Off The Page Blog

Part of the Dialogue

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:12:47 +0000

I’m sitting in a coffee shop, drinking a pumpkin-spice-Zeitgeist matcha latte, when without warning my head splits open and a novel bursts forth and displaces the Weltschmerz-and-bacon-ketchup muffin on the table before me. And so my new novel, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead is born, fully formed and without the aid or intervention of anyone or anything as if from the head of Zeus. Other people and books? Ah, Zeus and me don’t need them. We’re gods.

Really, I can’t speak for Zeus—he might smite me with an irritated solipsistic thunderbolt—of course, but a book doesn’t spring full formed from the unique and solitary imagination of its writer. It is part of a dialogue with other books and other writers and with the culture itself. It’s one tree in a forest. And all the trees communicate—even if some hog all the sunlight and squirrels. And so, here is a list of some books and writers that have been part of that dialogue for me for my novel. Some of these writers provided blurbs (I asked them because something about them and their work inspired me and suggested that Comedian’s might resonate with them.) Some of these writers are my friends and/or part of my literary community. And I’ve collaborated with some of them. I can’t think of writing and reading without thinking of community. Perhaps a “chosen community.” So, instead of my novel breaching the pallid surface of my wrinkly pate, emerging sui generis, it’s more like these books slipped into my head and changed my brain—just as a tree breaching my meninges would.

The first three books address grief and loss in very different ways.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first in the Flavia de Luce series, by Alan Bradley

I am very moved by the depiction of grief and love in this novel, even though it is in the mystery genre. Bradley writes beautifully about how the loss of the young protagonist’s mother haunts her and her family. The grief and longing is the missing dark matter that explains the life and relationships of the de Luce family. I thought of this novel when writing, how loss is the ink drop that irreversibly colours everything in the water glass. At some point, Alan Bradley reached out with a question for me on social media and for a few years we had a sporadic correspondence. I was honoured that he wrote some words about my book only a month before he died.

There is No Blue, by Martha Baillie

All of Martha Baillie’s work radiates an intensity of presence on the page. Her intelligence, sensitivity and emotional depth is apparent in all her work and in There is No Blue she movingly considers three family deaths. Each of these three lyric essays are a profound examination of relationships and, fundamentally, of love. Baillie has a curiosity for what it is to be human and how that manifests in the world. Another one of my favourite books of hers is Sister Language, a truly remarkable hybrid collaboration with her sister, Christina. We are because of others. We are formed by our relationships and how we think and feel about them.

The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, by Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross is a master at portraying the absurd, surprising, ridiculous, tragic, comedic beauty of the entire comédie humaine. This hybrid essay/memoir/poetic meditation on loss, grief, death and one’s place in the world exudes Ross’s deep compassion and love for friends and family as well as his refusal to go along with simple prefab tropes of grief and healing. He is keenly aware of the duplicity and marvel of the self and language—he asks why in his writing he often deflects to a comic relief image of a hamburger in his work instead of addressing the gravitas of the situation? It is in exactly this profound understanding of the mechanics of the psyche, this engagement with the vital flux of being human that makes Ross’s work, and this book in particular so vital.

These next two are different ways of considering community, of connecting with others.

Wonderland Road, by Carrianne Leung

Leung’s new novel is about how we survive with others—with hope and community—in an uncertain world. It feels like a thistopia—as if the troubled future is already here. How do we survive and create a meaningful life when the world is fractured, uncertain, dangerous and death and the possibility of death is all around us? Leung writes this compelling story about how we do this with others, with our chosens, with community. It’s a complex navigation but it’s profoundly human.

The Eh Team, by Charles Demers

Thomas Hobbes famously wrote that life outside society can be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” and in truth, it can be that way in society, too. The world is on fire and it feels like there’s not even a centre left that cannot hold. So it’s some relief to read these charming and piquant observations about being Canadian. Charlie Demers is brilliant at articulating our absurdities and compromises, our ridiculous yet loveable selves. We’re always like Wile E. Coyote who, just having run off the cliff, is looking down. Thankfully, there’s a trampoline way down there. The trampoline? The shared laugh or smile of recognition. Demers brings his Eh game to this. Ba dum tss.

These final four books are poetry or about poetry, something which informs my practice, aesthetic and understanding and appreciation of language. I mean, books are made out of words, man.

Do It Wrong, by Derek Beaulieu

Derek Beaulieu’s Do It Wrong is a collection of provocations, essays, inquiries, and near-manifestos asking what does being a poet in the 21st-century look like and what opportunities for exploration does that enable. Surprising, quizzically contrarian and surprising (but you expected to be surprised again), Beaulieu exudes delight at the possibilities for poetry and bemusement at our self- and culturally-imposed limits on what it can/should do. I find the book exhilarating, not just as a poet, but as a writer and reader in general. Do It Wrong asks many questions we didn’t think to ask but that inspire and intrigue.

Garden-Body, by Angel T. Dionne

Garden-Body by New Brunswick poet Angel T. Dionne is a gorgeous, surreal and psychically rich collection of prose poems that read like dream fables. Lyric, lush as a garden, these embodied narratives about “Lev” remind me what is possible with the strange beauty of the beautiful and strange.

marcel marcel marcel, by Sacha Archer

Fellow Hamilton poet and creative writernaut, Sacha Archer again manages to find the sweet spot when exploring new ways of writing, turning surprising materials into satisfying, thoughtful and just plain smart work. Part of writing is to see the potential in language and other materials. To gather together and investigate. What can writing look like? Do you need words? What happens to story when disparate materials rub against each other? This “ambient narrative” formed from public domain materials tells the tale of violent criminal “marcel.” Oh, and the chapter titles happen to be taken from Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu. I enjoyed popping a madeleine and digging in.

sometimes, forest, by Elee Kraljii Gardiner

sometimes, forest, the latest collection by Vancouver poet laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner (with whom I have a collaborative poetry book coming out next year) creates its own world, a rhizome of fecund interconnections. Recent ecology (e.g. Suzanne Simard or Robin Wall Kimmerer) has revealed the forest as community and here Kraljii Gardiner considers “hylofeminism” (hylo AKA wood or forest) that “attends to a deep, communal connection with nature as a relational way of being with the self and the more-than-human world.” These are poems of loss, desire, beauty, climate-disaster, embodiment. And, of individual in community.

And Elee’s book is the perfect way to end this brief discussion of books that form part of my “community,” part of my literary ecosystem, my work of literary connections. Any book, though it may be home to a rich network of creation, is just one tree in a forest of other books. This is one dark woods in which, unlike Dante, I’m happy to be lost.

Learn more about The Comedian's Book of the Dead:

A profound and imaginative underworld quest, and a fresh, funny page turner, from one of Canada’s most beloved and awarded storytellers.

Death is a comedian and devoted family man, but everything falls apart when the Fates choose him to guide departed souls to the Beneath. Having to perform this new role erodes his humanity and causes him to do some perhaps unforgivable things, and when his only son dies by suicide, Death realizes he’s likely the one to blame.

Attempting the impossible, Death goes into the Beneath to beg the Fates to allow him to bring back his son. Naturally, things are not what they seem, and Death is forced to reevaluate everything he knows— everything except the deep love he has for his child. Blending Barwin’s celebrated wit with deeply moving scenes of empathy and compassion, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead is a heartbreaking and humorous journey into the joy and pain of parenthood, and a thoughtful exploration of choice and agency, sacrifice and love.

This Book Made Me

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:45:35 +0000

In his novel The Strange One, which I read as a teenager, Fred Bodsworth wove together the stories of a naturalist and a barnacle goose. Alternating point-of-view novels have fascinated me ever since, both reading them and writing them.

More recently, from Ian Williams’s What I Mean to Say, I’ve carried the idea that we ought to approach conversation from a place of curiosity, of not knowing, rather than with an agenda. I like to think this has improved the quality of my interactions with others.

The first book I read, aware of it having been written by a Canadian, was The Bells on Finland Street, by Lyn Cook. Although the book’s protagonist Elin lives in Sudbury and I grew up in Etobicoke, our family’s economic situations were similar. Both of us longed for skates. Elin worked hard to earn money to buy hers. My parents bought me mine, second-hand, for Christmas. Still, it’s a powerful thing to see yourself, essentially, reflected in a published book.

It’s also a powerful thing to recognize that a book you read as a child may have influenced something you wrote yourself decades later.

Given the chance to contribute to Penguin’s “Our Canadian Girl” series, I was free to write about any girl from anywhere in Canada, at any time in history. I opted to invent a French-speaking girl named Marie-Claire, living in a poor section of Montreal in 1885, during and shortly after the last smallpox epidemic in that city. In her fourth book, an accident lands Marie-Claire in the home of a wealthy English-speaking family. She befriends the girl who lives there and longs for what she has—as Elin longed for what the wealthy Anna in The Bells on Finland Street had, and as I had longed for what girls at my school from wealthier neighbourhoods had.

Is it a coincidence that both Elin and Marie-Claire long for skates? Is it possible that I learned from Elin a lesson in appreciating what you have, absorbed it for myself, and later gave it to Marie-Claire?

I read many Canadian books to my children when they were young. Phoebe Gilman’s Jillian Jiggs and Something from Nothing have no doubt played a part in the direction my writing has taken recently. What fun it would be, I’ve long thought, to create a story with a distinctive rhythm and rhyme scheme! That notion, together with a favourite poem since childhood—Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat”—resulted in my latest book, Boogy & Tee and Twinkle & Hew, a rollicking tale about income inequality illustrated by Mark Hoffmann and published by Groundwood Books.

My earliest attempts at writing poetry for adults about childhood experiences often came across sounding like poems for children. Forty-plus years of getting into the mind of a child to write the books I’m best known for—starting with Red Is Best (illustrated by Robin Baird Lewis and published by Annick in 1982)—can have that impact!

So how, I wondered, can I write poems about children that don’t sound as if they’re for children?

Enter Carla Braidek, visiting a friend in residence at St. Peter’s Abbey in Saskatchewan the week I was there. Chatting at breakfast, Carla helped me view what I called “the child-oriented tracks in my brain” as a gift, rather than as an impediment to my writing effectively for adults. Some of the poems in her book, The Map in My Blood, helped show me how it can be done. So did “A Child’s Pastoral of Brigus South” by Sara Tilley, a poem framed by the shaking to death of ducklings by dogs.

“It is possible that things will not get better.” This simple first line of Robyn Sarah’s “Riveted” had me immediately, well, riveted. And her choice of words for where we are at this stage in our lives—“the tedious denouement” (we’re both in our mid-seventies)—continues to inspire me to reach, always, for the best possible words for what I hope to express. Doing so keeps my “denouement” from feeling anything but tedious.

My thanks to all these writers and more for helping make me.

Learn more about Boogy & Tee and Twinkle & Hew:

Two boats at sea, struck by a storm, are impacted very differently—a tale about economic inequality and climate change, patterned on a classic poem.

Four characters go to sea in two very different boats for two very different reasons—Boogy and Tee set off in a luxury yacht for a vacation, while Twinkle and Hew set out in a tiny fishing dory in search of their next meal. When a storm blows up, the fishing dory soon breaks apart, casting Twinkle and Hew into the sea. The yacht hits a large rock, and as water pours into the hold, Boogy can do nothing but wail about losing his precious possessions. Then Tee spots Twinkle and Hew clinging to the remains of their boat and insists they go to the rescue—a decision that saves them all.

Inspired by Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat,” Kathy Stinson’s story-poem with its rollicking, sea-faring rhythm and sprinkling of invented vocabulary combines with Mark Hoffmann’s quirky, playful art to create a funny tale that speaks to urgent issues.

Includes as afterword a brief quotation adopted and retweeted by Greta Thunberg: “Stop saying that we’re all in the same boat. We’re all in the same storm. But we’re not all in the same boat.”

Middle Grade Adventure: Boundless Possibilities

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:09:19 +0000

Children’s books can reveal the wonder of our world just as we’re beginning to understand it. They show what our reality—and by extension we—might become, often without the limits imposed by that reality. It’s what makes them so much fun to read.

Adventure books in particular encourage children to think about how they would navigate the often perilous situations that unfold in their pages. The action and danger they contain demand courage to confront, and help children develop the confidence to find their place in the world. Reading these stories builds empathy with characters of all shapes and sizes, both human and animal, building bridges of understanding for our future lives.

Middle grade books are written for eight to twelve year-olds, that magical age just before adolescence when everything seems possible. Some of the middle grade adventure stories collected here are inspired by our natural world and the animals who call it home, by the history of our country, and by the realities and dreams of this land's Indigenous people. Others take place beyond our Canadian borders, even reaching to the stars. Each of them is a reflection of who we are, and also where we live, how we imagine, and where we are going. They are brushstrokes in the evolving canvas of what it means to grow up in this vast, wild and beautiful country of ours.

Middle grade books are written for that magical age just before adolescence when everything seems possible.

The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier

At the end of this irresistible Gothic thriller, Auxier wrote that one of his inspirations for the book was the work of Washington Irving, specifically The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, both of which instilled a delicious terror in me as a child. The Night Gardener tells the tale of Irish siblings, Molly and Kip, who travel to a creepy English country house for work. The story draws the reader ever deeper into its spooky web and doesn’t let go.

The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford

A classic, The Incredible Journey is the story of three pets—Luath, a young Labrador retriever; Bodger, an old bull terrier; and Tao, a Siamese cat—who are separated from their family and embark on a journey of adventure and survival through the northwestern Ontario wilderness. First published in 1961, this well-drawn and moving adventure about three much-loved animals trying to get home is also about friendship, loyalty and courage.

Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis

This compelling historical adventure is a 2008 Newbery Honor Book and won the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award the same year. Set in the 1850s, it tells the story of eleven year-old Elijah Freeman, the first child born free in his community of Buxton, Ontario, which was founded by people who escaped across the border from the United States. It’s an endearing, often funny tale into which the horrors of slavery eventually encroach when Elijah accompanies his neighbour to Detroit for a daring and gripping rescue.

This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall! by Gordan Korman

Gordon Korman has written over 80 books, including some excellent action adventure novels, but This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!, first published in 1978, is the one that started it all. The adventures of Bruno and Boots, mischievous students at a boarding school for boys east of Toronto, make for a very funny read. When the boys enlist the help of the girls at Miss Scrimmage’s Finishing School for Young Ladies across the road in their scheme to be reunited as roommates, their pranks only get more ridiculous and entertaining.

Lost in the Barrens, by Farley Mowat

Winner of the Governor General’s Award for Juvenile Literature in 1956, Lost in the Barrens is an adventure set in the Canadian wilderness. Two teenagers—Jamie, a city boy from Toronto, and Awasin, a Woodland Cree boy—find themselves stranded in the arctic tundra at the onset of winter and must survive on their own. It is a story of endurance and cooperation, full of captivating details about the north and its inhabitants.

Silverwing, by Kenneth Oppel

This is a marvelous book. Lustrous and wise, the first volume in the multiple award-winning Silverwing series is an epic adventure that reminds me in some ways of Richard Adams’ majestic Watership Down. Kenneth Oppel has successfully created a complex society of animals with myth, folklore and history as a backdrop for the action-packed story of a young Silverwing bat who sets out on a remarkable journey of adventure and survival.

The Cricket War, by Tho Pham & Sandra McTavish

The winner of several awards and beautifully told, The Cricket War was inspired by Tho Pham’s personal experience of escape and survival as one of the Vietnamese boat people. It is the harrowing account of a boy who leaves his family in Vietnam at the age of twelve to escape conscription in the communist army. As a refugee, he must navigate loneliness, pirates and a refugee camp in the Philippines before finding a permanent home in Canada. It is an action-packed, yet deeply human and hopeful account of one child’s immigrant experience.

The Barren Grounds, by David A. Robertson

A finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2020, this compelling fantasy adventure tells the story of Morgan and Eli, Indigenous children brought together in their foster home in Winnipeg. When they discover a portal in their attic, they are transported to a frozen realm and must help a starving community of animals restore the balance of their world. With its unique mix of talking animals, the constellations and the seasons, all seen through the lens of Cree traditions and folklore, this is a tale of courage, resilience, loyalty and community.

MiNRS, by Kevin Sylvester

MiNRS, by multiple award-winning author Kevin Sylvester, is an exciting and intense science fiction adventure set in outer space. After a disaster strikes his family’s space mining colony, Christopher Nichols and a small group of young survivors must use all their knowledge and skills to stay alive underground. Fast-paced and action-packed, the story is full of drama and plot twists that make it a thrilling read.

The Lost Treasure of Casa Loma, by Eric Wilson

What child doesn’t love a good mystery? The fact that this one unfolds inside one of Toronto’s most well-known landmarks, plus some familiar locations nearby, is a hallmark of the bestselling Tom and Liz Austen series, set in famous sites across Canada. Seasoned with just the right sprinkling of adventure, it has all the ingredients of a classic mystery: an old castle, a gloomy butler, a secret passage, an unexplained disappearance, a lost treasure, as well as a brother and sister duo who are on the case.

Learn more about The Roughling:

"You must find the Key. You are the only one who can."

With these words, Ambrose Peters learns that the bedtime stories his parents told him are real.
On his twelfth birthday, he and his friends Stan and Aurora discover a curious note in the library of his home, an old estate in the heart of Toronto. When peculiar creatures start turning up, the three of them stumble on a mysterious world hidden in the wild spaces of their once-familiar city.

But Ambrose's time is running out. With an ancient menace closing in on him, Ambrose must find the key to save himself, his friends, and the extraordinary—and dangerous—new world they only just discovered.

The Roughling is an epic adventure teeming with mystery, friendship, action, unforgettable characters and perilous secrets.

Notes from a Children's Librarian: Firsts

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:27:41 +0000

Our Children's Librarian columnist, Julie Booker, brings us a new view from the stacks every month.

It’s Okay, Just Ask, by Monique Leonardo Carlos, illustrated by Salini Perera, is the story of firsts as a new Canadian, including a first day at school. We follow a boy packing up his old home, taking a plane to Canada, where he encounters some very Canadian things: an Inukshuk, playing hockey, and trick-or-treating. “What if I don’t make any friends?” the protagonist asks his dad. “Just be yourself, and friends will come,” is the reply. This tale reinforces the feeling of uncertainty in new situations and gives the reader permission to ask questions. It’s partially based on the author’s own experience of moving from the Philippines to Canada. For Kindergarten to Grade 2.

It’s Powwow Time! by Martha Troian, follows Bineshii experiencing his first powwow, colourfully illustrated by Hawlii Pichette. After a long drive through the country, they arrive to the west coast powwow. Senses are accentuated in this story. “Shiny bells are jingling/Frybread for tacos is rising/Strawberry juices are swirling. Brrrrriiiiing, Brrrrriiiiing, Brrrrriiiiing.” Bineshii experiences the crowd, the drum’s heartbeat, dancers, ribbons and feathers. Beneshii goes from moving his feet from the edge of the circle to bravely moving into the centre, with a "THUMP THUMP THUMP weh ya hey ya ya.” For Kindergarten to Grade 1.

First Broom, by Kallie George, illustrated by Joelle Murray, features rhyming text. “Little witch, little broom. Brand new gift, big bright moon.” We follow little witch struggling to learn to fly for the first time. She’s not sure how to get off the ground. After a series of mishaps and a successful launch, she ends up landing in a pond. Defeated and sad, she looks up at the other witches flying above her in the moonlight and is inspired to try again. Kindergarteners will relate to the feelings of frustration and the need for perseverance during the first week of school.

Tenacity is again rewarded in another book for kindergarteners by Kallie George, illustrated by Joelle Murray, First Valentine. In this rhyming tale a little girl uses all her arts and craft materials to try and make her first valentine. But instead of a heart, she cuts out a circle, square, rectangle, triangle and a star, making this a good review of shapes for junior kindergarten. A serendipitous event results in the perfect valentine for her mom.

What happens when, for the first time, you encounter something you are not good at? The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do, by Ashley Spires, showcases Lou, who is able to tackle any adventure, but when her friends want to create a pirate ship up a tree, Lou comes face-to-face with her inability to climb. She comes up with a bevy of excuses (“I stepped on a slug. His funeral is in five minutes.”) Maybe Lou can get up the tree a different way, via pole vault or helicopter? “Sadly helicopters are hard to come by.” Tackling her fear, Captain Lou Skullbuckle climbs and climbs but when she looks down, she’s barely gotten off the ground. As her friends race to play pirate ship on the playground instead, Lou says she’ll be back at climbing, maybe even tomorrow. For Kindergarten to Grade 3.

A Salmon for Simon, by Betty Waterton, illustrated by Ann Blades, is a classic. Simon is determined to catch his first salmon. As he and his sisters dig a big hole on the beach for clams, Simon looks up to see a bald eagle clutching a salmon in its talons. Simon flaps his arms causing the bird to drop the fish on the beach but Simon doesn’t want to catch a salmon this way. He watches it desperately trying to escape the shallow clam hole before digging a channel to the sea. It returns to the ocean with a flickering of its tail in gratitude. For Kindergarten to Grade 3.

Where there are firsts, there are lasts. The Last Last, by Wendy J. Whittingham, illustrated by Brianna McCarthy, is about a young girl leaving Jamaica for Canada. Whilst packing with her mom and Grannie, the girl’s “stomach quivers like it’s full of hummingbirds.” She takes her last walk, her last chew of sugarcane, smells her last smell of sweet roast corn. “Dogs bark, chickens scatter. Last time.” As the blackbird calls and the shak-shak tree rattles, she takes it all in through her senses, and goes for a last swim in the ocean. In the city she meets her first bluejay. “This is my first hour, first day…and you’re my first first,” she tells the bird. For Kindergarten to Grade 2.

On her first day as teacher-librarian, Julie Booker was asked by a five-year-old if that was her real name. She's felt at home in libraries since her inaugural job as a Page in the Toronto Public Library. She is the author of Up Up Up, a book of short stories published by House of Anansi Press.

Publisher Spotlight: University of Alberta Press

admin@49thshelf.com (49th Outreach) — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 14:48:05 +0000

Since 1969, University of Alberta Press has been publishing with purpose while connecting ideas, research, and stories with readers in Canada and around the world. As a non-profit scholarly publisher, the Press brings together authors, scholars, knowledge-holders, and communities to publish thoughtful and engaging works that inform and inspire communities of readers. In this feature, join us for an interview with Darcy Cullen, Director and Publisher of University of Alberta Press.

Tell me the story of your publisher and when you arrived on the scene.

I am quite new to University of Alberta Press, which opened its doors in 1969. I arrived in June 2025 and am its sixth director. Fortunately, there is a lot of institutional memory on the Press team that I can draw upon!

The Press’s first director was L.E.S. Gutteridge, a librarian, who ran the operation on the tiniest of shoestrings. As Rod Macleod writes in All True Things: A History of the University of Alberta,

“For the first few years after its creation in 1969, the Press barely existed. By 1974 its budget was $5,000 annually; it was run by three volunteers…and it had no office space.”

The 1975 report of the Symons Royal Commission on Canadian Studies led the province to provide money for the Press to hire its first permanent staff. The Press launched into one of the most important Canadian publishing projects of the late twentieth century: the collection, editing, and publication of all the extant writings of Louis Riel.

In 1998 and 1999, the Press published George Melnyk’s Literary History of Alberta, which portrays the Press as a vital institution in the province’s cultural infrastructure. By publishing literary criticism, local histories, biographies, and regional studies, University of Alberta Press has helped document Alberta’s social, cultural, economic, and political roots and transitions, preserve Indigenous and local voices, and build a recognizable “basic canon” of the province’s literary traditions.

Today, the Press is a team of seven in the University of Alberta’s Library and Museums portfolio. It has an editorial board of U of A faculty members from many departments and disciplines, and publishes about twenty titles a year.

***

What are the broad themes of your publishing program? Alternatively, what is your publishing philosophy?

A recurring theme in our vision is the focus on purpose and connections. Whether for intellectual and creative pursuits or practical solutions, University of Alberta Press books make connections: between people and ideas; research and practice; authors and readers.

Our role is to curate some of the most critical and complex conversations for our society and humanity writ large. We publish books on timely and timeless topics—health and wellbeing, nature and the environment, civic engagement and public policy, and Western Canadian voices and stories.

Literature and literary studies are exemplary of the vibrancy and audacity of University of Alberta Press’s publishing program: we publish award-winning poets, experimental works of creative nonfiction, and first-rate scholarship on writing practices and aesthetics.

We have long been and continue to be a publisher of works of Indigenous literature and scholarship, regional trade and scholarly works, and travel writing. More recently, we have established ourselves as a strong publisher in medical humanities and political science, and always have an ear to the ground for new directions in scholarly book and resource publishing.

***

Share a behind the scenes story of a book that was especially interesting to publish.

We are working with our colleagues in the University of Alberta Museums to bring a fascinating resource to a wide audience, called Along the Scenic Route: The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Tour. In a first for the Press, the text of the book is trilingual: English, French, and Mandarin.

In 1684, the Kangxi Emperor began a series of inspection tours of southern China which were meticulously documented by a team of painters led by renowned artist Wang Hui. What they created represents the first instances of a quintessential style of collective Chinese painting and offers remarkable insights into landscapes, architecture, art, and daily life in 17th-century imperial China.

Along the Scenic Route places two scrolls from this era side by side: the rarely displayed but much-revered seventh scroll in the southern tour series, and one of Wang’s smaller paintings, probably showing the Jinshan Temple. Our book will show them for the first time in their entirety!

The publication of the book aligns with a rare exhibition surrounding the 22-metre southern tour scroll. It will be the inaugural exhibition in the new Kenneth and Sandra Wong Gallery at the University of Alberta. It will be marvellous to pair the exhibition with the printed book.

^{University of Alberta Press staff and other colleagues viewing the scroll in person. Curator of the Mactaggart Art Collection and co-author of Along the Scenic Route, Isabel (Pifen) Chueh, right, is explaining the significance of the artwork. Photo by Sarah Spotowski, co-author and Curatorial Assistant.}

***

Are there any upcoming titles or projects that you are particularly excited about?

While we are excited about all of our upcoming projects, one that stands out as a perfect fit for our list is Quiet Modernism: Jean Wallbridge and Mary Imrie Architects (Fall 2027).

Quiet Modernism by Sarah Bonnemaison is a real-life story of architecture on the prairies, the kind rarely told and filled with character. It's about the designs and legacy of Jean Wallbridge and Mary Imrie: life partners and the first all-female architectural partnership in Canada. Despite designing over 220 buildings that helped transform Edmonton from a small city into a post-war metropolis, this remarkable duo remains surprisingly little-known today.

There are so many wonderful themes in this book, and they relate to issues we’re dealing with today in our cities, in how to build homes and spaces for changing demographics. It features specific examples of their architectural projects and philosophies that took root in mid-century modernism.

First among those principles was dignity. Wallbridge and Imrie had a commitment to designing dignified and affordable housing for everyone: postwar duplexes for single mothers, multi-unit buildings that addressed changing ideas about home and domesticity, a senior care centre, a school and a transitional youth facility, apartments for men leaving agricultural rural life for the new opportunities of the oil sector.

Nature was also important to their work. The pair had grown up hiking and canoeing in Edmonton. To them, the prairie landscapes were full of stories, traces, and wonders and they designed structures that resonated with the surrounding nature.

Drawing on extensive archival materials, personal interviews, and historic records, it will be a wonderful book for anyone passionate about mid-century modern design, Canadian architectural history, queer studies, or feminist history.

***

Lastly, can you make a list of books that give us a sense of who you are as a publisher?

That’s a really tough question to ask a publisher, but we’ll give it a try! We are going to cheat a little and include some series.

Two of our foundational reference books:

Alberta Elders' Cree Dictionary/alperta ohci kehtehayak nehiyaw otwestamâkewasinahikan by Nancy LeClaire and George Cardinal, edited by Earle H. Waugh. "[A] landmark work…" Suzanne Methot, Quill & Quire
The Canadian Dictionary of ASL, edited by Carole Sue Bailey and Kathy Dolby and developed in conjunction with the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf. “It is an outstanding scholarly achievement…” Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada

Some of our literary titles that have achieved remarkable recognition:

Northerny by Dawn Macdonald. Winner of the Canadian First Book Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize.
We Have Never Lived On Earth by Kasia Van Schaik. Longlisted for the Giller Prize.
On Foot to Canterbury: A Son’s Pilgrimage by Ken Haigh. Shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Tiny Lights for Travellers by Naomi K. Lewis. Short-listed for the Governor General Literary Awards, Non-fiction.

The first two are part of our Robert Kroetsch Series for poetry and literature and the latter two our Wayfarer series of literary travel.

Books of critical scholarship include:

Shifting Sands: Political Culture and Public Opinion in Alberta, edited by Feodor Snagovsky and Jared J. Wesley.
Braided Identities: Being Well in Canada, edited by Julie Sutherland, Margo Greenwood, Sarah de Leeuw, and Audrey Kobayashi.
The Women’s Voices from Gaza Series.

We are proud of our books that celebrate “the local,” whether it be Alberta’s literary canon or regional history:

Frank Farley and the Birds of Alberta by Glen Hvenegaard, Jeremy Mouat, and Heather J. Marshall. Best Wildlife Publication Award, Popular Category, Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society.
Disinherited Generations: Our Struggle to Reclaim Treaty Rights for First Nations Women and their Descendants by Nellie Carlson and Kathleen Steinhauer with Linda Goyette. Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards.
The Grads Are Playing Tonight!: The Story of the Edmonton Commercial Graduates Basketball Club by M. Ann Hall.

Oh, how I wish I could keep going. But please, stop by our website and browse our books for yourself.

***

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

Distinguished Edmonton writer Alice Major wrote that “in the glass display cases in the hall beyond the office door, you can see copies of UAlberta Press books that map the territory of writing for engaged readers throughout and beyond the university.”

We are so proud of the work we do on behalf of scholars, authors, and readers. We appreciate the critical support we receive from our institution, the province, and the federal government that makes it possible to provide credible information to the world.

Waking Us up from a Century Old Sleep

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:19:02 +0000

When I was fourteen, Grandpa Charlie began to tell me the stories of our ancestors. I was the curious one and, one day, sitting in front of two abandoned long houses on the Pacheedaht reservation in Port Renfrew BC, Grandpa told me, “You’re the only one of my children who asked about us.”

When I was home from the Port Alberni Indian Residential School in the summer, Grandpa would tell me the stories that I am now, seventy-one years later, telling my people and all people, because I want to help this world wake up to the fact that we've all been tricked, hoodwinked, brainwashed and oppressed to be subservient and to not care for our original raison d’être on Earth: to care for our Great Mother.

I grew up in the forest. The first time I hiked I was three years old and, even before I walked, I rode in my dad’s big backpack where my tiny body was perched even higher than his head and I floated through the wonder of the BC coastal rainforest. My dad taught me everything: the names of the plants, flowers and trees. He taught me to love and value the forest and all the creatures who live there.

Whenever I hear about old growth trees being cut down, it is like a murder, a murder on par with a murder of a human being. I become angry and my commitment to help end the colonial capitalism and the greed of patriarchy spikes to a peak where I can’t not do something. Feminists like Andrea Dworkin and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talk about the power anger has to bring about positive change. I, too, believe and live through the motivational force of anger; for me, feminism is about fighting for justice for all living creatures—including the earth, the ancient forests and all of the non-human species who live there.

I want to help this world wake up to the fact that we've all been tricked, hoodwinked, brainwashed and oppressed to be subservient and to not care for our original raison d’être on Earth: to care for our Great Mother.

When I was working as a logger, Grandpa told me, “Don’t cut down any of those trees.” We Indigenous people were desensitized. There was no other work for us. We were coerced into killing our Great Mother. It wasn’t until I was at Fairy Creek in 2020, that I finally listened to my grandfather, and I realized how oppressed I was all of my life and that all of my people are the same ever since the arrival of the colonizers. I can even project this onto all people because all populations have been used as a device, as a commodity, and as a tool to empower and benefit the elite.

In the spring of 2021, I heard about the Fairy Creek Blockades. I went immediately and began to march with forest defenders and write about the blockades for my magazine, Vigilance Fierce Feminisms. The police told me a few times that I wasn’t an "objective" journalist. I agreed and said I am a biased journalist, biased on the side of justice. Once, I was ambushed by the RCMP when I was racing to get to Waterfall Camp and document a police strike. I was threatened with arrest if I continued up the logging road; I was threatened with arrest for documenting the truth.

Mainstream media regularly asked Elder Bill, “Where are all of your people? Why is it mainly white people at the Blockades?”

Elder Bill would answer, “Do you want to know where my people are? They’re on the reservation watching TV.” I knew at this moment that I had to write about this; I had to write with and beyond the forest; I had to help tell Canadians about the colonized consciousness.

I knew at this moment that I had to write about this; I had to write with and beyond the forest; I had to help tell Canadians about the colonized consciousness.

I feel that my Great Mother has let me live through the genocide of my people and realize what happened to us. When sitting in a tent during a storm up at Fairy Creek in 2020, I suddenly said to myself: “I know what happened!” I woke up from the great sleep. I am telling this story to help all of us wake up from this century old sleep.

Before we marched up the logging roads to bring supplies to the front lines, Elder Bill always talked to us. One August day in 2021, there were about 200 of us listening to Elder Bill’s welcome and wisdom. The majority of us were non-Indigenous, or "settlers": descendants of the colonizers. Elder Bill told us: “You were all Indigenous once.”

This statement struck me very deeply, the idea of re-indigenizing and that we all—even those of us who are descendants of the colonizing culture — have an innate connection with the Great Mother and the capacity to re-awaken our original sensitivity.

This book has helped me gather my thoughts of my experience at Fairy Creek, exchanging with our Great Mother and sharing what I discovered: that our Great Mother needs everyone’s help, both Indigenous and settler, and that we are totally dependent upon her and this earth and how, through helping her, she shows us the way. This book will show how our Great Mother is always there waiting for us.

Our Great Mother needs everyone’s help, both Indigenous and settler, and we are totally dependent upon her and this earth, and through helping her, she shows us the way.

I introduced myself to Elder Bill and thanked him for his words and wisdom. He asked about my writing, and I told him I was publishing my first book. He invited me to collaborate with him and compose his life story and legacy because my first book, Victim: A Feminist Manifesto from a Fierce Survivor, tells the story of the sexual violence I have survived and triumphed over. Elder Bill told me how:

“I see your experiences as parallel to mine. I feel that with your survival, you have been able to chronicle your experiences and give this world an understanding of how we can triumph. I want to do the same with my story to let the world know that we can find comfort and joy in this world that fulfills and completes us."

This is a chronicle of my completion of my experience at Fairy Creek whereby I was able to finally totally realize myself and my self-worth, that my direction was to serve my Great Mother and to share this with the world. I am sharing the teachings of my mother, my grandfather and Elders from my youth.

From Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother: The Fairy Creek Blockades and the Life Story of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones © 2026 by Bill Jones and Karen Moe. Used with permission of Dundurn Press.

Learn more about Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother:

“I was lost before I was born”: the starting point of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones' lifelong journey of decolonization. “You were all Indigenous once”: the starting point for ending a world based on exploitation and greed.

In 2020–2021, settlers and First Nations people held what became Canada's largest act of civil disobedience—the Fairy Creek Blockades—in Port Renfrew, British Columbia. During this fight to save some of the province's and the world's last remaining old-growth forest, the protesters experienced a collective transformation and were reacquainted with our Great Mother. As Elder Bill sat in a tent during a West Coast storm at the height of the Blockades, he experienced the final phase of his personal decolonization when he had a realization that has informed his life ever since.

Weaving together the stories of Elder Bill's personal life and those of his ancestors with Elder teachings, settler feminism, and the story of the Blockades, Listening Once Again to Our Great Mother shares wisdom that will inspire readers to reach their own self-awakening, now and for generations to come.

The Books That Stand Out

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:58:24 +0000

When people ask about my latest book, Saudade, I will start by saying it is a book about death and grief, and it has stories within stories. Death is a main character, I’ll add. But it’s not a dark book. More a love story than anything. Well, dark too, but with funny bits.

When a writer finishes publishing a book—after the long process of first writing, and then editing and proofing—and it’s finally out in the world, I look for a sorbet. I need a break between courses. A breath between novels. For me, this is a time of voracious reading. I catch up, or try to catch up. Saudade was released into the world on April 15, 2026.

Here’s what I’ve been reading over the past few months. There’s more, of course, but these are my (mostly) Canadian recommendations—the books that stood out.

The Time of Falling Apart, by Wendy Donawa

This is one of the most exquisitely crafted books of poetry I’ve read in quite some time. Donawa is certainly delving into memory, the passage of time, the gauntlet of aging and all that this involves, but what impresses most are her imagination and curiosity, which despite any admission of age, are vibrating on high. Donawa turns her head and notices what others take for granted, as great poets/writers do. These are poems that play, and mourn, and celebrate love, and beauty, from a master poet at the top of her game. This book doesn’t leave my desk.

Bohemia: Unearthing the Roots, by Jan Novotny

Jan Novotny’s captivating Bohemia: Unearthing the Roots is the record of a walking adventure through the Czech Republic that reads like a fine novel. Part travelogue, and part memoir, Novotny takes the reader along as he walks through the landscapes of his youth (with an old-school camera and his curiosity). Novotny was born and raised in Prague, and became a refugee at the age of 19 following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Novotny takes readers on a lush, sensory journey, as he sees this land where he was born through a photographer’s eyes, with a curious heart and a spirit of wonder. This is a loving record of rediscovery, and longing to reconnect, and acceptance.

Songs From This and That Country, by Gail Sidonie Šobat

Songs From This and That Country is an intergenerational story that examines the reality of age-old ethnic conflicts between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims—exposing these divisive and acrimonious relationships as they reverberate through time, and mirrored in the lives of first- and second-generation families. Through this captivating tapestry of a novel, Šobat explores the Slavic immigrant experience, WWII infantry service in 1940s Italy, the Bosnian conflicts in the 1990s, and the rise of a second generation Serb-Canadian opera singer. All of this is underscored by a Slavic fairy tale that ripples meaning into the lake of this amazing story. At the end of this book, the writer in me sat back and shook his head and wondered how Šobat managed to do what she’d so masterfully just done. I remain an enthusiastic fan of this writer.

Mind the Gap, by Alice Zorn

The publisher of this fine collection says: “With an uncompromising and relatable voice, Zorn travels through Mexico, Morocco, Texas, England, Austria, Tunisia, and northeastern Quebec in these seven short stories and one novella, each following a compelling narrator on a quest—to find someone who does not wish to be found, to discover the truth behind family secrets, to expiate guilt, to make new bonds, to realize a dream. Far from home, facing new mirrors, characters leave old selves behind and discover new ones. Alice Zorn shines once again in this exploration of friendship, love, art, work, gender, and cultural identity in this spectacular collection of travel fiction.” I soared through this collection, pausing a day or two between stories to let them breathe, and then eagerly diving in again. Zorn’s clear, penetrating voice is addictive. When the book was done, and the dream of her novella, Morocco, was lingering just there at the edge, I wanted more!

Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi

Okay, okay…this one is not Canadian. It is a story about giving and receiving, and also about seeing and being seen. What a brilliant exploration of "unrequired kindness" in an age of mistrust, and suspicion, and disbelief. I loved this book from the opening pages, and it just got better and better. What’s it about? Well, a stranger named Theo arrives in the city of Golden. When he visits the local coffeehouse, he notices pencil portraits of the people of Golden hanging on the walls, Theo falls in love with these portraits, and begins buying them, one at a time, and giving each portrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he listens and hopes for the person’s story. This is the book I thought I didn’t need to read this summer, but damn, am I glad I did.

Marjorie Prime, by Jordan Harrison

This play, in book form, is decidedly not Canadian either but ‘Wow!’ what a head trip it is!!! With Artificial Intelligence all the rage these days, when I heard about this play, I thought I would like to read it. It’s an amazing narrative that asks questions any self-respecting AI software would not know how to answer. How "real" can AI be? What is real? What’s the source code for reality? How does human memory work? And more…A "prime" in this play is an AI generated facsimile of a deceased loved one, and primes learn about their character by listening to stories and asking direct questions. They look and sound almost exactly as the person they’re representing, but they are unable to determine whether the stories they’re absorbing are factual or not. It’s an unsettling tale about the power and capricious nature of memory.

Learn more about Saudade:

Bruce Flynn has long been overwhelmed by his unruly and alarming fear of death. His wife, Pilar, distracts him by telling him drawn-out and convoluted stories, hiding him behind so many twists and turns that even Death itself will not be able to find him. During one such story, while the couple is on holiday in Macon, France, Bruce becomes entirely engrossed in the tabletop as he listens to Pilar. When he looks up, she’s gone . Bruce looks for her, waits for her, interrogates the waiter, but she’s nowhere to be found. Her bags, her clothes, and her toiletries are all gone. Bruce asks himself if this could be an elaborate prank—it’s the kind of trick Pilar loves—and he begins to see clues in the story she told. The next morning Bruce sets out on a journey to follow these clues and to find Pilar.

Saudade is the sixth novel from award-winning writer Thomas Trofimuk. It is a sweeping literary thriller, moving across Europe and North America, from France to Italy, to Palm Springs, and Lake Louise, showing a world on the cusp of a global pandemic. It is a love story, a story of stories, of loss, and of discovery.

Why We Write

admin@49thshelf.com (Justine Yu) — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:37:24 +0000

It's easy to feel helpless and hopeless in these increasingly complex and uncertain times. But thankfully, I read books. And I find that flipping through the pages of a story is one of the easiest, most beautiful and nourishing antidotes to despair.

In an age when we are bombarded with AI-generated content and when the allure of convenience is ever-present, what compels us to write? What drives us to labour over each word and turn of phrase?

These books serve as powerful reminders of the power and significance of our storytelling. These books show us the magnitude of testimony, of bearing witness, of preserving our languages, and of insisting on our humanity. These books remind us that defiance of the status quo has always been necessary for our survival and for our thriving.

Tell Others: Storytelling for a World in Turmoil by Kim Echlin (Penguin Group Canada)

What It's About: In this moving collection, critically acclaimed novelist Kim Echlin examines how we turn to literature to measure our lives against the darknesses of our time. Tell Others explores how literature resists silencing and repression with truth and imagination. Looking to her favourite writers—Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, Ma Jian, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Haruki Murakami, to name a few—Echlin grapples in fresh ways with tyranny, war, sexual violence, and censorship to bear witness to the past and look to the future. Tell Others is an invitation to all readers to acknowledge histories that are difficult to see and to make meaning from the stories that buried bones tell.

Why I Loved This Book And Why You Might Too: Weaving together the works and words of so many brilliant storytellers across borders and genres, Kim Echlin shows us in no uncertain terms just how powerful literature has always been in resisting the status quo. As a writer who finds herself intensely troubled and impacted by the censorship taking place today, I found these stories profoundly validating, inspiring, and galvanizing. Beyond demonstrating the depth of a diverse and defiant literary canon, Echlin grounds these writers' lessons with rich experiences from her own iconoclastic life, teaching in post-revolutionary China, researching war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, and studying under one of Canada’s most respected Elders, Basil H. Johnston. This book is a rallying cry to speak truth to power. It is what we need for this moment.

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Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Maggie Helwig (Coach House Books)

What It's About: The housing crisis plaguing major urban centres has sent countless people into the streets. In spring 2022, some of them found their way to the yard beside the Anglican church in Toronto’s Kensington Market, where Maggie Helwig is the priest. They pitched tents, formed an encampment, and settled in. Known as an outspoken social justice activist, Helwig has spent the last three years getting to know the residents and fighting tooth and nail to allow them to stay, battling various authorities that want to clear the yard and keep the results of the housing crisis out of sight and out of mind.

Encampment tells the story of Helwig’s life-long activism as preparation for her fight to keep her churchyard open to people needing a home. More importantly, it introduces us to the Artist, to Jeff, and to Robin: their lives, their challenges, their humanity. It confronts our society’s callousness in allowing so many to go unhoused and demands, by bringing their stories to the fore, that we begin to respond with compassion and grace.

Why I Loved This Book And Why You Might Too: I am not religious for many reasons – not least of all because of the many ways in which organized religion has failed its believers in its complicity with state-sanctioned violence and violence of its own making – but Mother Maggie, as she is so affectionately and accurately called, has healed so much of my religious trauma and distrust with her stories and commitment to justice and dignity of all people. She, and the community around this encampment, make me believe in something greater. Sharing the confounding and infuriatingly Kafkaesque rules that the city imposes on our most vulnerable and marginalized people at its whim, this book is a reminder that no state can save us...that we, the people, are all we've got.

This is one that should be read by all Torontonians who call themselves human.

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Hide and Sikh: Letters from a Life in Brown Skin by Sunny Dhillon (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd)

What It's About: Sunny Dhillon’s “Journalism While Brown and When to Walk Away” revealed the struggles journalists of colour can face in an industry conditioned to downplay racism, especially as it deploys it. Dhillon’s essay on powerlessness, on who has a voice and who is denied, quickly went viral.

In this sharply funny memoir, shaped as a series of letters to his daughter, Dhillon reclaims his voice and traces his path as a Brown Sikh. From his earliest memories, his experience of being Canadian was rooted in race. As a child, he’d often found himself confused by what he should do when the fact he was “different” was raised. His reaction again and again was to hide – until he finally realized he no longer felt the need. With warmth, honesty and lots of humour, Dhillon shares his journey so his daughter won’t have to stumble through the lessons he took too far long to learn.

Why I Loved This Book And Why You Might Too: I'm a sucker for letters (proof here) and the depth, sincerity, and vulnerability that they capture and that too many of our spoken conversations fail to convey. Dhillon's collection of letters to his daughter expresses so many painful, infuriating, and distressing brushes with racism that, unfortunately, so many of us from racialized communities know all too well. But Dhillon speaks to these moments with so much humour and playfulness that you can't help but laugh and chuckle at the absurdity of these supremacist systems. What I appreciated most about this book is how Dhillon never tries to wrap his lessons in a neat bow or close his stories with clear-cut happy endings. He is refreshingly candid about how he is still figuring things out and doing his best in this messy world of ours. Hide and Sikh is a testament to the expertise that lies in each and every one of our lived experiences, and the poise with which we can share it with the world.

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Making Love with the Land by Joshua Whitehead (Knopf Canada)

What It's About: Whitehead brilliantly explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationships between body, language and land through a variety of genres (essay, memoir, notes, confession). Making Love with the Land is a startling, heartwrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person "in the rupture" between identities. In sharp, surprising, unique pieces, Whitehead illuminates this particular moment, in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are navigating new (and old) ideas about "the land." He asks: What is our relationship and responsibility towards it? And how has the land shaped our ideas, our histories, our very bodies?

Why I Loved This Book And Why You Might Too: What to say about Joshua Whitehead's writing? It is, as always, dazzling, breathtaking, cerebral, and simply awesome in the true sense of that word. Each chapter, essay, confession, passage (however you might want to categorize these gifts) leaves you with something to think about long after you've set this book down. "Me, The Joshua Tree," is a letter to Whitehead's ex-partner (a phrasing he grapples with and ultimately rejects) that left me ugly-crying on my balcony one early morning in its grace, elegance, and honouring of a relationship that bursts open the rigidity and inflexibility of colonial conceptions of love. "Writing As A Rupture" is a reflection on why and how we write and tell stories, the violence and harm of the English language, and how "our stories challenge, upend, and serrate the safety of what was otherwise thought of as canon and singular models of literary realism." It is a piece that I will return to many times over. "A Geography of Queer Woundings" is a visceral personal essay that blends English and Nêhiyawêwin words that challenges readers on a journey that transcends the limitations of language.

Moving between, across, and beyond genres, Making Love With The Land defies expectations, pushes boundaries, and expands the imagination, reminding us all of what is possible beyond the confines of colonial structures.

Back to school books that help with first-day jitters

admin@49thshelf.com (49th Teachers) — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:31:00 +0000

First Day Jitters are no joke! For students AND teachers, walking into class during the first weeks of a new school year can be nerve-wracking.

How can books help?

Reading together can contribute to a kinder and more collaborative classroom. Choosing which books to start the year with can feel like a big decision. Here are some tips:

Read books that reflect the diverse identities and families of your students. This lets students know everyone is welcome in your classroom.
Read silly books that make students laugh. This lets students know it’s going to be a fun year.
Read books about kindness and collaboration. This gives you the chance to set expectations early.
Read books about problem-solving and asking for help. This shows your students what to do when they feel stuck.

My best advice is to choose a bunch of books and read together every day if you can.

Need some back-to-school inspiration? These brand-new books by Canadian creators are perfect for kicking off the school year!

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Juni and the Anything Tree (ages 3-5) is an inspiring story about creativity and collaboration. Juni likes to spend recess with her favourite friend, a fallen tree in the schoolyard. Soon, Juni connects with her classmates through playing pretend. Together they discover the fallen tree can be anything: a lava monster, a Pegasus, a pirate ship. When a community cleanup plans to remove the fallen tree, Juni and her classmates must convince the adults to see their favourite tree differently.

Discussion question: How do you like to play pretend? How can you invite a classmate to play with you?

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In Lonely Me (ages 3-6), a young child talks about the times when they feel lonely and the ways they find to cope. This picture book illustrates how lonely feelings come and go and the steps children can take when feeling lonely, such as reaching out, asking for attention, and sharing their feelings. The text is complemented by rich cut-paper collage illustrations.

Discussion question: Have you ever felt lonely before? What can you do when you feel lonely?

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I Will Not Walk to School (ages 3-7) is a totally relatable tale of a monster who loves school, but hates the commute! As Monster resists and wanders on their walk to school, Bird struggles to keep him on track, growing increasingly exasperated. Only the promise of pepperoni pineapple pancakes keeps Monster moving in the right direction.

Discussion question: Who brings you to school? How do you travel?

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Backpack (ages 4-7) is an ode to backpacks and the comfort, joy, and utility they bring to our lives. Following a young student through the school year, this picture book explores all the things that go inside a backpack. The story shares how backpacks come in all different shapes, sizes, and colours and makes it clear: There’s no wrong way to wear a backpack! So express yourself however you like.

Discussion question: What kind of backpack do you have? What are some good things to put inside a backpack?

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In Little Bee: The Story time Extravaganza (ages 6-9), one of Bee’s friends, Tiam, is being teased for loving butterflies, art supplies, and sparkly nail polish. So Bee asks if she can invite her Uncle Andy (a.k.a. the drag queen Peppa Mint) to visit the school. While some parents are apprehensive about the presentation, Peppa Mint’s visit becomes a joyful, celebratory drag queen storytime where Bee and her classmates learn more about how to be supportive friends and allies.

Discussion question: Have you ever witnessed someone else being teased? How did you feel? What did you do? Find more questions like these in this discussion guide from Annick Press.

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The Color of My Difference (ages 9-12) is a novel in verse that follows a boy who moves to a new school in Montreal where he's one of the only Black kids. At school, the boy is confronted with bullying and racism. After one kid hurls a taunt at him, a fight breaks out. Following advice from his mom, the boy learns what it really means to stand up for himself and finds renewed pride and confidence in who he is.

Discussion question: How can we make sure our class is a safe space for everyone? What can we do to promote anti-racism? Find more questions like these in this teacher guide from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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This post is part of Top Grade: CanLit for the Classroom, a blog and preview video series that features new releases from Canadian book publishers, ideal for use in K-12 classrooms and school library collections. Throughout the year, we dive into new titles, highlighting relevant curriculum links and themes.

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Spencer Miller is an educator, writer, researcher, and fan of the Toronto Raptors. He currently lives in Calgary (Treaty 7), where he likes to go for walks and visit the library. You can follow more of Spencer’s passion for books on Instagram @SpencerBMiller.

Another Week at the Cottage

admin@49thshelf.com (Kerry Clare) — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:05:32 +0000

Canadian cottages are having a moment, aren’t they? And it’s all thanks to books! From Heated Rivalry to Meet Me At the Lake, the rest of the world is getting a glimpse at the wonder of docks and pine trees and jumping in the lake. But those of us who know, cottages have always been special. I’m an Ontario girl, and I grew up visiting the cottages of friends, going up north to sleepaway camp, then attending family camp and cottages—both those of friends and those we rented—as an adult. It’s part of the quintessential Canadian experience. So much so that when my UK publishers asked me what a cottage was when they were editing my novel Stargazer, which features a cottage, I was reminded that cottages are not as ubiquitous beyond the coast to coast to coast of Canada (don’t even get me started on what the verb ‘cottaging’ means in the UK).

My new book, The Rayburn Affair, also includes an Ontario cottage, and along with easily imagining the smell of the pines, the music drifting from the dock, and the lake itself, I can picture a stack of books on a side table, open on the slats of the dock, and devoured by any guest who visits with the desire to unplug and lose themselves in a book.

Here are some books by Canadian authors, perfect for curling up on an old chesterfield and reading with that first cup of tea as the lake comes alive.

Mating for Life, by Marissa Stapley

This was Stapley’s debut novel, and it’s a gem. It is a multigenerational story of reflection and coming to understand oneself and each other, which quite frankly, often happens when you’re away from the hustle-bustle of the city. Mothers and sisters gather at Muskoka Lake cottage and through the perspective of each of them, we learn a little more about their loves, their lives, and their family. It’s a balm.

Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood

For new and old readers of Atwood, this is another debut by a veteran Canadian author that strikes a very different chord for a "cottage book." Like so many of Atwood’s works, it beautifully balances between power and fear, unease and self-definition. Part thriller, part magical realism, I love the role that nature itself plays in this novel that has stood the test of time.

Meet Me at the Lake, by Carley Fortune

Every book is a mystery, even those steeped in romance. Carley Fortune’s sophomore novel, Meet Me At the Lake, is just that: a story of lost love that is baked with secrets, past pains, and self-discovery, all set in a family escape in Muskoka. If you’re looking to fully lose yourself in a place, and that place is a cottage haunted by nostalgia and memory, this is your book.

Heated Rivalry, by Rachel Reid

“I’m coming to the cottage”—the quote that launched a thousand reads, re-reads and rewatches. With the screen adaptation of Reid’s book, we all witnessed the explosion of Heated Rivalry, the exciting and tender gay love story steeped not only in consent and acceptance and courage, but in things many consider to be quintessential to the Canadian experience: hockey and "the cottage." Here, the cottage is not so much an escape as a turning point in openly discussing and recognizing Shane and Ilya’s relationship. Love blooms amidst the pines.

Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese

The Canadian North is not just smores and late-night swimming. Like so much of our country, our land. holds the deep secrets, pain, and shame of the worst of colonialism. Sometimes, the best books to read when holed away in the trees are those that bring education and understanding. Richard Wagamese’s unflinching look at the multigenerational trauma of the residential schools, abuse, and violence that so many Indigenous peoples have experienced moves in and out of Northern Ontario, and will stay with you long after you go back home.

Still Water, by Amy Stuart

Amy Stuart’s Still series follow Clare O’Dey, an unlikely investigator with her own troubled past. While Clare’s larger story has an arc, and the stories follow it in order, the books each present a new case for Clare to untangle. Still Water, the second in the series, was largely written by Stuart in the Muskoka cottage community of Dwight, Ontario, and is fictionalized in the novel as High River. Employing the use of opressively hot weather and out of control water to increase the tension in the book, Still Water is the perfect read for when you are safe and comfy in the confines of a cottage.

The Rayburn Affair, by Laurie Petrou

This is my second novel that features an Ontario cottage. Young English professor, Ruth Morgan has befriended her idol, the writer Shelby Rayburn along with Shelby’s husband, artist Oscar Frost. At pivotal points in the book—in both fall and winter—Shelby’s cottage offers a setting that shifts the plot in a dramatically new direction. Urban and cottage landscapes are favourites of mine, particularly because they change with the seasons. A once-inviting setting can shift suddenly with a harsh winter, just as the relationship between Ruth and her mentor does—with potentially devastating results.