By Jon Paul Fiorentino (Illustrated by Maryanna Hardy)
The characters in I’m not Scared of You or Anything are invigilators, fake martial arts experts, buskers, competitive pillow fighters, drug runners, and, of course, grad students. This collection of comedic short stories and exploratory texts is the ninth book by the critically acclaimed and award-winning author Jon Paul Fiorentino.
By Gary Barwin
Ranging from short story to postcard fiction, Barwin’s stories are luminous, hilarious, and surprising. A billionaire falls in love with a kitchen appliance, a couple share a pair of legs, a pipeline-size hair is given the Nobel Prize only so that it can be taken away, a father remembers with tenderness the radiant happiness of his teenage child, trapped inside his body. As the Utne Reader said of his last collection, “what makes them so compelling is Barwin’s balance of melancholy with wide-eyed wonder.”
By Kevin Spenst
A finalist for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize and winner of the Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry, Ignite is a collection of elegiac and experimental poetry powder-kegged with questions about one man’s lifelong struggle with schizophrenia.
The twenty contemporary writers featured in this anthology have one thing in common: a connection to British Columbia, to a specific time, landscape, or community in BC.
In The Trenches: The Best of subTerrain represents ten years of alternative writing, as featured on the pages of Vancouver's literary renegade magazine, subTerrain.
The Inanimate World is an affecting suite of stories, with a novella-length piece at its core. These are sincere, germane, and tender tales of longing—for love, understanding, acceptance, and peace.
The Incomparables is a novel about ambition, betrayal, “failure,” love, family dynamics, how we deal with societal, family, and personal expectations, and how we come to accept who we are.
By Alan Twigg
Intensive Care isn’t a medical survival story; it’s a yearlong reflection on how the imminence of death can enhance life. The grass gets greener. Confirmation that one is loved is exhilarating, more powerful than any drug.
With its accessible style, this collection should appeal to a broad readership. Anyone who’s tried to write a poem about an object will be able to relate to the impossibility (and undesirability) of evoking a ‘thing’ outside of their own subjective relation to it. Inventory will be of particular interest to those who are familiar with the long and broad history of object poetry, including works by Francis Ponge, Robert Bly, Zbigniew Herbert, and Jorge Luis Borges.
By Lyle Neff
B.C. Book Prize Finalist
Ivanhoe Station is the début collection from Vancouver poet Lyle Neff.
