Book Reviews, Reading Room, What's New

The Fun Times Brigade  by Lindsay Zier-Vogel Book*hug Press 362 pages $25 This spring, at the start of my maternity leave, I had the pleasure of reading Lindsay Zier-Vogel’s second novel, The Fun Times Brigade. It wasn’t my first baby, but I’d somehow forgotten so much about the newborn phase: how tough it is to […]

Book Reviews, Reading Room, What's New

Crohnic  by Jason Purcell Arsenal Pulp Press 104 pages $20 In Jason Purcell’s sophomore poetry collection, Crohnic, we are invited into an intimate exploration of the author’s treatment for Crohn’s disease (reflected in the collection’s clever title), alongside reflections on the simultaneity of life and decay, the queering of the natural world, and what it […]

Book Reviews, Reading Room, What's New

Parade of Storms by Evelyn Lau Anvil Press 76 pages $18 In her tenth poetry collection, former Vancouver poet laureate Evelyn Lau places weather at the forefront, interweaving reflections on grief, illness, and mortality. Divided into five sections, Lau’s work explores not only the tempests of nature but also inner turbulences—the sorrow, vulnerability, and upheavals […]

Book Reviews, Reading Room, What's New

Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Maggie Helwig Coach House Books 176 pages $25 In Encampment, a hard-hitting, soft-spoken melee of memoir, homily, and exposé, Maggie Helwig lays bare Toronto’s homelessness crisis and the systems underpinning it. With frustration, understanding, and remarkably little judgement, Helwig—a priest and activist—paints a picture of a vibrant, […]