Book Reviews

Blockade  by Christine Lowther Caitlin Press 210 pages $26 “The title of the book in your hands is meant as a verb,” declares poet and activist Christine Lowther of her recent memoir, Blockade. In this, her second memoir, Lowther details her experiences with the...

Naomi's Houses by Rosalie I. Tennison Heritage House 288 pages $27 Naomi’s Houses, the first full-length publication by agricultural journalist Rosalie I. Tennison, reads as a clear-eyed love letter to her mother, the eponymous Naomi. The story opens during the...

Buzzkill Clamshell by Amber Dawn Arsenal Pulp Press 128 pages $20 Amber Dawn’s third poetry collection, Buzzkill Clamshell, is a raw and hypnotic excavation of queer desire, memory, and chronic pain. Lush with bodily imagery and shifting temporalities, the collection...

Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens by Lynn Hutchinson Lee Stelliform Press 197 pages $20 “We invent or erase histories, tell the old fairytales and myths and come up with new ones.” Lynn Hutchinson Lee’s dreamlike debut novella, Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens, opens...

Everything is Fine Here  by Iryn Tushabe House of Anansi Press 320 pages $25 Can women in societies dominated by oppressive religious conviction, homophobia, and misogyny ever find peace and equality? This is the question at the heart of Everything is Fine Here, the...

Blood Root  by Jessica Hiemstra ECW Books 112 pages $22 Jessica Hiemstra’s latest poetry collection, Blood Root, explores themes of belonging, home, and the complexities of loss related to war and colonialism. Rarely shying away from the rawness of death and the...

She’s a Lamb! by Meredith Hambrock ECW Books 312 pages $25 In Meredith Hambrock’s She’s a Lamb!, protagonist Jessamyn St. Germain doesn’t just dream of stardom—she demands it, claws at it, deludes herself into believing it’s owed to her. Hambrock shines a spotlight on...

Shadow Price by Farah Ghafoor House of Anansi Press 128 pages $23 Ecopoetry is a field that often explores the boundaries of human, animal, and machine. Shadow Price, the debut collection from Farah Ghafoor, presents a groundbreaking take on ecopoetry, exploring these...

Elseship  by Tree Abraham Book*hug Press 282 pages $25 In this dazzling work of creative non-fiction that brings together perceptive prose and mesmerizing visuals, Ottawa-born writer and book designer Tree Abraham theorizes friendship, love, identity, and language by...

Opening Ceremony  by Laura Marie Marciano Metatron Press 64 pages $18 Laura Marie Marciano’s second poetic memoir, Opening Ceremony, will hit uncomfortably close to home for many aging Millennials—and Marciano does not hold back. Composed with the same candor and...