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 | 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.

news | Sunday June 21, 2026

National Indigenous Peoples Day 2026

June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day! To mark the occasion and because of the evergreen nature of these works, we’ve put together a reading list of Indigenous-authored titles from the Talonbooks backlist for you to check out.

1. full-metal indigiqueer by Joshua Whitehead

2. Inheritance: a pick-the-path experience by Daniel Arnold, Medina Hahn, and Darrell Dennis.

3. An Honest Woman by Jónína Kirton

4. Rose by Tomson Highway

5. Peace in Duress by Janet Rogers

6. Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer by Kevin Loring

7. Conversations with Khahtsahlano, 1932–1954 by August Jack Khatsahlano and J.S. Matthew

8. Kuei, My Friend by Deni Ellis Béchard and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine

9. Crees in the Caribbean by Drew Hayden Taylor

10. Kamloopa by Kim Senklip Harvey.

If you want to upgrade your bookshelf with more books by Indigenous authors, flip through our Indigenous catalogue.

news | Thursday June 18, 2026

CBC Books Names Growing My Way Home a Book to Read this June

The powerful new work of autofiction Growing My Way Home by Jenn Ashton is named on CBC Books’ list of books to read this June in honour of Indigenous History Month. Based on Ashton’s teenage diaries, Growing My Way Home follows our narrator through her time as a 13-year-old drug dealer, a teenage parent, and finally an award-winning artist. Check out all of CBC Books’ recommendations for Indigenous-authored works to pick up here.

news | Wednesday June 17, 2026

Drew Hayden Taylor Receives Library and Archives Canada Scholar Award

A huge congratulations to the prolific and hilarious Drew Hayden Taylor (author of Cottagers and Indians, Crees in the Caribbean, the forthcoming play On Thin Ice, and more) for receiving a 2026 Library and Archives Canada Scholar Award! The LAC Scholar Awards recognize Canadians who have made significant contributions to the country’s cultural and artistic landscape. See all of this year’s recipients here. Way to go, Drew!

news | Tuesday June 16, 2026

Caroline Woodward Reviews Fire Never Dies

Caroline Woodward writes about Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Project by Carmen Aguirre in the summer 2026 issue of BC BookWorld. Speaking of the titualar the artist and activist Tina Modotti and the author Aguirre, Woodward says, “intertwined in this script, are two remarkable women, writer and subject, whose fierce intelligence, artistic brilliance, great beauty and sheer hard work combined to make their contributions to humanity and to their chosen art forms an everlasting one.” Read the full article here on page 27.

news | Monday June 15, 2026

Pearl in BC BookWorld

Heidi Greco pens a review of Pearl by George Bowering in BC BookWorld! Of Pearl, Greco notes, “I’d be remiss if I failed to point out the humour at play in these pages, especially when it comes to his puns and silly “takes” on Robert Frost, one of which begins with these almost-too familiar lines: “Whose words are these? I think I’m lost / I’d better go and read some Frost.” Or, better yet, go and read some Bowering.” Read the complete piece here on page 28.

news | Sunday June 14, 2026

Port Moody Public Library Features They Called Me Number One

They Called Me Number One by Bev Sellars is included among the titles in Port Moody Public Library’s social justice book club set for adults. In this powerful memoir, Bev Sellars writes about her time at residential school and how the violence of it rippled on throughout her life. This book is a must-read for those confronting the injustices perpetrated against Indigenous people in so-called Canada. Check out all of the titles the library recommends for readers looking to do the work of social justice here.


news | Saturday June 13, 2026

Revolutions in The Miramichi Reader

Samantha Annie Bernstein reviews Hajer Mirwali ’s award-winning collection Revolutions alongside the new book of poetry by Eric Schmaltz in The Miramichi Reader. Bernstein draws parallels between the two, observing what is shared and what is withheld for poetic impact. Check out her in-depth article here.

news | Friday June 12, 2026

The Welland Tribune Shines a Light on Lighthouse Theatre's Crees in the Caribbean Productions

The Welland Tribune shines a light on Lighthouse Theatre’s upcoming productions of Crees in the Caribbean by Drew Hayden Taylor.

From the article: “Lighthouse’ interim artistic producer David Leyshon said the production perfectly balances comedy with emotional depth.

‘Drew has an extraordinary ability to make audiences laugh while also opening the door to meaningful conversations. It is warm, funny and full of heart, but beneath the comedy is a beautiful exploration of relationships and human connection.’”

Read the article here.

news | Wednesday June 10, 2026

Hajer Mirwali Wins the 2026 Trillium Book Award for Poetry!

We’re overjoyed to share that the 2026 winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry is Hajer Mirwali for her debut book Revolutions! This unforgettable work of poetry looks at the linking forces of shame, pleasure, and surveillance. Revolutions is an amazing collection and endlessly worthy of recognition. A huge congratulations, Hajer! See all of this year’s winners here.

news | Tuesday June 9, 2026

ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn Wins 2026 Wilfrid Eggleston Award!

We are thrilled to share that ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn has won the 2026 Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction for his book ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another! In this educational work, quinn leads readers through the spirit marker writing system, using it as a foundation for teaching ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ nêhîyawewin. Including language philosophy and stories from his own life, ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok is an amazing and important book eminently worthy of recognition and celebration. A huge congratulations to ᑳᐯᓵᑳᐢᑌᐠ reuben quinn for this well-deserved win! The Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction is an Alberta Literary Award that honours outstanding works of nonfiction written by Alberta-based authors. Check out all of this year’s winners here. 

news | Saturday June 6, 2026

Save Your Prayers – Send Money in The Winnipeg Free Press

melanie brannagan frederiksen reviews Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton in The Winnipeg Free Press. Kirton’s new hybrid work of poetry and prose is a work with its face turned to disability justice. Written from the perspective of a seventy-year-old Métis woman and recovering New Ager, Save Your Prayers – Send Money takes aim at the wellness industry.

From the article, brannagan frederiksen says “What emerges over the course of this collection, animated by the question of what healing might look like in relation to chronic conditions, is a web of ancestral and community belonging.” Read the full piece here.

news | Thursday June 4, 2026

Pride 2026 Reading List

It’s Pride Month! We’re happy to take any opportunity to celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ voices, perspectives, art, and self-expression. Talonbooks has put together a reading list of books by queer and gender diverse authors to put on your radar for Pride. Whether you want a zippy poetry collection, a pithy play, or a novel that will rake your emotions over the coals, we’ve got you covered.

1. SUBTEXT by Nicole Raziya Fong

SUBTEXT is the hot-off-the-press poetry collection by Montréal-based artist and poet Nicole Raziya Fong. SUBTEXT collages the echoes of diasporic and colonial histories through poetry, drama, autobiography, and archival uncovering. Dwelling in the bubbling froth of dreamwork, these poems take a multifaceted approach to questions of diaspora and selfhood, incorporating visual and textual elements that dialogue with one another and ask readers to negotiate the unsteady shoals of identity and history. Check out this interview Nicole Raziya Fong gave with All Lit Up about SUBTEXT and pick up a copy of your very own here.

2. full-metal indigiqueer by Joshua Whitehead

This triumphant poetry collection focuses on a hybridized Indigiqueer Trickster character named Zoa who brings together the organic (the protozoan) and the technologic (the binaric) in order to re-beautify and re-member queer Indigeneity. Following oral tradition (à la Iktomi, Nanaboozho, Wovoka), Zoa infects, invades, and becomes a virus to canonical and popular works in order to re-centre Two-Spirit livelihoods. They dazzlingly and fiercely take on the likes of Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and John Milton while also not forgetting contemporary pop culture figures such as Lana Del Rey, Grindr, and Peter Pan. This is a must-read collection. Get your copy here.

3. Dear Chekhov by Michel Tremblay, translated by Linda Gaboriau

The scene is this: a table set outside in beautiful fall weather. A turkey roasting in the oven. Everything seems set for a festive family dinner – except that the playwright wants to rewrite his play. In classic Tremblay fashion, family dynamics take centre stage in this masterful play. Coming this fall, Dear Chekhov holds a mirror up to theatre. Pre-order your copy here.

4. Jump Scare by Daniel Zomparelli

This 2024 poetry collection is both hilarious and grief-y. In Jump Scare, Zomparelli uses horror movies as a vehicle to explore queer pop culture, the commodification of identity, neurodivergence, and grief. Written in an irreplicable, empathetic, irreverent voice, Jump Scare is a friendly ghost of a collection. Snag a copy of your own here.

5. Verbal Violence by Danielle LaFrance

Danielle LaFrance’s brand new book of poetry Verbal Violence weaponizes the email thread as a form, shredding the language of the managerial class. Here, they hack apart neoliberal doublespeak, ideological reproduction and progressive-except-Palestine rhetoric. This collection has edge, verve, and a bent towards justice carried always in its heart. Pick up a copy here.

6. Heartlines: A Love Story by Sarah Waisvisz

A finalist for a 2026 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama, Heartlines centres around the lives, love, art, activism, and resistance of gender pioneers Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. 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. Copies are available here.

7. the berry takes the shape of the bloom by andrea bennett

the berry takes the shape of the bloom began as a linear narrative, offering a window into one trans person’s life after they felt contented and secure. 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. Some poems bear witness; others hold grudges or shake free of them. Together, they entwine around enmeshed experiences of gender, family, trans pregnancy, abuse, fear, and becoming. the berry takes the shape of the bloom took second place in the 2024 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Check out this review of the collection in Arc Poetry Magazine and pick up a copy here.

8. Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule

This formative sapphic novel first hit bookstands in the 1960s. It remains an essential work. Evelyn Hall is a literature professor who travels to Reno, Nevada in the summer of 1958 in order to obtain a divorce and thus put an end to her disastrous sixteen-year marriage. She is divorcing her husband on the advice of his psychiatrist because, this being the ’50s, he believes that Evelyn’s success is causing her husband’s depression. During her six-week stay at a boarding house (a residency requirement) Evelyn meets Ann Childs. The two fall in love and must navigate their feelings in the face of strain from inside and outside of their relationship. Get your copy here.

9. tours, variously by Drew McEwan

tours, variously takes readers on a guided tour, considering how we take up space within the imagined rooms of language and definition. The poems in this book lead the reader through an interrogation of the ways we tour the spaces of language, always stepping between the sayable and the unsaid. rob mclennan said of tours, variously that it writes “an exploration of betweenness, becoming and having become, having been the whole time, achieving an exploration not of uncertainty but of seeking, plumbing the depths of language into a solid ground.” Order a copy here.

Happy Pride, everyone! We wish you good reading and good resisting.

news | Wednesday June 3, 2026

Hajer Mirwali Wins the Gerald Lampert Award!

Hajer Mirwali has won the 2026 Gerald Lampert Award for a debut book of poetry! Mirwali’s book Revolutions looks at shame, pleasure, and Muslim daughterhood. In an extended conversation with Mona Hatoum’s artwork + and –, Revolutions asks how young Arab women – who live in homes and communities where actions are surveilled and categorized as 3aib or not 3aib, shameful or acceptable – make and unmake their identities.

The Gerald Lampert Award jury says of Revolutions: “Mirwali’s writing style is cutting edge and playful making for an incredibly admirable breakthrough book. Reading Revolutions is like having a companion that provides a familiar, daring feeling of clarity all while positioned within severe and surveilled conditions.”

Remarkable in both content and style, Revolutions is a mighty debut. Way to go on this well-deserved honour, Hajer! See all of the winners of this year’s League of Canadian Poets Book Awards here.