"The Tinsmith begins and ends in blood. Between, the harrowing, stunning new novel by Edmonton writer Tim Bowling is a powerful, haunting evocation of friendship and cruelty, of grace and inhumanity, of violence and beauty." To read more from this great review in the Globe and Mail, click here.
Northern Kids by Linda Goyette was reviewed in the latest issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine: "The young people we meet in Northern Kids will win the hearts of their southern counterparts and will help make the North truly part of our heritage. This is a keeper." The full review can be found on the magazine's website.
Very nice review of In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body in the Telegraph-Journal's Salon Books: “This collection is a thorough and provocative look at the body, broken down into its messy, beautiful and complicated parts.”
New review of The Tinsmith in The Vancouver Sun: “Tim Bowling’s descriptive powers take flight . . . his amazing ability to draw cringe-inducing characters is gripping and memorable.” To read the full review, click here.
“Kathleen Wall’s first novel performs with all the good vibrations and moods of a seasoned composer. . .Blue Duets poses sometimes amusing, other times resonant reflections in a framework that is largely tragic, shaded blue, and always beautiful.” Lovely new review for Blue Duets on the Pages and Patches blog. To read more, click here.
Fantastic news! The winners of the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) have just been announced: Angie Abdou's The Canterbury Trail won Gold in the Canada-West: Best Regional Fiction category. Congrats, Angie! For a full list of winners, click here.
"The Tinsmith is a provocative, ambitious, exciting story . . . [it] delves with guileless courage into the quagmire of past racial conflict, and will be read and recalled with that admirable quality in mind." Read more from this lovely review of Tim Bowling's latest novel, The Tinsmith, in the May 2012 issue of the Literary Review of Canada.
There's a great review of The Tinsmith by Tim Bowling in this month's Quill & Quire: "[a] riveting tale . . . Bowling captures the unrelenting sensory assault of war and industry as they combine in a sort of amoral apotheosis . . . A powerful and emotionally wrenching book."
A great review of In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body in the Gulf Islands Driftwood: "The collection is anecdotal and educational, witty and at times heart-breaking. Its finely crafted writing serves to underline the strange truths of how we inhabit and make sense of our forms, which are created both by nature and culture." To read the full review, click here.
Just annouced: Freddy's War by Judy Schultz was shortlisted for the 2012 Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers' Choice Award! Congrats, Judy!
There was a nice little review of Northern Kids by Linda Goyette in Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review: "The stories recognize, respect, and illuminate the worldviews and ways of life presented in the different stories." To read more, click here.
Fantastic news: Happiness Economics by Shari Lapeña has been shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Congratulations, Shari!
A nice review of Tim Bowling's new novel in the Edmonton Journal: "The most interesting sections of The Tinsmith, which take place during a turf war among the upstart salmon canneries in frontier-era British Columbia, give the book a heart that's undeniably Canadian." For the full article, click here.
New review of Tim Bowling's novel The Tinsmith: “Like any general, Bowling is bold at times, but his attacks are on the mark and his theme strikes the heart of the reader.” —Salon Books, Telegraph Journal
Be sure to check out One Crow Sorrow author Lisa Martin-DeMoor's blog: writerinresidence.ca.
Fantastic news: Judy Schultz, author of Freddy's War, is one of the nominees for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize! Congrats, Judy!
Author Shari Lapena discusses her writing process and reads an excerpt from her novel Happiness Economics. Listen to the clips on the Authors Aloud website.
"The Matter of Sylvie is an artfully crafted novel, written with almost lyrical prose, examining the effects on a family from an illness few understand." Robin van Eck has posted a review of The Matter of Sylvie, and an interview with author Lee Kvern, on her website. Check it out here.
The Tinsmith by Tim Bowling was featured in Quill & Quire's Spring Preview 2012 of Canadian Fiction. Check it out here!
"This is a great read." Freddy's War by Judy Schultz received a nice review in the Winter 2011 issue of Geist.
"Westerhof treats her material with a deft touch; she has an ability to show both sides of an issue with alacrity and understanding." Great new review of Patricia Westerhof's Catch Me When I Fall in the Prairie Fire Review of Books! Read the full review here.
"The tales are every bit as raunchy, bawdy and wild as anything Chaucer ever wrote." Really nice piece about Angie Abdou's The Canterbury Trail on The Joy Trip Project. Read it here.
"Angie combines traditional writing skill with forward-thinking fun. A wonderful voice in Canadian literature." Robin Spano recommends The Canterbury Trail by Angie Abdou on the Advent Book Blog. Read the full review here.
"Canterbury Trail . . . is much more than a story about a ski town. Like all great novels, it is a 'story of life' that just happens to be set in snowy mountains, with all the characters traipsing around on skis. . . . It's a delightful, thought-provoking book and I recommend it highly." Check out this great write up of The Canterbury Trail by Angie Abdou on Powder Canada.
Backcountry Skiing Canada loved The Canterbury Trail by Angie Abdou! "Abdou's writing is concise and observant. Her attention to detail and awareness of the backcountry lifestyle . . . is refreshing. But it's what's happening on a deeper level—the struggles of bridging a ski bum lifestyle with the necessities of a career, pragmatism and belonging—that are revealed like a ski carving through layers of bottomless snow." Check out the full review here.
"Queering the Wayis a resounding work, with the utterly unmistakable qualities of authenticity and pride." Queering the Way: The Loud & Queer Anthology received a wonderful review in The Gateway. Read it here.
"What better way to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Western Canada's longest-running queer arts showcase than with a book of some of the finest work from LGBTQ writers and performers across Canada?" Be sure to pick up the latest issue of Prairie books NOW to read more of their lovely piece on Queering the Way: The Loud & Queer Anthology.
"[Believing Cedric] explores consciousness, regret, death and love, including what binds Canadians to this country." Check out this great piece in the Haliburton Echo about Believing Cedric and why author Mark Lavorato chose to showcase the area in his novel.
"Hagen’s voice is one of the strongest in the Alberta arts community." Check out this great piece in The Gateway, in which Darrin Hagen, editor of Queering the Way: The Loud & Queer Anthology, discusses Edmonton's Loud & Queer Cabaret. The annual festival celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year!
"Westerhof knows her characters well, in all their braveness and brokenness." Patricia Westerhof's novel Catch Me When I Fallreceived a great review by Joanne's Reading Blog! Read it here.
Happiness Economics by Shari Lapeña received a wonderful review in The Globe and Mail: "All four main characters—parents and children—are engrossing and real. Lapeña builds quiet suspense expertly, and has a knack for showing us inside these terribly flawed and sometimes annoying people, making them beautiful in their ordinary and contradictory ways." Read the full review here!
Lindy Pratch, who writes the Lindy Reads and Reviews blog, raves about The Canterbury Trail by Angie Abdou. "The very best thing about the book is the ending. I LOVED IT!" Check out the full review here.
"It’s an interesting first foray into the world of fiction for Schultz, and she handles it deftly. Alternating between perspectives is a tricky business but she pulls it off well." Freddy's War was reviewed in the St. Albert Gazette. Read the full review here.
The Canterbury Trailby Angie Abdou is a Mountain and Wilderness Literature finalist in the 2011 Banff Mountain Book Competition! Congrats, Angie!
Says January Magazine of Shari Lapeña's new novel Happiness Economics, "Lapeña looks at the big questions our culture burdens itself with and somehow transforms it all into a deliciously likable romp." Read the full review here.
"The writing is inventive without being showy, and Lavorato has a gift for letting characters' emotions seep out, often catching the reader unprepared. Believing Cedric is an exceptional sophomore effort." Check out the full review in the October 2011 issue of Quill & Quire.
Angie Abdou will be attending the 2011 Vancouver International Writers Festival, October 18-23 on Granville Island. For more details, check out their website.
Congratulations to author Lee Kvern for being shortlisted for an Alberta Literary Award for her new novel,The Matter of Sylvie. We wish Lee the best of luck!
"Abdou takes us '…somewhere beyond words.' All we can do is sit back and admire." Thanks for the great review ofThe Canterbury Trailfrom Book Discovery Blog. Read the whole review here!
Catch Angie Abdou talking about her new book,The Canterbury Trail, on The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers. Listen to the podcast and skip ahead to 49:45 to hear Angie!
"In her first collection,Catch Me When I Fall, Patricia Westerhof weaves eleven stories into a sensitively imagined, multi-layered tapestry of life in a small farming community in central Alberta," says MostlyFiction.com. Read it all here.
"Abdou’s characters are on a quest for healing and meaning that calls to mind Arthurian legend," says the Winnipeg Review of Angie Abdou'sThe Canterbury Trail. The reviewer makes many excellent literary allusions in thier discussion of Angie's latest book and how it relates to other texts. Read it all here.
Bookgaga Blog says Angie Abdou's greatest gift as a writer is "sheer storytelling prowess." In her take onThe Canterbury Trail, Bookgaga explores Abdou's contemporary version of a pilgrimage. Read the full review here.
"The Tinsmith begins and ends in blood. Between, the harrowing, stunning new novel by Edmonton writer Tim Bowling is a powerful, haunting evocation of friendship and cruelty, of grace and inhumanity, of violence and beauty." —The Globe and Mail
Tim Bowling's new novel is the story of two men who forge an intense friendship on the gruesome battlefield during the American Civil War. Twenty years later on the Fraser River, they once again find their lives inextricably linked. Powerful and heartwrenching, The Tinsmith is not to be missed.
Author May Q. Wong's parents were separated for twenty-five years because of Canada's exclusionary head tax laws. In China, her mother survived natural disasters, wars, and revolutions, while in Canada her father struggled against discrimination to eventually become a successful restaurateur. On Saturday, May 12, tune in to CBC's North by Northwest to hear May talk about her family and her new book A Cowherd in Paradise: From China to Canada.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Canada Book Fund (CBF), a part of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council.
