news | Wednesday August 12, 2026

Québec Book Day 2026

August 12 is Québec Book Day! The literary scene in Québec is world class and Talonbooks has the joy of publishing so many incredible authors, poets, playwrights, and thinkers based throughout the province. Here are some recent and forthcoming books by Québec-based authors that we think you’ll love:

1. Sailors Can’t Swim by Dominique Scali translated by Jessica Moore

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 will soon be available in English! The island of Ys in the Atlantic ocean is a place of great stratification. The rich live safely behind high, city walls while on the shores, the poor must rebuild again and again after every great tide. Danaé Poussin, an orphan born with the rare and suspect ability to swim, flows between shore, city, and sea, steering through the rocky possibilities for women in the calm before revolution. Pre-order your copy here.

2. A Great Consolation by Michel Tremblay translated by Linda Gaboriau

Books 8 and 9 of the award-winning Desrosiers Diaspora series place us in Montréal in 1935 and 1941, following the Desrosiers family through twists, turns, triumphs, and tragedies. Order your copy here.

3. SUBTEXT by Nicole Raziya Fong

This genre-defying book of poetry sifts through dreams, refracting the language of identity formation. It collages the echoes of diasporic and colonial histories through poetry, drama, autobiography, and archival uncovering. Order your copy here.

4. The Tao of the World by Jovanni Sy

Premiering right now at Stratford Festival, his bawdy play asks what it means for things to return to normal. Recently liberated from the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore’s wealthy elite – armed with taste, bon mots, and the invisible labour of the working class – scheme, woo, connive, and behave badly. Pick up your copy here.

5. Uiesh / Somewhere by Joséphine Bacon, translated by Jessica Moore

This award-winning, dual-language poetry collection presents gorgeous poems side by side in Innu-aimun and English. With empathy and deep observation, these poems travel between the clamour of Montréal and the nomadic ways of Bacon’s Ancestors in Nitassinan. Get your copy here.

6. Convivialities: Dialogues on Poetics by Michael Nardone

How are the great arts practitioners of our time thinking about the world? About creating? Through conversations with luminaries and recipients of awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Venice Biennale’s Silver Lion, the PEN American Open Book Award, the MacArthur Fellowship, and more, Michael Nardone investigates. Order your copy here.

Happy Québec Book Day!