Whitney Moran

This mighty book is much like a festival in many ways: it throws in a dash of the unexpected—unruly, unlikeable yet endearing characters, life-changing musical interludes and conversations—and it ends much too quickly. In just over 150 pages, this novella follows the fictional Campbell Ouinette, “maverick” manager of odd musical acts who made the move […]

Once in a while a book comes along that one doesn’t believe was written, but instead emerged, fully formed, from the earth itself. The Orenda is a stunning example of the most organic of stories, its pages stitched from the flesh and the bloody ink of our ancestors, European and First Nations alike. Told from […]

My vote for oddest literary fiction of the year goes to the story of Jacob, an orthodox Jewish street peddler from 18th-century France, who becomes ill, dies and is reincarnated as a housefly in modern-day Long Island. As a fly, he quickly realizes he can read the minds and desires of the odd strangers he’s […]

This minimalist novella from the iconic Cary Fagan demonstrates the author’s talent for making every word count. Like a poet, he curates white space, the silences between words, every fleck of punctuation. The story follows Benjamin, a young Jewish boy growing up in Depression-era Toronto, through a transformative life event: he discovers magic and love […]

In the same breath, Iris Smyles describes herself as “possessed by literature to the point of total incompetence” and one who “pinks out” when she drinks too much, because she’s a girl, and that sounds more appropriate. Smyles is the author of this book, but she’s also a fictionalized character. A 20-something living in New […]

This is a novel about truth-telling, fiction and the ever-blurring line in between. The story follows an unnamed protagonist as he tries to best his university writing mate and best friend, Julian, who reaches the pinnacle of success with his modern “masterpiece.” This is literary fiction in the most literal sense. An actively voyeuristic reading […]

“You won’t find her human moments on any roll of film or on a postcard….” In In Calamity’s Wake, author Natalee Caple tells her version of the story of infamous eighteenth-century Midwestern soldier Calamity Jane, in a manner equally fascinating, creative, and meticulously historically accurate. Written as Caple’s PhD thesis, the story is rife with […]

“I struggled through writing Homing trying to figure out how to write a book,” admits author Stephanie Domet, humbly referring to her award-winning 2007 novel. A journalist by trade—you may know her as host of CBC Radio One’s Mainstreet— two books under her belt and a brand new novel, Fallsy Downsies, released by Invisible Publishing this […]

With delicate brush strokes and crooked-branch hand lettering, Sarah Burwash is creating a new Canadian folklore. In her beautiful first watercolour collection, The Far Woods, she draws upon the earth as muse, the collection largely a reflection of time the young artist spent in the Canadian northwest. Flesh and earth tones are accentuated by the […]