Pacifique By Sarah L. Taggart Coach House Books 224 pages, $24 Where does the truth lie when the stigma of madness casts doubts on a story? In Sarah L. Taggart’s debut novel Pacifique, Taggart examines love, but more importantly, the complexities of mental illness...
Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood By Hilary Peach Anvil Press 314 pages, $22.00 Tender-hearted, unflinching, and clever, Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood explores poet Hillary Peach’s twenty-year career as a transient...
CONDOLADY By Elisabeth Belliveau Conundrum Press 112 pages, $10 Elisabeth Belliveau’s CONDOLADY is a pocket-sized graphic story that follows her life of social distancing for two years in a 680 square foot condo in Edmonton. Belliveau uses soft grey-scale hues to...
A is for Acholi By Otoniya J. Okot Bitek Wolsak & Wynn 120 Pages, $20 A is for Acholi is a collection deeply connected with the concepts of place and displacement. In the opening stanzas, the poetic voice interrogates the concept of home, nation, and belonging....
Nine Dash Line By Emily Saso Freehand Books 266 pages, $23 Emily Saso’s Nine Dash Line is a tale of survival as, Zi Shan, an exiled Chinese national, and Jess, a US naval officer on a classified covert operation, navigate hostile environments in the South China Sea....
Test Piece By Sheryda Warrener Coach House Books 80 pages, $23 A test piece, Sheryda Warrener informs her readers near the end of the collection, “is a record of an experiment/ with unconventional materials,” a trial run to see “how they might behave or/ transform...
Modern Fables By Mikka Jacobsen Freehand Books 224 pages, $23 A lie’ is one of three definitions for “fable.” “Fable” can also mean a story that’s intended to convey “a useful truth,” especially if the story involves anthropomorphic animals. Or it can describe a story...
Wonder World By K.R. Byggdin Enfield & Wizenty 183 pages, $21.95 Isaac Funk is a character many of us know. This is not to say he’s generic—he’s anything but—but he feels familiar, at least within certain communities or subcultures. We find Funk, a wildly dressed...
PLACE By Alexei Perry Cox Noemi Press 122 Pages, $24 In the author’s second full-length prose poetry collection, Perry Cox’s inquisitive nature shines through. In PLACE, the disciplines of language, anthropology, philosophy, history, and geography converge. Perry Cox...
Remnants By Céline Huyghebaert Translated by Aleshia Jensen Book*hug Press 259 pages, $23 Remnants, the English translation of Céline Huyghebaert ’s 2019 Governor General’s Award-winning autofictional novel Le drap blanc, is full of holes. A bookworm infestation in...