacon, translated by Jessica Moore was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. This dual-language collection presents poems side-by-side in English and Innu-aimun.

We wish you good summer reading!

news | Wednesday July 15, 2026

King Arthur's Night on the Knowledge Network

The genre-bending documentary King Arthur’s Night based on the play by Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef is available to stream now on the Knowledge Network! Enjoy it here.

news | Tuesday July 14, 2026

Jenn Ashton and ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn in The Tyee

The Tyee has put out a list of local books to pick up for great summer reading. We’re thrilled to see two new Talonbooks titles in the article. The Tyee recommends checking out Growing My Way Home, a work of autofiction by award-winning Sḵwx̱wú7mesh author Jenn Ashton. Based on Ashton’s teenage journals, in Growing My Way Home we follow our narrator through abuse, her time as a young drug dealer and a teen parent through to becoming an established artist.

The Tyee also suggests picking up ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok by ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn. The winner of the 2026 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction and the Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English, ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok offers a look into ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ nêhiyaw ways of being and some of the language philosophy behindᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. These two books can’t be missed. Read the complete article in The Tyee here.

news | Sunday July 12, 2026

Mercedes Eng on Wax Poetic

The award-winning poet Mercedes Eng, author of Prison Industrial Complex Explodes, my yt mama, and more was a guest on the radio program Wax Poetic to talk about her most recent poetry book, the 2025 City of Vancouver Book Award–finalist cop city swagger. Eng shares her poetry, discusses what inspired her to instrumentalize the language of institutions, government bodies, and venture capitalists to take aim at structural violence(s), the transcendent medicine of women activists working in community, and more. Listen to the full interview here.

news | Thursday July 9, 2026

An Interview with Hajer Mirwali in White Wall Review

White Wall Review conducts a fun mini-interview with the award-winning poet Hajer Mirwali. Mirwali’s debut book of poetry Revolutions, which looks at shame, pleasure, and Muslim daughterhood, won the 2026 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Find out when Mirwali first began to consider herself a writer, when writing comes most easily to her, facts she has recently learned, and more. Read the complete interview here.

news | Saturday July 4, 2026

Disability Pride Month 2026 Reading List

July is Disability Pride Month! It’s always a good time of year to read books by D/disabled authors. If you’re looking for some recommendations from recent years, Talonbooks has got you covered with cutting-edge works of poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms to immerse yourself in. Be sure to check out:

1. Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton

The new poetry-and-prose book by Jónína Kirton digs into disability politics and takes aim at the wellness industry. Rooted in her experiences as a 70-year-old Métis woman with chronic pain and a recovering New Ager, Kirton’s Save Your Prayers – Send Money looks at how intergenerational trauma may play out in the body. With wit and ferocity, Save Your Prayers – Send Money looks at how we might find peace whether or not we heal. Pick up your copy here.

2. Growing My Way Home by Jenn Ashton

New work of autofiction Growing My Way Home by disabled, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh author Jenn Ashton is based on the writer’s teenage journals. We follow our protagonist through abuse, early involvement in the criminal justice system, dealing drugs as a youth, becoming a parent as a teenager, and all the way up into adulthood as an award-winning artist. With a moving leit motif of plant life and what we nurture, this book is a perfect read for Disability Pride Month. Order your copy here.

3. allostatic load by Junie Désil

allostatic load lives at the intersection of racialization and chronic illness. At times grounded in the personal and regularly looking at the structural, Désil looks at the impacts of systemic injustice and the commodification of care. Get your copy here.

4. th book uv lost passwords 1 by bill bissett

th book uv lost passwords 1 is a novel of poems from one of Canada’s most beloved literary icons, bill bissett. Taking readers around the globe, out into the universe, and straight to the breath of the poem, bissett’s latest offering dissolves poetic boundaries and embraces the great mysteries, wondering how after all of this time, we might still commune lovingly with one another. Pick up a copy here.

5. Pearl by George Bowering

Pearl is the new book by author, educator, and Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate, George Bowering. With both humbling depths and sparkling levity, this collection sprawls in search of the next glimmering insight, tugging at different threads with a multifarious large-heartedness. Touching, ribald, and cheeky, Pearl reflects on a life well-lived and well-written. Copies are available here.

6. No Town Called We by Nikki Reimer

No Town Called We brings wit, insight, anger, and care to questions of how we can show up for each other in times of emergency and climate crisis. Written through the lens of a multiply disabled, female-coded body approaching midlife, No Town Called We swings at the petrostate and the greed and complacency that foster cultures of neglect and disregard. Get your copy here.

Happy reading! We hope this Disability Pride Month brings you lots of enriching new art, thought, and connection.

news | Friday July 3, 2026

Nicole Raziya Fong on Wax Poetic

Nicole Raziya Fong, author of SUBTEXT, OЯACULE, and more, was a guest on the radio program Wax Poetic. They discuss their newest book of poetry (SUBTEXT) which incorporates aspects of theatre and visual art for an impactful, philosophically rich read. Nicole Raziya Fong talks about dream interpretation, occluded histories, and authenticity as a practice and as something one arrives at. Tune into the interview and listen to Nicole read their poetry here.

news | Thursday July 2, 2026

sometimes, forest in The Winnipeg Free Press

melanie brannagan frederiksen reviews sometimes, forest, the new book of poetry by Elee Kraljii Gardiner in The Winnipeg Free Press. brannagan frederiksen writes that Kraljii Gardiner’s new work is “Extraordinary … a lush, layered, textured invitation into an interconnected web of beings centred on, but not exclusive to, the forest … a kind of magic.” Read the full review here.

news | Friday June 26, 2026

Crees in the Caribbean in The Haldimand Press

Mike Renzella reviews Lighthouse Theatre’s current production of Crees in the Caribbean by Drew Hayden Taylor in The Haldimand Press. Renzella writes “… the show is laced with humour, drawing many laughs from the opening night crowd, there’s a gentleness … that resonates.”

Read the full article here.

news | Thursday June 25, 2026

Catherine Owen on sometimes, forest

Catherine Owen writes a response to her readings of sometimes, forest by Elee Kraljii Gardiner. Owen opens the article by saying, “my first reading of sometimes, forest by Vancouver poet Elee Kraljii Gardiner, established a primal, earthy layer composed of mulchy fragments, forgotten roots, mycorrhizal detritus within me.” Read the complete piece here.

news | Tuesday June 23, 2026

ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn Wins 2026 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose!

We are beyond delighted to share that ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn has won the 2026 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose for his incredible book of nonfiction, ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another!

The Indigenous Voices Awards jury says, “reuben quinn’s Kiskisomitok is a cultural treasure that will leave a legacy for future generations. Kiskisomitok provides a vital contribution to nêhiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ research, literature, and language revitalization. I will continue to reflect on reuben’s words, and I am deeply grateful for his teachings. Kiskisomitok has not left my side since I’ve read it.”

A huge congratulations for this well-deserved honour, reuben! ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another is a truly powerful book.

For more information, to enjoy a video of this year’s finalists reading briefly from their work, and to see all of this year’s winners, visit the Indigenous Voices Awards website here.