news | Thursday May 9, 2024

Jigsaw: A Puzzle in Ninety-Three Pieces Reviewed

Rhonda Batchelor reviewed Jigsaw: A Puzzle in Ninety-Three Pieces, the wonderful, witty new work of non-fiction by M.A.C. Farrant in the spring 2024 issue of the Malahat Review.

From the review: “M.A.C. Farrant, an author renowned for her deft humour and keen inquisitive intelligence, has given us an excellent guidebook—to jigsaws and life’s puzzles.”

Copies of the spring 2024 issue of the Malahat Review are available here.

news | Tuesday May 7, 2024

Mona Awad's Montréal Reading List in the New York Times

Author Mona Awad wrote about Montréal, the city where she grew up, in the New York Times and has put together a recommended reading list of classic Montréal books to read before commencing a visit. Among Awad’s list of excellent, quintessential titles is The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay and translated into English by Sheila Fischman, a novel set in working-class Le Plateau Mont Royal in the 40s.

Check out Awad’s complete list of suggested titles here.

news | Monday May 6, 2024

Another Order Reviewed in Arc Poetry Magazine

Amanda Earl reviewed the incredible and dynamic Another Order: Selected Works by Judith Copithorne and edited by Eric Schmaltz in issue 103 of ARC Poetry Magazine.

From the review:

“There’s a refreshing candour to Copithorne’s work that invites intimacy and connection … She writes with delight, humour, contemplation, and defiance… Another Order is full of gems.”

Check out the review and the full issue of ARC here.

news | Thursday May 2, 2024

Seven Poets on Writers Who Inspire Them

Rob Taylor interviewed seven BC poets including Samantha Nock, author of A Family of Dreamers, and Leanne Dunic, author of Wet, about the writers who inspire them. Great to see Pacific Windows: Collected Poems by Roy K. Kiyooka by Roy K. Kiyooka and edited by Roy Miki be named as an important collection by Onjana Yawnghwe and A Family of Dreamers by Samantha Nock be named by Jess Housty! 

Read the article on Read Local BC here.

news | Thursday April 25, 2024

Spring Book Launch Sale!

Great news! There’s a sale on Talonbooks’s new spring 2025 books, Another Order, Jump Scare, lettuce lettuce please go bad, Wet, and You’re Gonna Love This!

Buy one spring launch book = 10% off

Buy two spring launch books = 20% off

Buy three spring launch books = 30% off

Buy four or more spring launch books = 40% off

The sale runs for a limited time, so take advantage of this deal today!

news | Thursday April 25, 2024

You're Invited to the Talonbooks Spring 2024 Launch!

Save the date! Join us on April 24 at Pyatt Hall for Talonbooks’s spring 2024 launch. We can’t wait to introduce you to this season’s new titles.

Here’s what’s launching:

Eric Schmaltz will be reading from his introduction to Another Order.
Daniel Zomparelli will be launching his new poetry collection Jump Scare.
Tiziana La Melia will be launching her new poetry book lettuce lettuce please go bad.
Leanne Dunic will be launching her new collection Wet.
Dina Del Bucchia will be launching her new poetry collection You’re Gonna Love This.

The launch will be hosted by Samantha Nock, author of A Family of Dreamers.

Help us welcome these fabulous books to the world! Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; readings begin at 7:30 p.m.

Pyatt Hall is wheelchair and scooter accessible. Snacks and drinks will be served. A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube channel, so tune in remotely if you can’t attend in-person. We hope to see you there!

news | Wednesday April 24, 2024

Rob Taylor and Leanne Dunic in Discussion

Rob Taylor interviewed Leanne Dunic about her new poetry collection Wet for Read Local BC. The pair talk about hybrid forms, life in Singapore, and connection to nature, place, and people.

An excerpt from their discussion: “RT: What does working in these other art forms contribute to your books?

LD: When it comes to making art, I like to think of the idea of cross-training. Cross-training refers to using various modes of exercises outside of a central activity so that other muscles in the body are engaged and balanced in strength. For me, cross-training is key to my practice and involves me working in one discipline in order to keep my senses sharp in another. In other words, cross-training keeps my artistic muscles healthy and happy. Working on one project will teach me skills that I can then go back and apply to a previous and/or future project. This keeps things interesting for me; I’m rarely bored artistically.”

Check out their full discussion here.

news | Wednesday April 24, 2024

Jump Scare and You're Gonna Love This Review

Carellin Brooks reviewed You’re Gonna Love This by Dina Del Bucchia and Jump Scare by Daniel Zomparelli in the British Columbia Review.

Of these two collections, Brooks says: “It’s to our lasting benefit that we have these two astute chroniclers of pop culture … Zomparelli and Del Buccia will do the thinking for us.”

Read the complete piece here.

news | Tuesday April 23, 2024

You're Invited to the Launch of Gaman – Perseverance by Art Miki!

May 1! Join us in the Heritage Lounge of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre to celebrate the launch of Gaman – Perseverance: Japanese Canadians’ Journey to Justice, the new memoir by Art Miki!

Gaman – Perseverance is an in-depth memoir detailing the intense negotiations that took place in the 1980s between the Government of Canada and the NAJC – negotiations which finally resulted in the historic Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement of September 1988 and the acknowledgment by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that Canada had wronged its own citizens. In Gaman – Perseverance, Art Miki recollects his past experiences and family history, revealing the beliefs and attitudes that shaped his life’s journey as a youth in British Columbia, an educator in Manitoba, and a community leader across Canada.

Enjoy a reading from Gaman – Perseverance, an introduction from Mohammed Hashim, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and a conversation between Art Miki and Lynn Deutscher Kobayashi, president of the Toronto chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians.

The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre is fully wheelchair and scooter accessible.

Attendance is free! Seating is first-come, first-served. Light refreshments will be available. We can’t wait to see you there!

Gaman – Perseverance Launch
Heritage Lounge – Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
Toronto, ON
May 1, 2024
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the event begins at 7:00 p.m.

Our gratitude to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for making this event possible.

news | Friday April 19, 2024

Kevin Loring to Receive an Honourary Doctorate

Playwright Kevin Loring, author of Governor General’s Literary Award–winning play Where the Blood Mixes and Jessie Award-winning play Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, will be receiving an honourary doctorate degree from Thompson Rivers University.

Read about it here in Kamloops Now. Congratulations, Kevin!