Adam Pottle writes poems about drug-related shootings, amputee sex swingers and institutionalized adolescents coerced into sterilization (Beautiful Mutants, Caitlin Press); Daniel Jones relays his experiences of drinking and publishing (The Brave Never Write Poetry, Coach House); and Jacob McArthur Mooney illuminates airplane crashes off the coast of Nova Scotia (Folk, McClelland & Stewart).
Beauty Plus Pity follows a slacker twentysomething Asian-Canadian model whose life is suddenly derailed by the death of his filmmaker father and the betrayal of his fiancée (Kevin Chong, Arsenal Pulp Press); and Don’t Shoot! We’re Republicans! chronicles the life of an FBI agent who rebels by wearing loafers instead of wingtips, long hair instead of a crew cut (Jack Owens, History Publishing).
Velazquez dies (Killing Velazquez, Philippe Girard, Conundrum Press,); truth is told (Truth Be Told, Larry King, Viking Canada); outrageous ticket prices and service charges are dissected (Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped, Josh Baron and Dean Budnick, ECW); a guide to cashing in is written (Rock the Audition: How to Prepare for and Get Cast in Rock Musicals, Sheri Sanders, Hal Leonard Books).
Brian Henderson explores the post-apocalypse (Sharawadji, Brick Books); Kevin McNeilly intertwines the lineages of trumpet players (Embouchure, Nightwood); and Jude Neale meditates on despair and longing and mothers struggling with bipolar illness (Only the Fallen Can See, Leaf Press).
A boy named Idaho Winter discovers there’s a girl at school who likes him and that he has the power to destroy the world (Idaho Winter, Tony Burgess, ECW); a young squirrel fights against starvation and for Central Park (Beasts of New York: A Children’s Book For Grown-ups, Jon Evans, Porcupine’s Quill); and galactic corporations and terrorist plots threaten the peace (Days of Iron, Russell Proctor, self-published).
America’s most secret domestic military facility is explored (Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, Annie Jacobsen, Little, Brown); a list of things you can’t do while handcuffed is revealed (Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War, James Loney, Knopf); and memory and imagination converge (The Perimeter Dog, Julie Vandervoort, Libros Libertad).
Two brothers embark on a midday bender that changes their lives forever (Glass Boys, Nicole Lundrigan, Douglas & McIntyre); Alistair MacLeod accuses Douglas Gibson of a home invasion (Douglas Gibson, Stories About Storytellers, ECW); and an obscure company offers custom-designed suicides for its clients—just as long as their desire to die is pure and absolute (Exit, Nelly Arcan, Anvil Press).
Latest Comments