Why I Wrote This Book: Issue # 32
Featuring Joelle Barron, Patrick Connors, Marianne Miller, and Jade Wallace.
Featured Posts
Featured posts at TMR
Bird Suit by Sydney Hegele
Bird Suit’s fictional town of Port Peter could be any number of small towns on a lake, overrun with summer tourists buying ice cream and cheap souvenirs on the boardwalk, filling up the local pubs and motels, knocking up the local girls – before disappearing in September. There are, however, two things that make Port Peter special: its perfect peaches and its Birds. “The women of the town tell one another about the Birds in secret… When a Port Peter girl gets pregnant by a tourist boy, a woman in her life gives her all the information she needs to know.”
THINGS YOU MAY FIND HIDDEN IN MY EAR: POEMS FROM GAZA by Mosab Abu Toha
Political poetry is crucial to the Palestinian literary tradition, embodied perhaps most famously by the poet and author Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), who was displaced as a child during the Nakba. This rich literary tradition also includes Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972), displaced to Lebanon in 1948 and assassinated by the Mossad at the age of 36. Many readers are familiar with Refaat Alareer, the poet and literature professor whose poem “If I Must Die” was circulated widely after his assassination in 2023. His colleague and close friend, Mosab Abu Toha, enters this impressive lineage with his debut collection, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear.
THE SARAH BURGOYNE INTERVIEW
S A R A H B U R G O Y N E is an experimental poet. Her second collection, Because the Sun, which thinks with and against Camus’ extensive notebooks and the iconic outlaw film Thelma & Louise, was published with Coach House Books in April 2021.
Indigiqueerness: A Conversation About Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead, in dialogue with Angie Abdou
Indigiqueerness is a lean, skinny book full of meat. At just under 100 pages, it is a comprehensive dive into who is Joshua Whitehead. And, through this vessel, what makes a storyteller?
What to Read for Indigenous History Month!
Here are some recommendations from our editors to round out Indigenous History Month! These titles are written by, and about, Indigenous folks here on Turtle Island, but we encourage you to read Indigenous beyond so-called Canada as well!
Autokrator by Emily A. Weedon
While unfortunately we already know what it looks like when those who aren’t men are denied rights, and what it looks like when hard-won rights are being eroded, Autokrator takes the chilling thought experiment in a more extreme direction: what if women had no rights at all?
Pride Month Throwback: Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas
Chad Lucas’ debut novel, Thanks A Lot, Universe, is a perfect example of why I enjoy middle-grade novels, even in my 50s.
Experienced by Kate Young
Experienced by Kate Young is billed as a sapphic romantic comedy. It is a late coming of age story, about Bette, a woman who came out much later in life than most.
Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir by Danny Ramadan
Part memoir, part critique of the expectations of the genre, Danny Ramadan’s Crooked Teeth opens with a discussion of trust.
TMR Fundraiser for Palestine
We’ve noticed a marked absence of books by Palestinian authors and/or books about Palestine through our regular pitches from publishers. As a result, we’d like to do a direct callout for Palestinian books to review, as well as for our other features such as interviews, excerpts, and “Why I Wrote This Book” features.
In addition to this, we know that the world of literature can exist in an ethereal space of “ideas.” We want to be clear that we, the editors-in-chief at The Miramichi Reader, understand that all writing is inherently political in a world where people’s existences are politicized. So we will be donating 100% of donations through the ko-fi button on our website to GoFundMe’s supporting civilians.
Last Woman: Stories by Carleigh Baker
After finishing the clear, crisp prose that Baker deftly shares in her latest collection of short stories, Last Woman, I was left wanting more.
Marek’s Coat by Joseph Skarżeński
Marek’s Coat is a memoir written by Joseph Skarżeński, who as a Polish child in April of 1940 was transported to Siberia.
Water Confidential by Susan Blacklin
Water is a basic human right. In 2024, in Canada, there are First Nations Communities that have been living under Boil Water Advisories for up to 28 years.
We Are Already Ghosts by Kit Dobson
There is a lyricism to Kit Dobson’s prose in We Are Already Ghosts, a way of revealing detail that is at once both elegant and calculated in its precision, distinguishing the novel by its tempered restraint.
