Recent Reviews

"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.

In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body was featured in Quill & Quire's Spring Preview 2012 of Canadian Non-Fiction. Read the full preview 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 Way is 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.

Check out this great interview with Believing Cedric author Mark Lavorato on Open Book: Toronto.

"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 Fall received 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 Trail by 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.

Vancouver Kids has been shortlisted for the Vancouver Book Award. Congratulations to author Lesley McKnight!

The Canterbury Trail has been nominated for the CBC Books Giller Prize Readers Choice Awards.

Congratulations to author Lee Kvern on being longlisted for the Relit Awards for her new novel, The Matter of Sylvie.

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!

Check out the rest of the shortlist here.

"Abdou takes us '…somewhere beyond words.' All we can do is sit back and admire." Thanks for the great review of The Canterbury Trail from 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.

 The Tartarus House on Crab by George Szanto has been reviewed by MostlyFiction.com. "Szanto has a way of setting the reader in the middle of the action." Get the scoop 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's The 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 on The Canterbury Trail, Bookgaga explores Abdou's contemporary version of a pilgrimage. Read the full review here.