Book Reviews

In the age of Google the idea of a Canadian encyclopedia seems a quaint relic. But when it was conceived by Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig, it was a revolutionary concept. Hurtig was a devout [...]

“Languages are like solar systems,” writes Julie Sedivy in this rich meditation on a life lived travelling through, dwelling in and studying languages. “They are… like proteins, or spider webs; [...]

The Métis diaspora, we are a braided river channel, a herd of bison on our way to the grasslands up the way, to our relations,” writes Michelle Porter in Scratching River, a literary memoir that [...]

War. Pandemic. Environmental collapse. How is a poet supposed to make beauty out of all the ugliness? Edmonton poet Jason Purcell, in their debut poetry collection, Swollening, has found an [...]

Beyond the Gallery: An Anthology of Visual Encounters (edited by Liuba Gonzalez de Armas and Ana Ruiz Aguirre, Laberinto Press, 2021). “In this anthology, we explore art that exists beyond the [...]

The Annual Migration of Clouds imagines the University of Alberta as the site of a self-sustaining community in a dystopic near-future: the labyrinthine BioSci building is now living quarters and [...]

In The Call of the Red-Winged Blackbird, Tim Bowling offers his readers a deep and intimate conversation about contemporary existence, particularly mortality, loss and solitude. Though he wrote [...]

Some histories bear revisiting, and the world of the southern States under Jim Crow laws comes sharply into focus in Theresa Shea’s The Shade Tree, recent winner of Canada’s Guernica Literary [...]

Our species has a complex relationship with change. From the moment we depart the womb (arguably our first major encounter with change), each new crossroads comes with a slew of anxieties and [...]

A child of mysterious provenance is born with supernatural powers. He has “followers” that he loves unconditionally. He provides his followers passage—shepherds them, if you will—from the earthly [...]