news | Monday November 24, 2025

Talonbooks Distribution Agreement with Login

Exciting distribution news: Talonbooks and Login have announced a new exclusive Canadian distribution agreement! All orders in Canada for Talonbooks titles should be directed to Login as of December 15, 2025. Frontlist orders can be placed with Login immediately. US distribution will still be performed by Consortium.

Sales representation for Talonbooks will continue to be provided by Ampersand, Inc.

Please note that Login will not accept returns of Talonbooks titles that were not purchased from Login. University of Toronto Press is accepting returns of Talonbooks titles until March 15, 2026. Talonbooks titles purchased from Login will be returnable for 12 months.

Standard recall notices will be provided prior to the return date for each book.
Please see lb.ca/returns for Login’s return policy.

About Login

Founded in 1991, Winnipeg-based Login provides customers with access to over 400 publishers, stocks thousands of titles in its Winnipeg and Mississauga distribution centers, and offers over 2 million more. Login is Canadian owned and operated, with over 34 years of investment in the Canadian book and publishing industry.

For more information about Login, visit www.lb.ca.

For information regarding the distribution agreement, please contact:

Login at 1 (800) 665-1148 or (204) 837-2987.

news | Sunday March 8, 2026

Women's History Month 2026

It’s Women’s History Month, and today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. There’s not much we love doing more than celebrating the voices, the ingenuity, and the creativity of women, whose work upholds entire creative spheres while also propelling them forward. March provides the perfect opportunity to hype up some recent and forthcoming titles by amazing poets and playwrights. Here are just a handful of books written by women that dig into women’s experiences that we’d like to spotlight:

1. sometimes, forest by Elee Kraljii Gardiner

Coming next month is the new poetry collection by Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, Elee Kraljii Gardiner! sometimes, forest develops a theory of hylofeminism (“hylo” from forest matter) that attends to a deep, communal connection with nature as a relational way of being with the self and the more-than-human world. sometimes, forest alternatively rails at and desires a fluid beloved, sometimes forest, sometimes lover, friend, mother, or an absence the speaker yearns for in herself. Returning daily to the same woods, the speaker notices minute seasonal changes and considers her own internal changes too. Pre-order your copy of sometimes, forest here.

2. The Book of Z by Rahat Kurd

Rahat Kurd’s latest work The Book of Z explores desire and longing. For a thousand years the story of Zulaykha – “the wife of Aziz” in the Qur’an – and her passion for Yusuf has been celebrated in classical and contemporary Persian and Urdu poetry, in Muslim folk traditions, and in Persian and Mughal miniature painting. At the same time, as the Biblical “wife of Potiphar” she has been just as indelibly cast as temptress in misogynistic cautionary tales and canonical Western art. Kurd writes in the richly imagined voice of Zulaykha for an indelible collection you won’t want to put down. Pick up your copy here.

3. we the same by Sangeeta Wylie

This powerful debut play by Sangeeta Wylie is inspired by a true story. In 1979, Việt Nam, six children and a mother become separated from their father and husband as they flee their homeland by boat. They survive pirate attacks, typhoons, and starvation, ending up shipwrecked on a desert island. Thirty-five years later, the past arrives in the present as the mother reveals a secret to her daughter. With heart, humour, and hope we the same explores the aftermath of the Vietnam war, embracing devastation, alienation, and healing. Get a copy of your very own here.

4. tours, variously by Drew McEwan

Drew McEwan’s newest book of poetry builds and builds on itself, creating an encompassing resonance as it guides you on a tour of a series of empty rooms. Asking how words form spaces of shifting relation, tours, variously dwells on narration as an operation that works on spaces and bodies as they negotiate their place among framed exhibits and pinned specimens ready for misrecognition. Prepare to be led through the ways we live in the spaces of language as you never have before. Order your copy here.

5. wet by Leanne Dunic

Winner of the 2025 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize Poetry wet by Leanne Dunic partners poetry, photography, and fairytale for an impactful and empathetic read. In wet, a transient Chinese American model working in Singapore yearns for the unattainable: fair labour rights, the extinguishing of nearby forest fires, breathable air, healthy habitats for animals, human connection. Filled with desire and all kinds of thirst, wet turns its attention to the ecological, the erotic, and the equitable. Pick up your copy here.

6. Slow Scrape by Tanya Lukin Linklater

Author and artist Tanya Lukin Linklater’s poetry book Slow Scrape brilliantly enacts a poetics of relation and action to counter the settler colonial violences of erasure, extraction, and dispossession. Drawing on documentary poetics, concrete-based installations, event scores, and other texts, the book cites memory, Cree and Alutiiq languages, and embodiment as modes of relational being and knowing. Gorgeous in form and content, Slow Scrape is an essential poetry collection. Get your copy here.

7. Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton

A new book by Jónína Kirton arrives next month! Save Your Prayers – Send Money tackles the wellness industry. Kirton delves into disability politics through the lived experience of a seventy-year-old Métis woman and recovering New Ager. The poems in Save Your Prayers – Send Money consider how we might find peace whether or not we heal. Pre-order your copy here.

8. Beautiful Unknown Future by Taryn Hubbard

Beautiful Unknown Future by Taryn Hubbard is coming down the pike in April! Haunted by the looming shadows of our compounding crises, Beautiful Unknown Future reflects with candour and wit on the precarity we share with the nonhuman world. Written while Hubbard’s children were young, these poems hold space for messy feelings about motherhood and care, the climate crisis, family ghosts, and office dynamics. Pre-order your copy here.

9. Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life by Caroline Russell-King and Maria Crooks

Check out the winner of the Theatre BC Canadian Playwriting Competition, two Betty Mitchell Awards, and two Calgary Theatre Critics’ Awards, Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life by Caroline Russell-King and Maria Crooks! This play is a flight of fancy based on the incredible life of sculptor Dr. Selma Hortense Burke, who lived from 1900 to 1995, approximately 49,932,000 minutes. Here, imagined, are ninety of them, in a play that asks, “Who gets to make art, and who gets to destroy it?” ⁠African American sculptor Selma Burke chronicled many of the extraordinary and devastating events of the past century in her outstanding work: lynchings, the Harlem Renaissance, the Holocaust, the assassination of Martin Luther King. Understanding that it is always easier to rip things down than build them up, Burke persisted in artmaking in the face of a society that didn’t always recognize her talents, a husband who demolished her work, and a government who stole it. Get your copy here.

10. Heartlines: A Love Story by Sarah Waisvisz

Up next we have another play that imagines into the corners of the lives of historical figures! Heartlines: A Love Story delves into the extraordinary love, art, and resistance of gender pioneers Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Using a play-within-a-play structure and epic storytelling, Heartlines takes the audience through the dizzying romance of their early life together in the Parisian avant-garde – and the subsequent fracturing of that life with the rise of nazism. Identities of all kinds are explored, suppressed, and liberated as their love withstands oppression, violence, and time itself. Pick up your copy here.

11. Unfuckable Lardass by Catriona Strang

Rebellious and attentive, Unfuckable Lardass by author and editor Catriona Strang is a call to personal power and agency, even when exhausted, doubtful, pain-ridden, and marginalized. Unfuckable Lardass is fuelled by grief and rage, counterpoised by moments of love and hope. Drawing on language from a wide range of sources – including European witch trials, Marx, Darwin, Renaissance and popular music, and common profanity, as well as from the author’s experience of post-reproductivity and of carrying out caring labour during declines, deaths, and the COVID-19 lockdown – Strang’s sixth book of poetry not only refuses the objectifying gaze but, more importantly, turns towards the great and expanding richness of alternate possibilities. Order your copy here.

12. Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

Song & Dread is an act of reflection and record keeping informed by care, grace, and attention. The poems in Otoniya J. Okot Bitek’s book of poetry about the early days of the pandemic seek quietude, order, refuge, and space. They remind us of community, connectedness, and what is inherently shared. With an eye attuned to life outside the speaker’s window, the world within one’s home, the words printed in the press during the first months of COVID, and the myriad ways the unprecedented can become normalized, the poems in this book travel beyond insight into revelation. Touching on both the frontlines of feminized, racialized labour and labourers and the profoundly solitary experience of individuals in lockdown, these meditations on 2020 are both a portrait of a very specific moment in time and evergreen. Pick up your copy here.

Happy International Women’s Day! We hope you get the chance to enjoy some life-changing art in the near future and we hope that your Women’s History Month is full of great books.

news | Saturday March 7, 2026

Lha yudit'ih We Always Find A Way Wins 2026 Jeanne Clarke Local History Award

We are thrilled that Lha yudit’ih We Always Find a Way: Bringing the Tŝilhqot’in Title Case Home by Lorraine Weir with Chief Roger William has won a 2026 Jeanne Clarke Local History Award in the publication category! Read more about the award in this article in The Prince George Citizen. A huge congratulations to Lorraine and Roger, and all who worked on this book!

news | Friday March 6, 2026

Pasha Malla on M.A.C. Farrant

Pasha Malla pens an in-depth piece on the oeuvre of M.A.C. Farrant, covering titles such as The Days: Forecasts, Warning, Advice, The World Afloat, Jigsaw, One Good Thing, and more. Malla says, “Farrant’s books have … inspired an exuberance in me that I can liken only to the thrill of a new friendship.” Read the full article in The Literary Review of Canada here.

news | Wednesday March 4, 2026

Hot Off the Press! White Noise Is Here!

The blistering new comedy White Noise by the late, great Taran Kootenhayoo is here! Hilarious, incisive, and potent, this play centres on two neighbouring families, one Indigenous and one white, as they dine together during Truth and Reconciliation Week.

An excerpt from White Noise:

“JASON
I just think we got a little upset. We let our emotions get
the best of us. We can work this out.

TS’EKWI
A little upset?

JASON
Yes. We all got a little upset.

TS’EKWI
I could give you a million reasons as to why I could be
upset, but what would that do?

JASON
Oh, so now you’re willing to tell me things? Moments
ago I thought that was taboo. I want to know about
the mouse!

Silence. TS’EKWI looks to DENEYU and to
WINDWALKER. DENEYU is looking at How
to Deal with White People underneath the table.
He sees the attention is on him, so he quickly
closes the book.

DENEYU
(to TS’EKWI) What? Oh. (to JASON) Um. Yeah. Not
cool, Jason.

JESSIKA
What’s that book you have under there?

DENEYU
Book? What book?

JESSIKA
That really big book.

DENEYU
I don’t know what you’re talking about.

DENEYU drops the book on the floor.

Oh shit.”

As cultural misunderstanding, colonial violence, and racism both covert and overt surface, White Noise asks, “How do we deal with internalized racism? Do we keep pushing it away … or do we make a change?” Pick up your copy of White Noise here.

news | Wednesday February 25, 2026

Some People Fall in the Lodge and Then Eat Berries All Winter on Read Local BC

Lovely to see Some People Fall in the Lodge and Then Eat Berries All Winter by annie ross on Read Local BC’s list of titles to check out to connect with more-than-human life. Whether you’d like to engage with poetry, nonfiction, or even children’s lit to inspire deeper connection with the natural world, Read Local BC has a recommendation. Check it out here.

news | Thursday February 19, 2026

Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor's Life Has Arrived!

The first of our 2026 titles has returned from the printer and we couldn’t be more excited that Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life by Caroline Russell-King and Maria Crooks is making its book debut! This award-winning play imagines the life of African American sculptor Dr. Selma Hortense Burke. Selma Burke’s art recorded many of the momentous events of her long life, including lynchings, the Harlem Renaissance, the Holocaust, and the assassination of Martin Luther King. An exceptional artist and a record keeper of some of the most major occurrences of the twentieth century, Burke’s work was stolen by the government, destroyed by her husband, and dismissed by many, and yet she persisted in creating art, understanding that it is easier to rip something apart than to make something from scratch.

An excerpt from Selma Burke:

“SELMA
Are we only going to learn about European art?

PROFESSOR
I think I know what you are asking. An example would be Matisse. In 1906 he took a trip to North Africa and fell in love with an African statue. Matisse used this image throughout the course of his career. This was considered revolutionary.

SELMA
Isn’t that considered theft?

PROFESSOR
Homage. (to the class) Matisse would see this as a form of cultural exchange –

SELMA
Where is Matisse?

PROFESSOR
He’s in Paris. He works in his atelier, where he takes in a very select few gifted proteges.

SELMA
He’ll take me.

…

SELMA
Everything is so grand in scale and composition. Which do you like?

MATISSE
Most of it is not to my taste. I’m just sorry there is so little for you to see.

SELMA
So little? I was overwhelmed by it all!

MATISSE
Well, modern art isn’t there, and of the antiquities we lost so much.

SELMA
When?

MATISSE
We had this little thing called the French Revolution.

SELMA
The peasant uprising, the rebellion against the monarchy. They were justified. They were hungry.

MATISSE
But in their zeal to overthrow, they destroyed so many statues, so many frescos, so many oils.

SELMA
They felt justified, having been exploited.

MATISSE
The need to punish others is not a good motivation to deprive your children of the bounty of artists.

SELMA
Their children were deprived of food.

MATISSE
Selling art would buy bread, destroying it – no.”

Order your copy of this remarkable play that asks who is allowed to make art, and who is allowed to unmake it. Order your copy of Selma Burke: Carving a Sculptor’s Life here.

news | Wednesday February 18, 2026

An Interview with Hajer Mirwali

Manahil Bandukwala interviews Hajer Mirwali about her debut poetry collection Revolutions! The duo discuss the incorporation of Arabic texting code into Mirwali’s poems, Mona Hatoum’s + and –, and the experience of reading your work in front of an audience. Read the full exchange here in periodicities.

news | Saturday February 14, 2026

Happy Valentine's Day from Talonbooks

Happy Valentine’s Day! We may not have glittery little cards with even littler mazes on the back to put in a decorated paper bag for you, but we still have offerings to make this day of chocolates and impossible-to-get reservations at restaurants more fun. You guessed it! It’s books! These books draw their power from desire, heartbreak, connection, identity, and above all, love.

1. Whale Riding Weather by Bryden MacDonald

Whale Riding Weather is a love story in which a faded old queen finds his life slipping away from him along with his young lover, who meets a new, younger man. Messy, painful, moving, and lovely, this is a must-read tale of love and heartbreak. Pick up your copy here.

2. The Book of Z by Rahat Kurd

The Book of Z is a sumptuous poetry collection rooted in Kurd’s imaginings of Zulaykha’s passion for Yusuf that parses what consolation human desire and divine longing might offer. Get a copy of your very own here.

3. Heartlines: A Love Story by Sarah Waisvisz

Heartlines envisions the lives, loves, and activism of gender pioneers and queer couple Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. To learn more about this love that withstood and challenged fascism, order a copy of this powerful play here.

4. The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key by Dorothy Dittrich

The Piano Teacher illuminates the relationships, platonic and romantic, that carry us through our most unimaginable hardships. An unforgettable story about the powers of connection and music. Snag your own copy of the Governor General’s Literary Award–winning play here.

Happy Valentine’s Day from your team at Talonbooks!

news | Saturday February 7, 2026

Junie Désil in BC BookLook

There’s an article in BC BookLook about Junie Désil, Caleb Hart, and Wayde Compton’s upcoming event at Victoria’s Baumann Centre. Désil is the author of eat salt | gaze at the ocean and allostatic load. She will be the keynote speaker at an event put on by the BC Black History Awareness Society taking place at the end of February. Read more about the event here.

news | Friday February 6, 2026

On Thin Ice on CBC’s Superior Morning with Mary-Jean Cormier

This month, Magnus Theatre presents the world premiere of On Thin Ice by Drew Hayden Taylor! Magnus Theatre’s artistic director Thom Currie and the play’s director Vinetta Strombergs discuss the play and the production on CBC’s Superior Morning with Mary-Jean Cormier. On Thin Ice is Drew Hayden Taylor’s first thriller. To learn more, listen to the interview here.