Wrestling with Cadence by Dennis Lee
You may know Dennis Lee by the lyrically nonsensical poem and book, Alligator Pie, which came out in 1974.
Essays
Because Somebody Asked Me To: Observations on History, Literature, and the Passing Scene by Guy Vanderhaeghe
The personas writers invent (often subconsciously) for their non-fiction usually attempt or pretend to show more or less of the private self. In Because Somebody Asked Me To, bemedaled and oft-rewarded Guy Vanderhaeghe favours a straight speaking tone, whether reviewing Richard Ford or talking to historians.
The Canadian Shields: Stories and Essays by Carol Shields, edited by Nora Foster Stovel
Her estate has recently emptied the cupboards with a release of Shields’s previously unpublished and/or uncollected stories and essays.
Five Manifestos for the Beautiful World by Phoebe Bosewell, Saidiya Hartman, Janaína Oliveira, Joseph M. Pierce, and Cristina Rivera Garza, with an introduction by Christina Sharpe
Hosted at York University, the free, public events gather writers, artists, and thinkers from various disciplines and geographies to discuss the most pressing issues of our time. The insights shared at the live and streamed events are later transcribed and expanded in artful books published by Alchemy, a Knopf Canada publishing program, in collaboration with York University.
Bait & Switch by Jim Johnstone
Do you ever wish poets would include essays to situate their poems? Some frank prose that ponders what their own poetry comes out of or means to do? We can’t follow every crumb trailer life, and not every aesthetic reaches universally. Consequently this book of essays, Bait & Switch: Essays, Reviews, Conversations, and views on …
The Coincidence Problem: Social Dispatches 1999-2022 by Stephen Osborne
Stephen Osborne is a long-time British Columbia-based literary raconteur and starter of bookish projects. In 1971,
Best Canadian Essays 2025, selected by Emily Urquhart
Consider the infamous Martian. What would they surmise about Canadians circa today, if they were to read the latest selection of Best Canadian Essays?
I Don’t Do Disability And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself by Adelle Purdham
I admire Purdham’s willingness to give voice to the ugly thoughts a lot of us have had about disability or other perceived differences — because we do have them.
Excerpt: I Don’t Do Disability And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself by Adelle Purdham
Excerpted with permission from Dundurn Press
Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery by Margaret Nowaczyk
Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery by Margaret Nowaczyk is a beautiful and generous collection of nonfiction.
The Hyphen and Other Thoughts From the In-Between by Maria João Maciel Jorge
The Hyphen by Maria João Maciel Jorge is a beautiful collection of essays filled with passion, memories, and thoughts. The author, Jorge, is an Azorean-Canadian immigrant and academic.
Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class by Sarah Smarsh
Smarsh’s August 9, 2024, essay on Walz easily could have found a home in Bone of the Bone, her new collection of journalism and other non-fiction writings (2013-24). These pieces extend the narrative of Smarsh’s 2018 memoir, Heartland, a survey of her Kansas-born life into poverty, the generations who preceded her, and a finalist for the National Book Award.
Girls, Interrupted by Lisa Whittington-Hill
Until I read these essays, I hadn’t taken note of the ways that men and women are treated and portrayed differently in the media.
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?
Donald Andrus: The Shape of Desire by Ihor Holubizky, Pan Wendt & Roslyn Rosenfeld
four essays examining the artist Donald Andrus’ work throughout his career, spanning his different creative periods, his inspirations and larger scale projects, and his meditations on his own career and life.
