Canadian publishing’s big year

Eyes On The Prize

In late november, the RBC Taylor Prize announced that

Truth and fantasy

Amanda Leduc’s disability justice critique of fairy tales shows how stories of magic and myth have justified our own ableist society

Location, location, location

Increased rents are putting some Vancouver small publishers in a tight spot

Loan Stars

Each month, Canadian library staff vote for their most-anticipated

The Real Deal

Don’t let a friend’s insensitive words make you doubt your abilities as a writer

speaking out

After Robin Stevenson’s school visit in Wheaton, Illinois, was cancelled, she made waves in the district with an open letter

Making sense out of scandal

Emily St. John Mandel’s much-anticipated new novel, The Glass Hotel, grew out of her fascination with the lives of the wealthy and the mass deception of the Madoff Ponzi scheme

Fiction

140+ new titles in fiction, non-fiction, and books

Non-fiction

Xtra senior editor Eternity Martis enrolled at the

Books for Young People

It’s been over 10 years since these authors and illustrator

Fighting the power

Desmond Cole’s masterful new book illustrates the entrenched nature of anti-Black racism in Canada

Reclaiming space

In Lisa Robertson’s debut novel, literary history is rewritten to recover women who have been erased

Women’s studies

A new anthology offers a glimpse into a robust, though limited, Canadian second-wave feminist collective

Serial thrillers

Two mystery series – one new to English readers, one well established – offer strong reads

hearts and minds

Two collections of short fiction display different emphases on formal and affective aspects of the genre

What’s cooking?

Time in the kitchen leads to connections with family and friends, as well as yummy dishes, including baos, daal, and foul shami

Killer plants

Kenneth Oppel’s new middle-grade supernatural thriller has mutant teens, villainous vines, and football fields that will eat you alive

Cellfies and cloudy thinking

Picture books for young science enthusiasts use unconventional narrators to explain mitochondri1a and meteorology