Gary Barwin & Tom Prime’s Bird Arsonist has flown the nest, and is available today!

Compressed to the point of implosion, the poems that make up this volume are contorted descendants of Dadaism, Surrealism, and every other -ism. Prime and Barwin confront poetry’s contemporary preference for confession and today’s digitization of reality not only by — as they are two — using a doubled “I,” but also by letting language elide the human-all-too-human hand of authorship tout court. The author of Bird Arsonist is language itself, sonorous and fragmentary. Prime and Barwin have merely done the job of giving it the room to speak, of keeping it infected, of making visible the outline of its splinters and its cuts.

Check your local independent bookseller for a copy:
:: Munro’s Books – Victoria, BC
:: Mobius Books – Port Alberni, BC
:: Bookingham Palace – Salmon Arm, BC
:: Novel Idea – Kingston, ON
:: Another Story – Toronto, ON
:: Type Books – Toronto, ON
:: Book City – Toronto, ON (Bloor St, Danforth Ave, Queen St E, Beaches)
:: Perfect Books – Ottawa, ON
:: Blue Heron Books – Uxbridge, ON
:: Mixed Media – Hamilton, ON
:: Epic Books – Hamilton, ON
:: The Printed Word – Hamilton, ON
:: Fanfare Books – Stratford, ON
:: The Book Keeper – Sarnia, ON 
:: The Bookshelf – Guelph, ON
:: McNally Robinson – Saskatoon, SK
:: Owl’s Nest Books – Calgary, AB
:: Shelf Life Books – Calgary, AB

Online you can find the book at:
:: New Star Books
:: Amazon.com
:: Amazon.ca
:: Chapters
:: UTP Distribution
:: Small Press Distribution

Bird Arsonist, the latest collaboration from Gary Barwin and Tom Prime, is nearly here. Publishing in just two short weeks on February 2, this twin-penned implosion of poetry does away with easy, lawful language in favour of “mangled and botched experimental and algorithmic procedures” (in the words of artist, author, and critic Felix Bernstein). In face, the author of Bird Arsonist is language itself, sonorous and fragmentary. Prime and Barwin have merely done the job of giving it the room to speak, of keeping it infected, of making visible the outline of its splinters and its cuts.

In the first review of Bird Arsonist, rob mclennan says the collection “displays a language of sound poetry shaped to the page, writing poems that play with the distortions of meaning, image and sound.” This is a book that is bound to ruffle your feathers in one way or another, and you can pre-order online it right now on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or directly from us here at New Star.

Once you’ve snagged a copy, be sure to join us live on Zoom for the launch of Bird Arsonist, with host Elee Kraljii Gardiner.

Saturday, February

4:30 PT / 7:30 ET

Click here to register

Check out the excerpt video below for a taste of what you’re in for:

You’ll also find Gary Barwin at the Jewish Book Festival on February 6 with his recent, award winning novel Nothing The Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy.

GARY BARWIN is a writer, composer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist and has published 25 books of fiction, poetry, and numerous chapbooks. His latest books include For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe, ed. Alessandro Porco, and Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy.

TOM PRIME is the author and co-author of several poetry chapbooks, including A Cemetery for Holes with Gary Barwin. His debut solo collection, Mouthfuls of Space, was published in the fall of 2021.

ELEE KRALJII GARDINER is the author of two poetry books Trauma Head, winner of the Fred Cogswell Poetry Prize, and serpentine loop, shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. An experienced mentor, Elee is the founding director of Thursdays Writing Collective, which supported emerging writers from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The winners of the 2021 Vine Awards, presented by the Koffler Centre for the Arts, were announced live last night on November 23 and we were thrilled to watch along here at New Star Books as Sharon Kirsch’s memoir, The Smallest Obejctive took home the prize in the History category. Watch the full awards ceremony.

The Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature is an annual national awards program that honours both the best Canadian Jewish writers and non-Jewish Canadian authors who deal with Jewish subjects in Fiction, History, Non-Fiction, Young Adult/Children’s literature, and Poetry.

Here’s what the jury had to say about The Smallest Objective:

“In the wake of her mother’s illness, and driven by lore of hidden treasure, Kirsch excavates history from ephemera found in her parent’s home; she follows clues to wherever they lead in a meandering path along different research trajectories that unearth mysteries and figures from her family tree. 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. This listing is stylistic, but also a method for coping with grief. There are themes of memory and forgetting, loss and lost things, and of course the search for treasure, where things — letters, postcards, photographs, slides, seashells, and rocks — become archival documents.”

We would like to extend our congratulations to the shortlsited authors in all categories and especially to Paul Roberts Bentley and Celia Rabinovitch, whose books it was an honour to be shortlisted alongside! Our gratitude also to the Koffler Centre, the Lillian and Norman Glowinsky Family Foundation, and the 2021 jurors, Zelda Abramson, Nathan Adler and Naomi K. Lewis.

Sharon also participated in a virtual panel on November 18 with fellow shortlisted authors, Rachel Matlow, Myriam Steinberg, and illustrator, Christache on the themes of memoir, motherhood, and lived experience – you can watch that panel right here on YouTube.

Poetry in Transit, an initiative featuring poems on buses and SkyTrains across the TransLink system here in British Columbia, celebrates its 25th anniversary!

Read Local BC and The Association of Book Publishers of BC have marked this occassion with the publication of an anthology of 40 selected poems from the PiT archives, edited and introduced by poet Evelyn Lau.

George Stanley’s poem ‘waiting’ from the 2013 collection After Desire has been included in this wonderful anniversary edition. Check out the anthology at poetryintransit25.ca or keep your eyes peeled around BC transit for copies hidded around the TransLink system.

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.