River Street Writing

Guelph, Ontario knows how to uplift the literary arts! ?? Here are just a few pictures from the packed reading last night in Guelph that featured Adam Lindsay Honsinger, Kasia Jaronczyk, Tea Gerbeza, MA|DE, and River Street Founder, Hollay Ghadery—all reading from their new books. The event was held at ANAF and hosted by Jeremy Luke Hill, publisher of Gordon Hill Press / The Porcupine’s Quill—a splendid Canadian small press with award-winning authors. ??: ZZOO (poetry) by MA|DE published by Palimpsest Press. ??: Widow Fantasies (short fiction) by Hollay Ghadery, published by Gordon Hill ??: Giving Up the Ghost (a novel) by Adam Lindsay Honsinger published by Porcupine’s Quill. ??: How I Bent Into More by Tea Gerbeza, published by Palimpsest Press. ??: Voices in the Air by Kasia Jaronczyk, published by Palimpsest Press. . . . #guelphontario #guelphlife #bookish #bookishevents #bookishcanadians #canadianauthors #canadianpoets #canadianbooks #canadianpoetry #canadianpoet #disabilityart #polishcanadian #iraniancanadian #bookstagram #bookstagramcanada #whattoread #readmore #readcanada #readcanlit #canlit #readcanadian #smallpress #smallpresspublishing #writersofinstagram #writersofig #poetscommunity #poetrycommunity #poetryofinstagram

Happy publication to Remaindered People and Other Stories, (short stories) by Pratap Reddy, published by Guernica Editions. ? Reddy’s first collection Weather Permitting & Other Stories was centred on the predicament of new immigrants who are coping with the challenges they face immediately upon arrival in Canada. In this new collection, the focus is on the other side of immigration, exploring the often-neglected aspects: the plight of empty nesters left behind in India, parents compelled to immigrate with their adult children, about immigrants returning to their home country for good or for holiday, of people aspiring to migrate but falling by the wayside. Whatever the surrounding circumstances, all the stories are about people on the move, people who often don’t seem to know where they are headed. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gi7wd4C8 #immigrantstories #shortfiction #mississauga #shortstories #shortstory #shortstorywriter #litfic #canlit #bookishcanadians #bookishfeatures #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramcanada #readmorebooks #canadianauthors #canadianliterature #bookworms #shortstorycollection #shortstorywriting #writersofinstagram #readersgonnaread #readersofinstagram #canadianreaders #canadian

Happy release date to Your Devotee in Rags—a metamorphic sonic poetry LP created by Broken Social Scene’s Andrew Whiteman and cultural icon, Anne Waldman (The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment), released by Siren Recordings. Your Devotee in Rags is a missive to this age of patriarchal power, its songs and poems are designed to specifically confront that power and hold it to account. Taking such activist inspiration from musicians like Lido Pimienta and Tanya Tagaaq, musically YDIR blends acoustic and electronic genres, waltzes, laments, and Pauls Boutique-era Beastie Boys mash-ups all with the intent of creating a new artistic headspace: sonic poetry. The cultural direction is forward, the earbuds open up the stereo field, listening to YDIR is, in a word, empowering. Find out more about Your Devotee in Rags at sirenrecordings.com. Follow Siren Recordings here: @sirenrecordings #brokensocialscene #poetry #canlit #annewaldman #smashthepatriarchy #vinyl #music #canadianmusic #canadianband #newmusic #torontomusic #nycmusic #outnow #recordlabel #montrealmusic #poetrycommunity #poetrygram #spokenword #performer #listen #staycurious #newalbum

“The major achievement of RuFF (Latitude 46 Publishing, 2024) is the artful way in which author Rod Carley weaves the slender threads of historical fact into a broader fictional tapestry to create a raucously pun-driven tale of Elizabethan politics, theatre, magic, and mayhem. The novel features a relatively familiar cast of characters from the theatrical scene in that era, including William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Kit Marlowe, Richard Burbage, and Will Kempe. Women are given equal time in the form of Anne Hathaway, daughter Judith, and Magdalene Marbecke, known here as Maggie. Rounding out the motley crew are an assortment of allies, enemies, soldiers, peasants, peers, and political toadies – but most importantly, animals – specifically Shakespeare’s three-legged beagle, Biscuit; Judith’s cat, Gray-Malkin; and a crow named Cawdor.” —Steven Mayoff, River Street Reviewer-in-Residence, reviews RuFF by Rod Carley. Read the full review: https://lnkd.in/dFdxF-9t . . . #ruff #shakespeare #shakespearean #thespian #canlit #book #bookstagram #bookreview #bookreviewer #canadianbookstagrammers #canadianbooks #readersofig #bookishcanadians #humorwriting #bookreporter #ilovebooks #canadiannovels #historicalfiction #readersareleaders #canadianbookstagram #booklover #booknerd #bookcommunity

Forthcoming with Frontenac House Press, it’s award-winning author Bruce Hunter’s staggeringly beautiful novel, In the Bear’s House (May 23, 2025.) Request a review copy here: https://lnkd.in/gtHhDrva Set in 1960s Calgary and Alberta ‘s backcountry, this reissue of In the Bear’s House tells the story of a creative young mother, Clare Dunlop, raising her deaf son against the insurmountable odds of poverty, mental illness and hardship. The novel opens as seventeen-year-old Clare gives birth to her son, while her husband serves a penitentiary sentence for a serious crime. After contracting pneumonia, her infant son loses his hearing. Later, the young boy, nicknamed Trout, struggles to find his way until his 99-year-old auntie gives him a conch shell. For Trout, the conch becomes a literal and metaphorical hearing aid. He cannot hear the sea in the shell. Instead, he hears the mad sworl of the adult world around him full of contradictions and deceptions. Out of chaos, he finds clarity. At the death of his beloved auntie, Trout spirals out of control, getting into serious trouble at school and at home.His mother, challenged with chronic depression and the impending birth of her fifth child, sends 12 year old Trout to live with her deaf uncle, Jack, in the wilderness of historic Kootenay Plains. There, Trout thrives, finding adventure, connection, and belonging, with his forest ranger great-uncle and his musician wife. Trout learns the wisdom of survival, listening and observing, from the elders of his own Scottish clan and those of the nearby ?yarhe Nakoda. He bears witness to land theft from First Nations to build the controversial and environmentally ruinous Bighorn Dam. Despite its devastating sociological and ecological impact, the dam becomes Alberta’s largest reservoir and hydroelectric plant. Trout sees what others may not. Both the rugged beauty of the land, and especially its people, the destruction of their sacred places. homes and livelihoods. Disability becomes an unexpected gift of insight. In the Bear’s House is ultimately about listening to the wild and the wilderness, and what we lose when it’s gone. #bookishcanadians #riverstreetreads #canadianbooks #disabilityart #disabilityarts #bookstagram #bookstagramcommunity #bookstagramcanada #arcreaderswanted #litfic #canadianreader #canlit #disabilityawareness

On this NBN podcast, I speak with acclaimed author Ayelet Tsabari about her gorgeous debut novel, Songs for the Broken Hearted (HarperCollins Publishers, 2024). Listen to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/gXMkMeDJ Many people know of Ayelet from her memoir in essays The Art of Leaving, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards, a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and The Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019. Songs for the Broken Hearted tells the story of a young Yemeni Israeli woman who learns of her mother’s secret romance in a dramatic journey through lost family stories, revealing the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter. This is a salient exploration of the cost of secrets and the power of women’s voices. “In her new novel, Ayelet Tsabari’s craft is at its apex. Her characters are alive, the story skillfully structured, and the tragic, hidden history of Yemenite Jews expertly woven into the lives of people you will laugh with and shed tears for. To read this book is also to encounter an Israel and Palestine few of us are familiar with nowadays; when words like “peace” and “hope” were common, and nuance and complexity possible. A love song for a time long past, overflowing with emotional intelligence and psychological insight, Songs for the Brokenhearted will break your heart.” — Jonathan Garfinkel, author of In a Land without Dogs the Cats Learn to Bark and Ambivalence More about Ayelet: Ayelet Tsabari is the author of The Art of Leaving, finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2019. Her first book, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and has been published internationally. She’s the co-editor of the anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language and has taught creative writing at Guelph MFA in Creative Writing and The University of King’s College MFA. #yemeni #canlit #literature #bookpodcast #literaturelover #literaturepodcast #bookish #bookishpodcast #mothersanddaughters #bookstagram #bookstagramcanada #history #yemenihistory #culture #artsandletters #readersareleaders #staycurious #readtheworld

A powerful segment on CHCH. Scholar Daniel Coleman & Indigenous scholar Bonnie Freeman talk about two vital new books: Deyohahá:ge:: Sharing the River of Life & Grandfather of the Treaties: Finding our Future Through the Wampum Covenant. https://lnkd.in/gTKhp-ek #nonfiction #wampum #indigenous #canada

You Are Young I headed to the bathhouse nearest to my home, hoping to find some good company. In case I couldn’t, I brought a book, though once I took my place in the empty sauna, it sat unopened in my lap. I leaned back and felt sweat develop on my forehead. It was late in the autumn, which in Montreal meant that the air outside was always cold, even on days of bright sun. The heat of the sauna was novel and welcome. Another man came in a few minutes after I did. He carried a paper cup and took a seat on the lower row, beside my feet. From behind, I looked at his shoulders and the back of his neck, and the little drops of sweat instantly blooming from his skin. Though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was very young, maybe twenty; his body had that easy beauty, unearned and unwitting. After a few seconds, he held the cup up and poured water over his head. In a frisky voice, he went, “Aah.” The water darkened and flattened his shaggy blond hair. “Feels great in a hot room,” he said without turning around. ——from I Remember Lights by Ben Ladouceur. Published by Book*hug Press. ? 2025 by Ben Ladouceur. Read the full excerpt on our blog: https://lnkd.in/giKKtuzT More about I Remember Lights : The first novel from award-winning poet Ben Ladouceur, I Remember Lights (April 24, 2025) depicts a time when the world promised everything to everyone, however irresponsibly. In summer 1967, love is all you need… but some forms of love are criminal. As the spectacular Expo ’67 celebrations take shape, a young man new to Montreal learns about gay life from cruising partners, one-night stands, live-in lovers, and friends. Once Expo begins, he finds romance with a charismatic visitor, but their time is limited. When the fireworks wither into smoke, so do their options. A decade later, during the notorious 1977 police raid on a gay bar called Truxx, he comes to understand even more about the bitter choice, so often made by men like him, between happiness and safety. I Remember Lights is a vital reminder of forgotten history and a visceral exploration of the details of queer life: tribulation and joy, exile and solidarity, cruelty and fortitude. #books #writers #montreal #canadian #queerlit

River, Diverted is a wild and wonderfully dark and campy novel by Jamie Tennant, published by Palimpsest Press in 2022. I had a blast talking to Jamie about kappa, writing horror and humour, and was even treated to an unforgettably immersive and personally validating reading from the book. To listen to our conversation, head to the New Books Network Literature podcast: https://lnkd.in/gey56cQe More about River, Diverted: River Black found cult success writing slasher flicks but has grown increasingly disillusioned and unhappy. When a mysterious book appears in her mailbox, her life is turned upside down. River returns to Nagano, Japan, where the book originated, hoping to pay respects to old friends and revisit her past. Instead, she finds her memory is duplicitous, her reality is porous, and the mysterious book is more alive than she could have believed. River, Diverted is a dark fairy tale that explores the trickery of memory, the delicacy of friendship, the nature of creativity and the deliverance of hope. Filled with pop culture references and a deep love of monster movies, River, Diverted is both a light-hearted and subtly serious read that will captivate readers. About Jamie Tennant: Jamie Tennant is a writer and radio program director based in Hamilton, ON. A long-time music enthusiast, James has covered music and pop culture both locally and nationally. He is the Program Director at 93.3 CFMU at McMaster University, hosting two shows. In 2014, he was co-founder of the Hamilton Independent Media Awards. When he is not helping set up the JUNOs, being on the Grand Jury for the Polaris Prize, or blogging for the Fujirock festival in Japan, Tennant continues to write for several magazines and blogs; his 2009 article on rock band Simply Saucer was nominated for a National Magazine Award. He currently lives in Hamilton with his wife and son. The Captain of Kinnoull Hill is his debut novel. . . #canlit #podcast #bookpodcast #newbooksnetwork #horrobooks #kappa #humourwriting #humorwriting #canadianbooks #canadianbookstagram #amreading #bookstagram #bookstagramcanada #bookstagrammer #canadianbookstagram #canadianreader #canadianpublishing #japan

Join us in celebrating Siren Recordings—a digital, multimodal platform that operates as boutique, studio, and archive. ? Broken Social Scene’s Andrew Whiteman is the Creative Director of Siren, which seeks to connect scholars, artists, and lovers of sonic poetry in an online community. Next week the first album is being dropped: Your Devotee in Rags—a metamorphic sonic poetry LP between Andrew and icon Anne Waldman (The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment). The cultural direction is forward, the earbuds open up the stereo field, listening to Your Devotee in Rags is, in a word, empowering. Stay tuned here for more information! You can also follow Siren Recordings on Instagram here: @sirenrecordings. ??? And check out their website here: https://lnkd.in/gQyWeYRF . . . #brokensocialscene #poetry #canlit #annewaldman #smashthepatriarchy #vinyl #music #canadianmusic #canadianband #newmusic #torontomusic #nycmusic #outnow #recordlabel #montrealmusic #poetrycommunity #poetrygram #spokenword #performer #listen #staycurious #newalbum