We are thrilled to share that The Smallest Objective has been shortlisted for the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature in the History category. Presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts, each year the Vine Awards honour the best Canadian Jewish writers and non-Jewish Canadian authors who deal with Jewish subjects.

This year’s jury consisted of Zelda Abramson, Nathan Adler and Naomi K. Lewis, here’s some of what they had to say about The Smallest Objective:

“With poetic prose, and a proclivity for listings of things, Kirsch has a microscopic attention to detail that matches the theme of objects put under scrutiny to divine secrets. This writing has a way of hinting at the ineffable and drawing synaptic connections that reveal a real playfulness and love of words.”

Winners will be announced on November 23 at an online awards ceremony! Find all the details on the Koffler Centre’s website.

Ahead of the awards ceremony, Kirsch will be joining fellow shortlisted authors, Rachel Matlow and Myriam Steinberg, as well as illustrator Christache, with juror Zelda Abramson for a special virtual panel on the themes of memoir and motherhood. The panel, also online, will be live on November 18. Details and registration here.
Both of these events are free and open to the public!

A fantastic review appeared in Canada’s History in which Sharon Hanna calls The Smallest Objective “…an unexpectedly relevant book for our time, when we’ve been confined to our homes like never before.” You can read the entire review right here.

Also in November, Kirsch will be discussing the book for the Atwater Library Lunchtime Series, a fantastic weekly series featuring presentations from various experts from writers and artists, to scientists and intellectuals – these events are still running online so be sure to check out the full program and register for Sharon’s event on November 25th.

Looking for even more?
You can also listen to a podcast episode from the Côte Saint-Luc library featuring The Smallest Objective. Read a new flash non-fiction story over on the Jewish Women of Words site. Or take a look behind the scenes in this fantastic interview with Gila Green.

Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency is out and about in your local bookstores, and you can read an excerpt from the book right here on our website.

We’re also excited to bring you a handful of short podcast episodes, with author Stephen Lee Naish diving into some of our favourite chapters from the book. If Screen Captures was a movie, these podcasts would live in the DVD bonus features menu. We’re not the only ones who remember those…right?

Three episodes are live on SoundCloud right now, you can listen along as Naish ponders the way characters made of circuit boards and wires manage to hack their way into our hearts in the chapter ‘Crying At Robots’
In episode two, from ‘The Middle Word in Life’, we take a look at Dennis Hopper’s on-stage interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” – a moving and creative re-imagination from the iconic actor and filmmaker.
And finally Hunter S. Thompson’s iconic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and its 1998 film adaptation from Terry Gilliam starring Johnny Depp take the stage in the final episode on ‘The Opening Line’

Click here or listen below!

Join us on Zoom for another virtual book launch. Tamas Dobozy’s Ghost Geographies launches next weekend, with host Matt Rader.

A polyphonic descendant of Kadare, Bolaño, and Sebald, Tamas Dobozy masterfully traces and thwarts the porous borders between fact, fiction, ideology, history, and humor. The stories that make up Ghost Geographies, including “Krasnogorsk-2” (National Magazine Awards 2014 Gold Medal for Fiction), and “Crosswords” (Previously titled “No. 10” Best Canadian Short Stories 2017), constitute a collection that “isn’t for the faint of heart” according to Brett Josef Grusibic in The Star “Its rewards, however, are ample, its craft impeccable.”

Check our previous news post for a preview of the book and to find out where you can pick up a copy of Ghost Geographies.

Saturday, October 23
4:30 Pacific | 7:30 Eastern
Live on Zoom – Register here!

TAMAS DOBOZY is the author of three previous collections of short fiction and novellas: When X Equals Marylou (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2003), Last Notes and Other Stories (HarperCollins Canada / Arcade (US), 2005), and the Governor General’s Award finalist and Writers’ Trust Award winner, Siege 13 (Thomas Allen / Milkweed (US), 2012). 5 Mishaps, a limited edition collection of five new stories, was published in early 2021 by School Gallery, London, UK. Dobozy lives in Kitchener, ON.

MATT RADER is the author of five volumes of poetry, a collection of stories and a book of non-fiction. Rader teaches writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. He lives in Kelowna, BC. His latest book is the collection of poems, Ghosthawk.

You can find Ghost Geographies at these local bookstores:
:: Munro’s Books – Victoria, BC
:: Iron Dog Books – Vancouver, BC
:: Hager Books – Vancouver, BC
:: Black Bond Books – Surrey, BC
:: Huckleberry Books – Cranbrook, BC
:: Sea & Summit Bookshop – Parksville, BC
:: Laughing Oyster Bookshop – Courtenay, BC
:: Book City – Toronto, ON (Queen St E, Danforth Ave, Bloor St W, & Yonge St)
:: Type Books – Toronto, ON
:: Queen Books – Toronto, ON
:: Another Story – Toronto, ON
:: Words Worth Books – Waterloo, ON
:: Novel Idea – Kingston, ON
:: Perfect Books – Ottawa, ON
:: Singing Pebble Books – Ottawa, ON
:: Sleuth of Baker Street – East York, ON
:: Someday Books – St. Catharines, ON
:: The Bookshelf – Guelph, ON
:: Manticore Books – Orillia, ON
:: McNally Robinson – Winnipeg, MB, Saskatoon, SK
:: The Next Page – Calgary, AB

It’s finally ‘opening night’ for Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency – this new collection of essays from Stephen Lee Naish takes us far and wide across the realm of cinema. From Disney blockbuster franchises to Nicolas Cage psychological thrillers, Screen Captures tells, as much as it shows, what lies just out of frame: the impacts of COVID on theatres, the class war of the 1% upon the rest, the climate crisis, the ongoing Disney-fication of franchises, and the audience’s active participation in the rewriting and reproduction of their capture by screens.

Naish was recently interviewed by Joel Tscherne for the New Books Network podcast series. You can listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple, or Stitcher, or check it out on the NBN website.

Check out a preview of the book right now, and keep scrolling to find out where you can pick up your copy of Screen Captures today!

Your local bookstores:
:: Someday Books – St. Catharines, ON
:: Book City – Toronto, ON (Queen St E, Danforth Ave, Bloor St W, & Yonge St)
:: Novel Idea – Kingston, ON
:: McNally Robinson – Winnipeg, MB, Saskatoon, SK
:: Munro’s Books – Victoria, BC
:: Black Bond Books – Surrey, BC
:: Spartacus Books – Vancouver, BC
:: Bookmark – Halifax, NS
:: Shelf Life Books – Calgary, AB
:: Chapters
Granville St – Vancouver, BC
Robson St – Vancouver, BC
Metrotown – Burnaby, BC
Yonge St – Toronto, ON
Bloor St W – Toronto, ON
Rideau St – Ottawa, ON
Place Montreal Trust – Montreal, QC
Empress St – Winnipeg, MB

Or order online:
:: New Star Books
:: Amazon.com
:: Amazon.ca
:: Chapters
:: UTP Distribution

eBooks are available at:
:: Amazon Kindle
:: Kobo

The latest collection of short fiction from Writers’ Trust Prize-winning author Tamas Dobozy hits the shelves today!

Ghost Geographies contains 13 short fictions and novellas, including “Krasnogorsk-2” (National Magazine Awards 2014 Gold Medal for Fiction), and “Crosswords” (Previously titled “No. 10” Best Canadian Short Stories 2017), all of which delight and intrigue with a complexity inviting comparison to the worlds of Bolaño. Read an excerpt from the collection right here, and check below for a list of booksellers and online retaillers to pick up your copy of Ghost Geographies today.

Your local bookstores:
:: Munro’s Books – Victoria, BC
:: Iron Dog Books – Vancouver, BC
:: Hager Books – Vancouver, BC
:: Black Bond Books – Surrey, BC
:: Huckleberry Books – Cranbrook, BC
:: Sea & Summit Bookshop – Parksville, BC
:: Laughing Oyster Bookshop – Courtenay, BC
:: Book City – Toronto, ON (Queen St E, Danforth Ave, Bloor St W, & Yonge St)
:: Type Books – Toronto, ON
:: Queen Books – Toronto, ON
:: Another Story – Toronto, ON
:: Words Worth Books – Waterloo, ON
:: Novel Idea – Kingston, ON
:: Perfect Books – Ottawa, ON
:: Singing Pebble Books – Ottawa, ON
:: Sleuth of Baker Street – East York, ON
:: Someday Books – St. Catharines, ON
:: The Bookshelf – Guelph, ON
:: Manticore Books – Orillia, ON
:: McNally Robinson – Winnipeg, MB, Saskatoon, SK
:: The Next Page – Calgary, AB

Or order online:
:: New Star Books
:: Amazon.com
:: Amazon.ca
:: Chapters
:: UTP Distribution
:: Small Press Distribution

eBooks are available at:
:: Amazon Kindle
:: Kobo

While I was working on her

I ripped a hole in the foundation

Two holes in her

 

I couldn’t find her this time

It took me twice as long, my confidence wasn’t there

Something in my universe wasn’t right

 

It took all the pins, it didn’t fit

I had to put it all back on and do it right

This time I wasn’t going to get that fresh new piece

We are continuing our periodic reviewing of reivews with another roundup, this time shining the spotlight on The Wig Maker.

“Janet Gallant and Sharon Thesen create a disturbing yet ultimately inspiring collaboration which is part biography, part memoir, part poetry, and part lament.” Says Carol Matthews in the latest issue of the Malahat Review going on to call the poetic collaboration of Gallat and Thesen an “unforgettable duet.”

In her omnibus review of poetry across the pandemic over on the Ormsby Review, Linda Rogers says Thesen “does not embellish the flat narrative with coloratura ornaments, the gifts of a lyric poet. Both the telling and listening require absolute integrity.” And in BCBookworld, Caroline Woodward similarly described Thesen’s poetic listening/retelling as that of a “master poet with an acutely sensitive ear for language”.

The Wig-Maker, for Richard Osler, is “so much more than a collection of poems”, his review teasing out the ways in which Gallant and Thesen’s truth-telling becomes an important act of healing in itself. And for rob mclennan these poems “offer a memoir propelled by Thesen’s lyric clarity.”

You can also catch two great interviews by Paul Nelson with both Janet and Sharon.

Sharon and Janet will be virtually participating in the Winnipeg THIN AIR Festival launching later this month. Running from September 30 through to October 18th, THIN AIR will be hosted on a brand new festival website, registration is now open so click here to find out the details and sign up for your free reader profile – and if you happen to be a Winnipeg local, you can catch a handful of in-person events hosted at McNally Robinson. Keep an eye on the festival website for updates!

ICYMI – you can check out a recording of the launch event for The Wig-Maker right here on YouTube.

Bringing you another New Star review of reviews – this time shining the spotlight on George Bowering and his two most recent books.

Karl Siegler has recently reviewed Bowering’s Could Be over at the Ormsby Review. “[W]e find in his “It Would Never Have Been a Sonnet” a perfect illustration of the dictum ‘form is never more than an extension of content.’” writes Siegler, “Of course not: the poem’s octave is missing a line. George notices such things, even though “poets have no business / looking for order.””

Of this same collection rob mclennan writes “there is an elegance to these poems, even through working a number of his familiar touchstones…These are poems of attention, looking simultaneously, it would seem, in every direction”

And on Soft Zipper, Bowering’s earlier 2021 offering, mclennan says the “structural echo from Gertrude Stein” Bowering has employed in writing the book is “a curious way to produce a memoir, and an intriguing way to prompt memory, allowing that narrative leap from a word or a phrase to spark where that section might go.”

Over at the Literary Review of Canada, Rose Hendrie writes that “like the best memoirs, Soft Zipper offers a slice of a mind. And like the best, Bowering does not fall under the spell of his own mythology.”

“[T]hese essays put me in mind of E.B. White, with their whimsical insights and tales of growing old.” says Sheldon Goldfarb, back at the Ormsby Review, “these essays aren’t obscure at all. They are playful, wistful, nostalgic, and profound.”

Both of George’s latest books are available online and in your local bookstore – check out this post to find out where to find Could Be and this one for Soft Zipper! You can also catch readings from George by watching the recording of our online book launch.

Listeners out east in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe may have caught a familiar voice on the radio earlier this month.

Sean McCammon joined Chris Houston from The Idea Shop along with Mike Richards and David Bastl, hosts of Sauga 960AM’s Raw Mike Richards Show to talk about Outside.

Both hosts have been battling friends and family to hold on to their constantly loaned and re-loaned copies of Outside since the book was featured by Houston the week prior, when Richards said “the reaction to this book is unlike anything that I have ever seen, except when an enormous author has 400 books under his resume.”

Impressed with the response to Outside and stunned that this is a debut novel, Richards and Bastl asked Sean a bit more about the writing process, his similar experiences to our protagonist David, and what it’s like to sit down to write your first ever novel.

I started with the end in mind, I pictured how the book would end, and really the process for me was building in all that backstory, how we get to this climactic scene, for me that’s the way to go.

You can watch the whole interview below or listen to the recording right here on SoundCloud.

Want more of Sean? You can rewatch the launch event for Outside here, or check out Sean’s YouTube channel.

George Bowering’s latest collection of poetry hits the shelves today. Could Be assembles a new offering of poems from one of Canada’s indisputable literary greats, wiser, though not any mellower, for his years. These pages are suffused with the warmth and curiosity of any young poet.

Join us on Zoom Sunday June 27 at 2pm PST for a double feature launch event to celebrate both Could Be and Bowering’s earlier 2021 release, Soft Zipper.

Missed the launch event? You can watch the recording right here on YouTube.

Cover design by Oliver McPartlin

Every day now
in my ninth
decade I am newly

educated by small things I
was educated by
when I was little

when my arm
was half as long
as it is now

when I knew
for the first time
the big earth was

turning over
with me
able to stand on it.

Find Could Be in store at your local bookseller:

:: Galiano Island Books – Galiano Island, BC
:: Laughing Oyster Bookshop – Courtenay, BC
:: Bookingham Palace Bookstore – Salmon Arm, BC
:: Tanner’s Books – Sidney, BC
:: 32 Books – North Vancouver, BC
:: Queen Books – Toronto, ON
:: Someday Books – St. Catherines, ON
:: Hunter St Books – Peterborough, ON
:: Book City – Toronto, ON (Queen St & Danforth Ave)
:: Chapters

Robson St – Vancouver, BC
Granville St – Vancouver, BC
Yonge St – Toronto, ON
Bloor St W – Toronto, ON
Rideau St – Ottawa, ON
Place Montreal Trust – Montreal, QC

Or order online:
:: New Star Books
:: Amazon.com
:: Amazon.ca
:: Chapters
:: UTP Distribution

A wry, propulsive, visceral collection of stories about the afterlives of utopia – imagined and real – from the author of the Writers’ Trust Prize-Winning Siege 13.

In his first book since the award-winning Siege 13, Tamas Dobozy joins New Star with Ghost Geographies, a collection of stories, each of which vividly imagines a number of unsettled utopias populated by decadent and absurd personalities.

Fleeing communist Budapest by air balloon, a wrestler tries to reinvent himself in Canada. On a formal invitation from the Party’s General Secretary, a Belgian bureaucrat “defects” to communist Hungary, chasing the dream of a better world. Meanwhile, a provocateur filmmaker drinks and blasts his way to a final, celluloid confrontation with fascism, while an enfant terrible philosopher works on his prophetic, posthumously panned masterpiece, Dyschrony.

Ghost Geographies contains 13 short fictions and novellas, including “Krasnogorsk-2” (National Magazine Awards 2014 Gold Medal for Fiction), and “Crosswords” (Previously “No. 10” Best Canadian Short Stories 2017), all of which delight and intrigue with a complexity inviting comparison to the worlds of Bolaño.

Cover design by Oliver McPartlin

Tamas Dobozy is the author of three previous collections of short fiction and novellas: When X Equals Marylou (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2003), Last Notes and Other Stories (HarperCollins Canada / Arcade [US] 2005), and the Governor General’s Award finalist and Writers’ Trust Award winner, Siege 13 (Thomas Allen / Milkweed [US] 2012).

Available September 16, 2021
320 pages :: 5.5 x 8.25
$24 CAD :: $20 USD
ISBN 9781554201792