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Ruth Taylor

@ruthtaylorwrites

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Author of EVEN THE BIRDS (Oct 31, 2026), winner of the 2025 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction. Available for pre-order now.

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I hope you check out this novel by Ruth Taylor, winner of the 2025 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction! Remarkable novel worthy of our time and attention both in understanding history, and examining the present.

New review is up on my website. Check it out under Book Reviews at shirleyhaywrites.com

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I’m excited to announce the second leg of my poetry book tour of SOME OF US MAY LIVE in Quebec and Ontario! Once again, I’m so looking forward to reading alongside so many talented poets/authors, some of whom also have new books out! Hope to see you there! @leighkotsy @coachhousebooks

October 17
Montreal, QC
Rocket Science Room, 7pm
Some of Us May Live Home Base Launch!
w/ poets Leigh Kotsilidis, Yusuf Saadi, & Deanna Radford (word-sound performance)
@deezamr @nightwood_editions @rocketscienceroom

October 22
Windsor, ON
Biblioasis Bookshop, 7pm
Triple Book Launch
w/ poets Leigh Kotsilidis, Dominique Béchard, & Garth Martens
@garthmartens @biblioasis_bookshop @biblioasispublishing

October 27
Ottawa, ON
Perfect Books, 7pm
Some of Us May Live Book Launch & Conversation
w/ poets Leigh Kotsilidis, Kimberly Quiogue Andrews, Anita Lahey, & Ellen Chang-Richardson
@anitamlahey @ehjchang @perfectbooksottawa @vehiculepress @wolsakandwynn

November 18
(online: lawnchairsoiree.org/meeting.html)
Lawn Chair Soirée, 7pm
w/ Leigh Kotsilidis & speculative and interstitial fiction writer Su J Sokol
@sujsokol @flamearrowpublishing

November 21
London, ON
Little Wren Books, 4pm
Triple Book Launch w/ Leigh Kotsilidis, Jade Wallace, & Grace
Also w/ bonus poets Tom Cull & Blair Trewartha
@nycterosea @thrillandgrace @thomaswaltercull @btrewart @littlewrenbooks @guernicaeditions @anvilpress_publishers

November 24
Hamilton, ON, 7pm
The Printed Word
Some of Us May Live Book Launch & Conversation
w/ poets Leigh Kotsilidis & Paul Vermeersch
@paulvermeersch @theprintedwordbookshop @ecwpress

November 25
St. Catharines, ON, 7pm
Phylum Press Reading Series
w/ authors Leigh Kotsilidis, Ruth Taylor, Chris Pannell, & Ed Seaward
@ruthtaylorwrites @cpannell3 @eddy_seaward @wolsakandwynn @darkwinterlitmag @guernicaeditions @phylumpress

December 6
Montreal, QC, 12:30pm
Read Quebec Book Fair, Lightning Round
w/ Quebec Authors

December 7
Quebec City, QC
Morrin Centre Poetry Soirée, 7:30pm
w/ Featured Reader Leigh Kotsilidis
Followed by open-mic w/ Local Poets
@morrincentre

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I had the pleasure of meeting Ruth Taylor in Toronto when she won the 2025 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction for EVEN THE BIRDS (Oct 31, 2026, Guernica Editions). After connecting, Ruth graciously agreed to read and blurb Fault Lines. Thank you @ruthtaylorwrites!

I was lucky to receive a copy of Ruth’s novel just yesterday, and can’t wait to explore the themes in this important story about three generations of women coping with the consequences of war in Guatemala after peace has finally come to their country.

Watch this space for a review soon, and in the meantime, preorder your copy where books are sold!

FAULT LINES (Nov 1, 2026)
PREORDER open now
www.shirleyhaywrites.com/store

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Even the Birds by Ruth Taylor, published by Guernica Editions, 2026.

Winner of the 2025 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction

Ruth Taylor worked as a journalist in Guatemala from 1994 to 2003, before returning to Canada and taking up fiction. Her short stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Dalhousie Review, Potomac Review, and This Magazine, among other journals. In 2024, she won the Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction and in 2025, the Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction. Even the Birds is her first novel. Ruth lives and writes in London, Ontario.

Peace has come to Guatemala after thirty-six years of war. Isabel, a guerrilla fighter of mixed Mayan and non-Indigenous heritage, returns from battle to the daughter she left in the care of her conservative aunt many years before. Soraida, afraid to lose the child she has raised, begrudgingly welcomes her rebel niece into her home, an arrangement that forces her to question her own role in the country’s conflict. Isabel struggles to be the mother her daughter needs, but orphaned very young and marked by the war, she is not sure what that would be. Fifteen-year-old Yasmin faces problems of her own. The trio’s commitment to each other falters, but it also evolves. And whether out of duty or out of love, they may yet help each other find peace—and even happiness—in their still deeply divided country.

Ruth Taylor worked as a journalist in Guatemala from 1994 to 2003, before returning to Canada and taking up fiction. Her short stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Dalhousie Review, Potomac Review, and This Magazine, among other journals. In 2024, she won the Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction and in 2025, the Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction. Even the Birds is her first novel. Ruth lives and writes in London, Ontario.

@ruthtaylorwrites @guernicaeditions

#canlit #litfic #ireadcanadian #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada

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It’s here! (2nd attempt to share!) So excited to finally show you all the cover of Fault Lines! Thank you to my daughter Cassandra Hay @purposeful_colour for the beautiful artwork! ♥️ I’m incredibly lucky to have so many talented people on my team!

Thank you also to @robert_w_hough for reading and providing a lovely blurb for the front cover. Robert Hough is an incredible writer whose work inspires me to continue to grow and develop this complicated and wonderful craft. I’ll soon be sharing other lovely blurbs by two more talented and inspirational writers: Donna Besel @dab32025 and Ruth Taylor @ruthtaylorwrites. Thank you all so much for your support!

Fault Lines releases 11.1.26
Presales begins 9.1.26

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Had a fabulous time at the @guernicaeditions Dec launch in Toronto yesterday! Huge congratulations to @ruthtaylorwrites for her novel EVEN THE BIRDS, the winner of the 2025 Guernica Prize for literary fiction. I had the pleasure of meeting Ruth in person, and I’m very honoured to have been alongside her and the other finalists for this award!

I was also honoured to meet and chat with this year’s judge @leslieshimotakahara who offered me much encouragement and advice on next steps in my publication journey. It was an affirming day and I’m filled with gratitude for this wonderful literary community.

And of course, I was enthralled by the many moving readings by authors of novels, poetry collections, and anthology contributors at this event. I had the opportunity to meet @anncavlovic, author of COUNT ON ME, an important novel about elder abuse and family dysfunction. If you want to read my review of this novel, please check it out on my website www.shirleyhaywrites.com.

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Congratulations to Ruth on receiving the PRH Award for this thoughtful, deeply felt book. https://learn.utoronto.ca/curiousu-blog/whats-new/penguin-random-house-canada-student-award-fiction-winners-announced-0

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