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See what Albertans were buying, reading, and loving this September. 📘 ❤️
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the book of sentences won the 2026 Archibald Lampman Award! , and other updates, possibly just as important, https://robmclennan.substack.com/p/the-book-of-sentences-won-the-2026
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At the Freak Show by Candas Jane Dorsey My Quick Take: Slowly, inexorably, this novel drew me in with its sympathetic characters, compelling prose and slightly off-kilter view of reality. Thanks to @ucalgarypress for a gifted copy! *** As I began Edmonton-based Dorsey’s new novel At the Freak Show, I was curious about the shift in points of view and stories that appeared loosely related to the main plot. However, I had some confidence that the story would come together, because the writing was strong and I felt engaged. I was in good hands: the story began to take shape and drew me in. On finishing it, I realise it will be a book I won’t soon forget. Asa was born a conjoined twin, but her brother died during surgery to separate them at the age of three. This is Asa’s story, as they explore different gender identities, a fluid concept for Asa, assigned a gender as a child after surgery. Asa finds acceptance at a local drag club; and meaning in the music that becomes a huge part of their life. As the story progresses, more characters emerge to become part of Asa’s found family. Because of the separate threads that merge gradually, the structure of the novel pulled me in, and I came to care about not only Asa, but these other souls, all drawn to The Freak Show, the bar where they meet and can be more or less their authentic selves. The story has quite a dark edge, which I appreciated. Interestingly, Dorsey has introduced some speculative elements; in one scenario that pops up occasionally, Asa’s deceased twin Angelo exists, in some form or other. It puts the world at a tilt, a fantastical element that suits the book. Dorsey’s writing is wonderful. Quotes are never as good out of context as for the reader who is immersed in the story, but swipe to see some of my favourites, ones I don’t want to forget. This is a queer narrative but also one on aging and the need for intimacy with others to ease the vicissitudes of life. What a beautiful book! It will appeal to readers who enjoy literary fiction that is on the experimental edge with found-family elements. It’s dark, too, but balanced in a way that allows for beauty in life’s murky depths. @serif.inc
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Congratulations to Anna Veprinska! Anna Veprinska is the author of the poetry collections Bonememory (University of Calgary Press, 2025) and Sew with Butterflies (Steel Bananas Press, 2014), the chapbooks Stone Blossom (Anstruther Press, 2022) and Spirit-clenched (Gap Riot Press, 2020), and the monograph Empathy in Contemporary Poetry after Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), which received Honourable Mention in the Memory Studies Association First Book Award. She won the 2025 Chinook Poetry Contest, was a finalist for the 2024 Ralph Gustafson Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2023 and 2021 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary. Her most recent collection of poetry is Wound Archive  (The Porcupine's Quill, 2026) Congratulations from all of us at the Royal City Literary Arts Society! We are pleased to announce the 2026 Longlist for our 13th Annual Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence in Poetry. Thank you to our 2026 Cogswell Award Judge Kevin Spenst! We appreciate your hard work and dedication. Our finalists in alphabetical order: 📌Tabako on the Windowsill by Hari Alluri (Brick Books) 📌Long Exposure by Stephanie Bolster (Palimpsest Press) 📌A Bow Forged from Ash by Melissa Powless Day (Palimpsest Press) 📌Several Small Animals Enclosed in a Benedictine Monastery by Vera Hadzic (Anvil Press) 📌Devotional Forensics by Joseph Kidney (icehouse poetry | Goose Lane Editions) 📌What We Know So Far Is …by Conor Mc Donnell (Buckrider Books | Wolsak & Wynn Publishers) 📌Unravel by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart | Penguin Random House) 📌Myth by Terese Mason Pierre (House of Anansi) 📌Wellwater by Karen Solie (House of Anansi) 📌Bonememory by Anna Veprinska (University of Calgary Press) Thank you to everyone who submitted this year. We appreciate your support. Congratulations! Our Top 3 will be announced in November. https://rclas.com/2026-fred-cogswell-award/ #CogswellAward #RCLAS #poetry #Canadianpublishers #canlit #FredCogswell #bookaward #poets #CogswellLonglist
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New Alberta-published books are hitting the shelves all month long! Click the #LinkInBio to explore the full list. #ReadAlberta #ABbooks
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Mummy sits in the corner of the room dupatta over her head hands in clasped obeisance murmuring verses from the Adi Granth —from “Birthright” by Kelly Kaur, My Love is a Durian (University of Calgary Press, October 15, 2026) 📸: Asha and Tegan Asha, July 3. Two hours old. Foothills Hospital, Calgary. Photo courtesy of Kelly Kaur. To read the full excerpt, click our bio link and head to our blog at RiverStreetWriting.com. About My Love is a Durian: Immigration, rebellion, and family drive this uplifting and inspiring debut poetry collection. In My Love is a Durian, Singapore and Canada twine and intertwine, the places adopted and left behind bunch and twist. Kelly Kaur leads readers through markets in Singapore and up mountainsides in Kananaskis. These poems enliven the senses, from the taste of durians eaten fresh to the chill of snow melting on the cheek, as they dance the insider-outsider dance. My Love is a Durian seeks belonging without judgement, a place to rest, a place to work, and a place to grow. It shares the easy happiness of time with friends and family, the tension of coming of age, the fear and joy of making a life. These poems tangle with ideas of colour and race, freedom and acceptance. These are poems that reach out to readers to create empathy, connection. My Love is a Durian lifts up the voices that sing in the margins of the world. Kelly Kaur is a writer, author, and speaker. Her poems, short stories, and nonfiction have landed on the moon, published on beer cans, danced on stage, and travelled to galleries and museums. She was awarded the South Asian Inspiration Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Culture, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and won an honourable mention in the Creators of Justice Literary Awards. She was also awarded The Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award in 2024. ♥️: @kellykaur3 @ucalgarypress #durian #calgary #poetry #gratitude #readmorepoetry
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“I co-led an introduction to mountaineering workshop with the Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island Section. Our crew was spending the weekend at Hišimy’awiƛ, the new Alpine Club hut on 5040 Peak. My co-leaders were two friends and fierce supporters. And half of our students were queer and/or trans.” - Rain Scott 🔹 Read more in “Hišimy̓awiƛ: Creating Our Own Mountain Culture.” 🔹 Image: On 5040 Peak looking south-southwest toward Triple Peak with the Pacific Ocean in the distance, 1941 (top) and 2020 (bottom). [top: George John Jackson, 1941, Topographic Division, Surveys Branch of British Columbia’s Depart of Lands (1929–1973); bottom: Mary Sanseverino for the MLP, 2020] 🔹 https://niche-canada.org/2026/10/01/hisimy̓awiƛ-creating-our-own-mountain-culture/ 🔹 #envhist #mountains #mountainvoices #queernature #mountaineering Image: On 5040 Peak looking south-southwest toward Triple Peak with the Pacific Ocean in the distance, 1941 (top) and 2020 (bottom). [top: George John Jackson, 1941, Topographic Division, Surveys Branch of British Columbia’s Depart of Lands (1929–1973); bottom: Mary Sanseverino for the MLP, 2020]
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“Hišimy̓awiƛ: Creating Our Own Mountain Culture” by Rain Scott is our final featured excerpt from Mountain Voices: The Mountain Legacy Project and a Century of Change in Western Canada (November 2025), edited by Eric Higgs, Zac Robinson, Mary Sanseverino, and Kristen Walsh. 🔹 This collection is the latest book in our Canadian History and Environment series with University of Calgary Press - @ucalgarypress, which is edited by Alan MacEachern. This excerpt is published in collaboration with the Alpine Club of Canada - @alpineclubcan 🔹 Image: On 5040 Peak looking south-southwest toward Triple Peak with the Pacific Ocean in the distance, 2020. Mary Sanseverino for the MLP, 2020. 🔹 https://niche-canada.org/2026/10/01/hisimy̓awiƛ-creating-our-own-mountain-culture/ 🔹 #envhist #mountainvoices #queerecology #queernature #mountaineering View from 5040 Peak
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Sorry we're late posting September's new releases. We were too busy reading them! 😜 #ABBooks #NewReleases Graphic titled "New Releases from Alberta Book publishers" featuring six book covers: THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM NOW, FOXBOROUGH, AT ENDS WE REST, CANTALOUPE!, MAD HELL-RUSH OF DAYS, and AT THE FREAK SHOW.
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It’s been a year! A year since the publication of ‘What is Broken Binds Us.’ Nine readings in eight cities. Half a dozen podcasts (maybe more??). A CBC Radio chat. Some print appearances. One award shortlist (Robert Kroetsch Award) and one longlist (Purdy Prize). Most importantly, readers. Readers whose life experiences overlap, partially, with the lives in the poems. Readers who enjoy and appreciate the art of words. In the time since the book was written, the relationship at the centre of the ‘Episodic Tremor and Slip’ sequence partially healed, and then, suddenly, without warning, fractured again. Life is episodic, life is change, life is a series of predictable and unpredictable experiences. Poetry is a way towards partial understanding. Meanwhile, I have another poetry book making the rounds with potential publishers. Perhaps it will find some readers, eventually. Huge thanks to everyone who has helped make ‘What is Broken Binds Us’ a memorable experience in community and creativity. Blessings to all. @ucalgarypress
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Congratulations on the publication of At the Freak Show by Candas Jane Dorsey - out now with University of Calgary Press! Asa has spent their whole life seeing another face in the mirror, the face of their conjoint twin who died during a catastrophic attempt to separate them at age three. The lone survivor, Asa has lived their life in between. Assigned a gender for surgical convenience, Asa has at time identified as male, at other times, female. But through music, Asa finds acceptance of their true, non-binary, gender-fluid self. Asa is unashamed and unafraid, but life outside the binary is not easy. As Asa becomes a famous musician, they must face the people who find their existence a threat. Life as a lone twin is also not easy. Asa knows themself, but must always wonder what could have been. Throughout their journey, Asa experiences visions of alternate universes, some that include the survival of their conjoined twin Angelo, who Asa calls mirror boy. A stunningly original work that breaks new literary ground, At the Freak Show smashes together speculative fiction, coming of age, social justice fiction, rock biography, and literary mastery to create a timeless, human story about the search for belonging and self-acceptance. Candas is represented by Wayne Arthurson.
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rob and Christine @christineshivers read (separately) tomorrow, myself, in-person : Christine, online, https://robmclennan.substack.com/p/rob-and-christine-read-separately
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