Feel inspired by the #NobelPrize in Literature to explore #AnneCarson 's writings, or read about her in comparison to other authors of #CanadianLiterature ? Our collection offers a great starting point!
(We got more but some books are already with eager readers!)
#canadianliterature — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #canadianliterature, aggregated by home.social.
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Ajisai and Azami: two books by Aki Shimazaki
- Azami by Aki Shimazaki (2014) French title: Azami.
- Ajisai by Aki Shimazaki (2025) French title: Ajisai
Aki Shimazaki was born in Japan in 1954 and emigrated to Canada in 1981. She first lived in Vancouver and Toronto before settling in Montreal. She writes books in French, all set in Japan. I don’t think that her books are translated into English but they are easy to read in French if you know the language.
She writes novella pentalogies. I already read and reviewed Le poids des secrets (The Weight of Secrets)
I have read Azami, the first volume of the L’ombre du chardon pentalogy. (The Shadow of Thistle) and Ajisai, the first volume of a new pentalogy.
Azami is set in Nagoya. Mitsuo is in his thirties, married to Atsuko. They have two children. He works as an editor at a newspaper. Their marriage is comfortable but sexless and Mitsuo finds an outlet in pink salons. Atsuko inherited a piece of land in the country and is developing a business of market gardening. She’s spending more and more time in their country house to oversee the growing of vegetables.
One day Mitsuo stumbles upon an old school mate in charge of school reunions and rekindles his acquaintance with him. This leads him to his old school crush, Mitsuko.
The recipe is the same as in the previous pentalogy: each volume is about one character’s story and their entwined stories. I liked Azami but not enough to want to read the next four books.
Ajisai was published in 2025 and the second book Mukudori went out in 2026. It is set in Tokyo and Kamakura. Shôta is a studying literature at the university. Shôta is a brilliant student, his teacher encourages him to start a PhD. He’s also an aspiring writer. He wants to write a story about Mrs Ajisai, a koto teacher who falls for her student.
When his parents’ department store goes under, he needs to find a job since his parents can’t afford to pay for his tuition and living expenses anymore. He starts tutoring Mr and Mrs Oda’s son in Kamakura. The job comes with free lodgings in a pavilion on the property.
Mrs Oda is a pianist and they bond over music, even if Shôta stopped playing years ago. Their relationship morphs into a liaison. There’s something about Mme de Rênal in Mrs Oda but Aki Shimazaki doesn’t remain on the obvious path with her characters. And it ends on a cliffhanger, contrary to her other books.
Aki Shimazaki always has characters that are nice but not too much. Quiet, melancholic but also bold. The stories are original as the characters have something out of the ordinary but not too much. Her style is simple, rather poetic and made of short sentences. It’s easy, soothing and a great kind of book to turn to after the chaos or the violence of another read.
Still. I wonder why all her books are set in a country she left 45 years ago and if they are still attuned to the people and the country after so many years of living abroad. Her pentalogy concept felt fresh when I read Le poids des secrets, it feels a bit formulaic now, even if the stories are good.
I enjoyed both Azami and Ajisaï but even if I understand the pentalogy concept, all the books are novellas, which means that readers have to get five small books to read the whole series and it can be pricey, unless you find them at the library. Actes Sud published the previous pentalogies in omnibus collections, binge reading of a pentalogy is now possible.
Her books are set in Japan but she writes in French and is Canadian. And these books had been on the TBR for a while. So…
#2010s #2020s #21stCentury #CanadianLiterature #Japan #Novella #QuebecLiterature -
Hamilton, help us celebrate tonight! Join Wendy Waring and guest David Neil Lee for the launch of THE HUNGER OF THOSE WHO BUILT IT. Come for readings, conversation, free refreshments, and a greener future worth fighting for!
Sept. 10, 7–9 p.m.
The City & The City Books, 181 Ottawa St. N.#TheHungerOfThoseWhoBuiltIt #WendyWaring #DavidNeilLee #BookLaunch #HamiltonEvents #HamOnt #CanadianLiterature #CanLit #SmallPress #EcoFiction #ClimateFiction #Solarpunk #AuthorReading #StelliformPress
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Wendy Waring is taking THE HUNGER OF THOSE WHO BUILT IT on tour! Join us Sept 10 at The City & The City, Sept 13 at Supercrawl, and Sept 18 online at Flights of Foundry. Come imagine what we might build beyond the status quo. The novel arrives Sept. 17!
#TheHungerOfThoseWhoBuiltIt #WendyWaring #StelliformPress #BookTour #CanadianLiterature #ClimateFiction #Solarpunk #SpeculativeFiction #EcoFiction #IndiePublishing #HamiltonOntario #Supercrawl #FlightsOfFoundry
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We're gearing up for Supercrawl and hope to see you there! Don't miss events at the Authors Tent at the Wolsak & Wynn office at 280 James North. For this Sept 13 panel on fantastical lit, Wendy Waring joins authors Ai Jiang and Gary Barwin in a chat moderated by Lynne Sargent.
#Supercrawl #HamiltonOntario #HamOnt #CanadianLiterature #CanLit #SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks #AuthorPanel #LiteraryEvents #IndiePublishing #SmallPress #StelliformPress #WolsakAndWynn
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Hamilton, let’s celebrate! Join Wendy Waring and guest David Neil Lee for the launch of THE HUNGER OF THOSE WHO BUILT IT. Come for readings, conversation, free refreshments, and a greener future worth fighting for!
Sept. 10, 7–9 p.m.
The City & The City Books, 181 Ottawa St. N.#TheHungerOfThoseWhoBuiltIt #WendyWaring #DavidNeilLee #BookLaunch #HamiltonEvents #HamOnt #CanadianLiterature #CanLit #SmallPress #EcoFiction #ClimateFiction #Solarpunk #AuthorReading #StelliformPress
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Coming up this weekend! Authors-in-the-Park, Sunday August 23 at Victoria Park, Hamilton, 1-5 p.m. Come by to check out offerings from Hamilton's indie lit scene and meet local authors. Wendy Waring will be at the Stelliform tent with her book fresh off the printer! The festival is free to all.
#AuthorsInThePark #HamOnt #HamiltonEvents #HamiltonAuthors #HamiltonArts #SmallPress #SupportSmallPress #CanadianAuthors #CanadianLiterature #CanLit #CanadianBooks #OntarioAuthors #ReadLocal
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2) The new volume of aspeers - the renowned, peer-reviewed journal by grad students of #AmericanStudies at Uni Leipzig - looks at "Spaces of Resistance" in #USPolitics & film, #hiphop #nostalgia, #quietquitting discourse & #AmericanLiterature & #CanadianLiterature
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Coming up soon! Authors-in-the-Park, Sunday August 23 at Victoria Park, Hamilton, 1-5 p.m. Come by to check out offerings from Hamilton's indie lit scene and meet local authors. Wendy Waring will be at the Stelliform tent with her book fresh off the printer! The festival is free to all.
#AuthorsInThePark #HamOnt #HamiltonEvents #HamiltonAuthors #HamiltonArts #SmallPress #SupportSmallPress #CanadianAuthors #CanadianLiterature #CanLit #CanadianBooks #OntarioAuthors #BookEvent #ReadLocal
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Save the date! On Sept 10, 7-9pm, join us for the launch of Wendy Waring's THE HUNGER OF THOSE WHO BUILT IT. In honour of this debut Parisian eco-thriller we'll have a reading, great conversation, and free refreshments hosted by The City & The City Books in Hamilton. See you there!
#ThrillerBooks #EcoThriller #BookLaunch #AuthorEvent #CanadianLiterature #CanLit #IndieBooks #SmallPress #HamiltonOntario #HamOnt #HamiltonEvents #StelliformPress
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A wonderful little interview dropped yesterday from the British Columbia Review. If you loved Rebecca Campbell's ARBOREALITY and THE OTHER SHORE, you'll love this insight into her writing and its connection to the Cowichan Valley, BC. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/72xiymP8M4c
#RebeccaCampbell #Arboreality #TheOtherShore #ClimateFiction #CliFi #SpeculativeFiction #WeirdFiction #EcoFiction #CanadianLiterature #Bookstodon #SFF #IndiePress #SmallPress #EnvironmentalWriting #ForestStories
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What does it (or can it) really mean to decide for or against #Motherhood in this day and age is the question Sheila Heti grapples with in her 2018 book of the same name
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REVIEW: Falling Into Sinkhole (Jake Beka, 2026) | 🔗 https://brennan.day/review-falling-into-sinkhole-jake-beka-2026/
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Latest on the blog: a short poem by the father of Canadian poetry, Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts.
Set in the cold and silent month of February, "The Brook in February" captures the tension between winter’s stillness and the hidden vitality of the coming spring.
As always, vocabulary exercise included!
https://grammaticus.blog/2026/02/25/the-brook-in-february-roberts/
#poem #poetry #canada #canadianliterature #winter #february #englishteacher #learningenglish
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Sharp Words Winter Book Fair is coming! We'll be there on Saturday, January 31st from 11 to 5 pm, down at Bridgeworks at 200 Caroline Street North. Come by for panels, artists, authors, and the best selection of indie books to top up your winter TBR. Check Sharpwords.ca for updates!
#BookFair #IndieBookFair #BookMarket #SmallPress #BookEvents #OntarioEvents #HamOnt #HamOntEvents #CanadianLiterature #CanLit
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The City & The City posted their 2025 bestsellers and we love to see a Stelliform book on the list! Also of note: the book is on the list because it is great, yes, but also because The City & The City read and loved it and recommended it and made it a bookclub feature. Indie bookstores are THE BEST.
#indiebooks #indiebookstores #bestseller #lynnhutchinsonlee #originsofdesireinorchidfens #bestof2025 #canadianbooks #canadianliterature #canlit #canadianauthor #books #bookstodon #booklover
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CFS as food studies matchmaker? Yep! We’re putting together a book review and a memoir for your weekend reading pleasure…
https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v1i2.57What are the true costs of an industrial food system? How can we get a better perspective by taking both an insider and outsider look at farming?
Try pairing Rita Hansen Sterne’s review of Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat by (Philip Lymbery and Isabel Oakeshott) with poet and journalist Brian Brett’s Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life.
While the former unpacks cheap meat, the latter takes us to small, mixed farm on Salt Spring Island (BC). But should you name an animal you are going to eat? Brett’s solution is to give them all interchangeable names, rather than assign one to each individual. His pigs go by Bacon, Eggs, and Toast.
Bonne lecture!
#FoodStudies
#FoodBooks
#CanadianLiterature
#IndustrialFood
#AgriFood
#FactoryFarming
#Farming
#Pork
#Pigs
#Bacon
#Eggs
#Toast
#Farmaggedon
#PhilipLymery
#IsabelOakeshott
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ICYMI: there was a lovely review of Rebecca Campbell's THE OTHER SHORE in Brief Ecology, a newsletter focusing on environmental news - not just what's happening but also what we can do. It's definitely worth checking out.
Here's a link to Brief Ecology #22, where you can find more about THE OTHER SHORE: https://www.briefecology.com/p/no-desert-data-centers-climate-impacts
#rebeccacampbell #theothershore #shortstories #shortstorycollection #canlit #canadianliterature #canadianauthor #speculativefiction #sffh #bookstodon #books
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4 doctoral scholarships at the Graduate School of the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at @freieuniversitaet
Deadline: 31 Jan, 2026https://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/en/graduateschool/news/2025-11-14_CfA-2025.html
#AmericanStudies #CanadianStudies #CulturalStudies #AmericanLiterature #CanadianLiterature #scholarship
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At CanCon this weekend? Find us in the vendor room throughout the con, as well as at the Friday night publisher party, pitch sessions, and the "Publisher Red Flags" panel on Saturday.
Don't miss Stelliform authors Geoffrey W. Cole, Mahaila Smith, and Lynn Hutchinson Lee on panels all weekend.
#cancon #cancon2025 #canadiansf #canadianfantasy #canadianhorror #canadianauthors #canlit #canadianliterature #sffh #bookmarket #bookfair #ottawa #ottawaevents
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Alice Munro's "Lives of Girls and Women" impressed me.
Whether one thinks of it as a set of linked short stories or as novel, the book clearly belongs to that line of North American fictions representing slices of small town life of which Sherwood Anderson's "Winesberg Ohio" is a notable early example.
Munro's work includes sharp observations of female friendship, mother daughter relations, and the limits of provincial cultural life. One story depicts a middle aged man engaged in unsolicited sexual display in front of the young female protagonist; this scene is at once utterly grotesque and totally unforgettable.
I'd strongly recommend "Lives of Girls and Women" . Unfortunately, you will almost certainly not be as lucky as me when I picked up my Penguin copy for a dollar!
#Books #ShortStories #AliceMunro #CanadianLiterature #Fiction #NorthAmericanLiterature #LiteratureInEnglish
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An intimate, powerful story of love, loss, and resilience in a world forever changed by war, The Bittersweet Year, now has its very own site.
http://thebittersweetyear.pagy.site
#HistoricalFiction #WWI #SpanishFlu #LoveAndLoss #BookThread #TheBittersweetYear
#CanadianLiterature #Bookstodon -
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜'𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: "𝗝𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘆𝗳𝗶𝘀𝗵" 𝗯𝘆 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗺 (𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗮 𝗟𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲-𝗚𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁) -
This graphic novel takes on the challenge of progressive vision loss on a non-binary protagonist who has other challenges. I know little else about it except highly recommended by many for its approach to disability.
#books #bookworm #readreadread #tbr #tbrpile #tbrlist #reading #boum #samanthalerichegionet #jellyfish #canadianliterature #graphicnovel #disability #visionloss
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A Cultural History of Canada
If you're at all interested in #CanadianHistory and #CanadianLiterature (and sometimes pop culture), definitely check out this podcast. It goes into great detail without being at all boring.
https://www.patreon.com/c/historiacanadiana/
(Patreon link, but you can find them on any podcast app.) -
Rush of Wingspan (McGill-Queen's University Press) is forthcoming in March 2026. Today is the cover reveal.
https://eleonoreschonmaier.com/2025/06/26/cover-reveal/
#poetry #nature #music #piano #environmentalism #lovepoems #canadianliterature #wildlife
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Good Morning #Canada
And Happy #CanadaDay. The news media posts today show a distinct trend about Canadian patriotism. Increased interest in our history, record levels of flag sales and prominent display on homes, and elbows up everywhere. Back in 1982, Pierre Berton released a book titled "Why We Act Like Canadians" that connected our history with our culture. Read this review and see if it still resonates today.#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianLiterature
https://thecaptivereader.com/2010/08/16/why-we-act-like-canadians-pierre-berton/ -
Coming up at 6pm on June 27 at L’Eugélionne the Feminist Bookstore: Seed Beetle + Fire Cider Rain Poetry reading! Come to 1426 Beaudry, in Montréal for a beautiful and thought-provoking evening with poets Mahaila Smith and Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin.
#poetry #canadianpoetry #canadianpoet #canlit #canadianliterature #speculativepoetry #sciencefictionpoetry #narrativepoetry #canadianbooks #canadianauthors #books #smallpress #bookstodon