Debut novel traces the personal evolution of a young woman who has moved from Alberta to Haida Gwaii. Buoyed by some intriguing characters and vivid descriptions of nature, the plot is thwarted by a complicated busyness.
—Candace Fertile reviews A Room in the Forest, by Heather Ramsay (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $25.00 / 9781773861678
Set on Haida Gwaii during WW1, a novel’s teenage narrator, “a curious mixture of innocence and experience,” stands out among other characters that are “ciphers for the social problems the author illuminates.” —Candace Fertile reviews Sisters of the Spruce, by Leslie Shimotakahara (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $26.00 / 9781773861371
Elegant, careful, sparse, and yet complex verse that is “a dense, rich reflection on the natural world and the human impact” presents a poet who is “a walker, a watcher, a muser, a recorder.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews The Middle, by Stephen Collis (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2024) $18.95 / 9781772016420
A poignant and intricate collection of evocative poems “demonstrates a virtuoso poetic sensibility.” —gillian harding-russell reviews Nucleus: A Poet’s Lyrical Journey from Ukraine to Canada, by Svetlana Ischenko (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2024) $18.95 / 9781553807070
A striking, immersive sophomore collection of poems: “The end result is an impressive, well-considered, coherent, and powerful book whose emotional and linguistic subtleties reward frequent re-reading.” —Christopher Levenson reviews Water Quality, by Cynthia Woodman Kerkham (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) $19.95 / 9780228022978
An “honourable and compassionate compendium of heartfelt statements from people who were willing to go to jail for their beliefs.” Sadly, it’s “over-long and at times tediously repetitive” too. —Ron Verzuh reviews Standing on High Ground: Civil Disobedience on Burnaby Mountain, edited by Rosemary Cornell, Adrienne Drobnies, and Tim Bray (Toronto: Between the Lines Books, 2024) $29.95 / 9781771136631
Attractive and handcrafted, a trio of chapbooks also showcase poets with unique gifts for observation and reflection. —Heidi Greco reviews Warp and Weft, by Carla Stein (Chilliwack: Tigerpetal Press, 2024) $15.00 / 9780995863972), Future Tense, by Lauren Peat (London: Baseline Press, 2024) $15.00 / 9781998521005), a tangle of words, by Yvonne Adalian, Mavis Beggs, Elektra Harris, Natalie Hryciuk, barb snyder, and B. Violet [self-published, 2024]
Essay collection relates the “great pleasure of strolling in great cities” and offers an appealing and illuminating “window into a wider world.” —Bill Paul reviews The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022, by Stephen Osborne (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781551529653
At a glance a standard police procedural, this debut novel “offers an extra layer of depth that examines deeper truths of the human condition.”
—Trish Bowering reviews Barcelona Red Metallic, by Christine Cosack (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2024) $22.95 / 9781772603910
Enthralling, comedy-flecked murder mystery capably illustrates how a “lot can go right–and terribly wrong–in a 24-hour window.” —Caileigh Broatch reviews Bronco Buster, by A.J. Devlin (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2024) $22.95 / 9781774391020
A ‘fairy tale wedding’ provides a novelist with the opportunity to create “a chaotic, soul-baring, multi-generational family drama.” —Bill Paul reviews The Wedding, by Gurjinder Basran (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024) $24.95 / 9781771624169
A debut collection of occasional verse reveals a “happy fool” who takes “the wind out of Death’s sails.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Blowing Up Growing Up, by John Givins (Cambridge: Askance Publishing, 2024) $25.00 / 9781778225062
Poetry volumes highlight a poet’s “impeccable way of seeing the grieving, dreaming world” as well as another’s “no readily-digested messages.” —Catherine Owen reviews Distractions, by Eve Joseph (London: Baseline Press, 2023) $15.00 / 9781928066873 and Signal Infinities, by Melanie Siebert (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2024) $22.95 / 9780771013980
“So, my verdict: this is good art. It provoked me and changed me, in big and small ways.” —Petra Chambers reviews All Things Seen and Unseen, by RJ McDaniel (Toronto: ECW Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781770417090
“These are fully realized observations, absolute and searing impressions of the profoundly joyful, as well as the unavoidably difficult.” —Cathy Ford reviews Islander, by Mona Fertig (Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2024) $22.00 / 9781896949895
“It seems to me that Kevin’s book documents his research into myriad formal and semantic possibilities, engaging in a practice that endeavours to stretch poetic narratives and structures.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews A Bouquet Brought Back from Space, by Kevin Spenst (Vancouver: Anvil Press Publishers, 2024) $18.00 / 9781772142259
An assassin, an animal ghost, and a reality TV episode hosted by twin psychics are just a samplings of the goings-on in the finalé of a small town-set comic trilogy. —Ron Verzuh reviews The Vicar Vortex, by Vince R. Ditrich (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2024) $21.99 / 9781459747319
Adept thriller is a welcome cause for “a single session of binge-reading punctuated with that rapturous state of feeling appalled at human behaviour.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Haters, by Robyn Harding (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024) $29.00 / 9781538766101
Fine books of “aesthetic delights” feature evocative poems that examine everything from the loss of a beloved pet to the tending of a garden. —Catherine Owen reviews Hey Trouble and Other Poems, by Sharon McCartney (London: Baseline Press, 2023) $15.00 / 9781928066910 and In the Warm Shallows of What Remains, by Andrea Scott (Salt Spring Island: Raven Chapbooks, 2024) $22.95 / 9781778160356
“Black moves seamlessly between genres, with poetry in her prose and music in her paintings that accompany and fortify” many of her surreal, Kafkaesque stories. —Michael Greenstein reviews Little Fortified Stories, by Barbara Black (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $23.00 / 9781773861401