The title of Carleton Wilson's debut poetry book, The Material Sublime, contains an apparent contradiction that is central to the collection's aim--to investigate how the intangible, spiritual sphere of existence is connected with the material world of nature and human society. With finely honed, immaculate craftsmanship and an extraordinary abilit …

Few figures in Canadian history have attained such an iconic status as Louis Riel. Celebrated Metis poet Gregory Scofield takes a fresh look at Riel in his new collection, Louis: The Heretic Poems, challenging traditional conceptions of Riel as simply a folk hero and martyr. By juxtaposing historical events and quotes with the poetic narrative, Sco …

In Kerosene, her debut book of poetry, Jamella Hagen weaves individual memories into a narrative that charts the process of orientation and growing maturity within shifting geographical locations.

Patterned on the author's own experience, the collection follows the story of a young woman's life, encompassing the beauty and harshness of a childhood s …

Ready, set, solve! Tipping the scales at 100 puzzles with over 10,000 clues, this is the largest O Canada Crosswords volume in over a decade! Featuring Canadian and fun-themed puzzles and packed with more wordplay and Canadiana than ever before, O Canada Crosswords 12 will satisfy diehard fans of the series and newcomers alike.

Long-time Canadian cr …

"I grew up in a blue-collar town ten minutes down the road from a white-collar town. And I've spent most of my life uncomfortable in both places."

With these opening words, accomplished poet Tim Bowling outlines the central tension that acts as a vital force in his newest book, Tenderman—the dichotomy between the sensitive poetic observer and the …

Joe Denham's debut novel The Year of Broken Glass follows struggling crab fisherman Francis "Ferris" Wichbaun's journey across the Pacific Ocean to deliver a legendary glass fishing float to an enigmatic, high-paying collector. Against a backdrop of worldwide seismic devastation, Ferris is forced to confront increasing concern for his two families- …

Kevin McNeilly's debut poetry collection, Embouchure, compiles the intertwined lineages of trumpet players who came to prominence in the States during the "pre-bop" era, loosely defined as the period between 1890 and 1939. This series of vignettes betrays a broad and detailed knowledge of the players' lives and work, yet reads like a collection of …

What would you do if your child was a furry feral creature or your new love interest a potential serial killer (or worse, a fictitious cliché)? In The Odious Child, Carolyn Black invents her own blend of urban fantasy, crafting a unique storyscape that she populates with a series of mostly nameless figures who are trapped in social roles that they …

Sex, booze, war and wordplay collide loquaciously in Err, the latest collection from innovative and accomplished poet Shane Rhodes. Equally amusing and stunning with his joyful manipulation of language and his stark portrayals of disease and oppression, Rhodes tackles everything from AIDS to martinis with style, wit and clarity.

The book is divided …

Earworm, the second book from acclaimed poet Nick Thran, expertly combines wicked cleverness, adept craftsmanship and a uniquely insightful perspective in an entertaining yet substantial tour de force. Building on the success of his debut, Thran has enhanced his compelling pop culture rhythms and distinctive voice with bolder formal experimentation …

Catch Canucks fever and celebrate over 40 years of Vancouver Canucks hockey! This must-have collection—jam-packed with 80 pages of puzzles, crosswords, games, trivia, facts and fun for towel-waving fans of all ages—will have you Luu-ing and riding your stick like Tiger Williams in no time. From Harold and the Steamer to Gino and the Russian Roc …

From far and wide O Canada Crosswords returns with the eleventh book in this ever popular series of Canuck-themed puzzles. Crossword enthusiasts will delight in this test of word-wit. Fun, smart, original and often humorous wordplays have made the series wildly popular, and the latest instalment is no exception. From universal topics to clues that …

Christian McPherson's debut novel The Cube People pokes fun at government cubicle culture through the life and times of a struggling computer programmer/novelist wannabe. McPherson surrounds his protagonist, Colin MacDonald, with a cast of screwball characters while he toils away at his government job, struggles with fertility and dreams of becomin …

In this eagerly anticipated follow-up to his award-winning, critically lauded debut, Rob Winger's sophomore collection, The Chimney Stone, bends the contemporary lyric into startling new shapes. Concentrating on a splendid mess of headlines, wars, politics, relationships and artistic influences, Winger's ghazals ask us how to negotiate the complex …

In Triny Finlay's second collection of poetry, she asks what it means to let in the ghosts of the past. Will memories loosen the frame of a life? Will subtle fears take over? Finlay plumbs the depths of family life as she negotiates the territories of ancestry, love, and new motherhood: a great-grandmother who went to bed for seventeen years; a lov …

Patternicity contains a suite of poems that won a 2008 CBC Literary Award and follows the author's debut book of poems, The Velocity of Escape (Guernica Editions, 2008). As a physiologist currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, Johnstone's work is informed by a scientific approach, his own corporeal environment and an explorati …

"I have to wonder why poets are always expected to write exactly what they wrote the last time they wrote a poem. So I wrote the poems a little differently this time. That's okay too."
- MillAr, interview published in The Danforth Review

Jay MillAr's poetry resists classification. This book, being a collection of Other Poems, is an assemblage of see …

To sketch Vancouver
From dawn until dark.
From Spanish Banks
To Stanley Park

As young artist Marina explores Vancouver from dawn to dusk, she records her impressions in her sketchbook. From Stanley Park to Granville Island, from Horseshoe Bay to Chinatown, Marina delights in the diversity of this West Coast city and brings its colourful spirit to li …

Everyone's welcome
At the Seaweed Cafe,
Where seaweed tea
Is served all day...

If you've ever played restaurant, made mud pies or hosted an imaginary tea party, you'll welcome an invitation to the The Seaweed Cafe for an evening of song, storytelling and dance. A perfect bedtime book, Down at the Seaweed Cafe's sunken treasure, sea monsters and tsun …

Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon, the follow-up to Ray Hsu's award-winning first collection, Anthropy, is the second book in a prospective trilogy that explores the "grammar of personhood."

Whereas Anthropy approached the human condition through the prism of first-, second- and third-person perspectives, Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon uses the grammat …

How do we reconcile story with fact? What must one lose for the other to exist? In this debut collection, Rowe explores the nature of mythology and how it morphs in time to retain cultural and personal significance. Folk tales, supernatural creatures, family histories and personal elegies come together to expose the cohabitation of the dead and the …

Windstorm is a passport to the place where chaos and form meet; Denham's timeless ethereal gaze is rooted in the mastery of poetic forms such as the sonnet and Dante's terza rima. These quiet, forceful poems explore heaven, earth and sea with arresting images, ideas and words. Like the wind, Denham's poetry has the power to move.

in the windsong. T …

These fun, easy-to-understand puzzles and quizzes are perfect for fans of all ages who will be challenged and intrigued by the variety of skill-testing questions about hockey and all of its leagues.

Sudoclues test readers' knowledge of players' jersey numbers to help readers fill in sudoku grids.
Lost Teams is a word search with a twist--readers m …

"Red Nest is a deeply political book without the cant. This first book argues passionately for the interconnectedness of all our everyday actions with the larger, political and cosmic forces shaping the destiny of our species. It's got the scope of Whitman, the sensuality of Keats, the ferocity of Kathy Acker and Sylvia Plath."
—Suzanne Buffam

Ent …

This is the tenth book in the bestselling O Canada Crosswords series. This new volume offers 50 new cleverly-themed puzzles featuring snappy titles, tricky wordplay and other tests of mental agility. As usual there is plenty of Canadian flavour to make the Canuck solver feel right at home.

New puzzles include:

Monkey Business
Working for CN
Don't Bo …

Like his attempts to swim over the dark water of the river that lies between him and the object of his affections, twelve-year-old Dougaldo Montmigny struggles against oppression, homophobia and racism to realise his love for Tomahawk Clark, a thirteen-year-old Metis boy, during a summer destined to become a painful lesson on love and desire.

Like s …

Written in the near absence of creative works by Ukrainian Canadians of her generation, God of Missed Connections is a breakthrough collection by one of Canada's leading young poets. This book is profound, devastating, and draws on Ukraine's brave and bloody history as a means to explore the author's place in the contemporary world.

"This book expl …

The first anthology of urban Aboriginal songs by Gregory Scofield is a retrospective of the award-winning poet's pivotal work to date. The word kipocihkan is Cree slang for someone who is mute or unable to speak, and charted in this book is Scofield's journey out of that silence to become one of the most powerful voices of our time.

"I make offerin …

In this collection, husbands and wives stumble into each other at the end of days, children find the wild edges of suburbs, new mothers try to navigate through a map-less terrain, and a relentless epidemic of bugs eats away at the forest. The collection explores new territory, both physically and emotionally--relocation, the north, new marriage and …

From the salmon fishing grounds to the Special Collections library, from the vanishing rural world of pheasant hunting and canning along the banks of the Fraser River to the deck of the Titanic and the famous book collector's tragic fate, Tim Bowling's startling and powerful eighth collection of poems moves seamlessly between the riches of nature a …

Shortlisted for the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry

Shortlisted for the Relit Award for Poetry

Philip Kevin Paul's first book, Taking the Names Down from the Hill won the 2004 Dorothy Livesay Award for Poetry. In Little Hunger, his second book for the WSÁ,NEC (Saanich) Nation of Vancouver Island, Paul continues to draw upon the ric …

Letters I Didn't Write is a contemplative collection of poems imbued with a sense of longing for opportunities lost and lives unfulfilled. Acclaimed poet John Mackenzie explores a sweeping range of subjects, from the tragedies of war to the musings of a discouraged physics major to the violent end of Spanish poet Federico Garc�a Lorca. At the …

Macleod and Olson's puzzles are ingrained with accents of Canadian culture, and are infused with humour:

House party (NDP)
Liberal-minded guy (DION)
Lame excuse (BUM LEG)
Pet peeve (FLEA)

"I really enjoyed the humour and challenge of these (O Canada 8) puzzles. Please tell me you plan to publish more."

-Brenda, B.C.

Following on the heels of the bests …

Longlisted for the 2009 Relit Award for the novel

Jarod Palmer is a 32-year-old Toronto writer waiting for his big break--though a small one will do. Haunted by his story of tragic teenage sweethearts in smalltown Nova Scotia--featuring the unforgettable Lana Banana--Jarod is infected by the ancient mariner's curse on all young unpublished novelists …

Repose, the striking new work by award-winning poet Adam Getty, is technically flawless, philosophically refreshing and naturally phrased.

Repose is an exploration of the definition of cultural freedom; it is a pointed look at an obsession with production, and a comparison of the natural and urban environments that shape our lives. Getty argues that …

"Living Things thrives." –George Elliott Clarke, Halifax Chronicle-Herald

Written in the year after the birth of Matt Rader's first daughter, Living Things honestly introduces the contradictions of the modern world: "how what we see in daylight is less than whole / and also more so." Using words in lieu of sonar, these poems bounce off the ecology …

Winner of the 2008 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
Finalist for the 2008 Asian American Literary Award

Rita Wong's new collection of poems explores how ecological crises relate to the injustices of our international political landscape. Querying the relations between writing and other forms of action, Wong seeks a shift in consciousness through poems t …

Winner of the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize

In her debut collection of poems, Birch Split Bark, Diane Guichon uses a quintessentially Canadian image -- a birch bark canoe -- to speak of those private waters that make us universally human. By writing in the first person of a father, a mother, a son and a daughter, she bridges age to gender …

A puzzle a day keeps the boredom away! And these are no ordinary puzzles. These 75 cleverly themed crosswords include themes like "Prefix-ation," "Prime Mini$ter$" and "Let it Snow." Many of the clues use tricky wordplay and are all about Canada: Child of Chibougamau? (enfant). Saturday night live group? (NHL). With Canadian spellings, Canadian per …

Somewhere between joyous affirmation of British Columbia's splendour and momentous grief for the destruction of a once thriving salmon culture comes the newest work from acclaimed poet and novelist Tim Bowling. The Lost Coast is a lyrical, impassioned lament for the home Bowling once knew and for the river and creatures that continue to haunt his i …

2008 Winner of the Acorn-Plantos Award for People's Poetry

The Love Song of Laura Ingalls Wilder is an unusual collection of poems that combines craft, innovation, humour and down-to-earth insight in a focused and riveting read that will charm poetry buffs of every stripe.

The poems in The Love Song of Laura Ingalls Wilder subversively and imaginativ …

Shortlisted for the 2008 Relit Award for Fiction

Dirty pool halls, greasy restaurants, suburban skateboarder showdowns, and dangerous drug dens--some things in life just aren't very subtle.

And neither are the short stories in Six Ways to Sunday. In fact, they brashly make out with subtlety's teenage crush, beat subtlety into the sidewalk, take a dum …

Shortlisted for the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Atlantic Poetry Prize

George Murray proves once again he is one of his generation's most accomplished poets with The Rush to Here. Diverging from the excess and declamation of his highly praised previous collection, The Hunter, Murray breaks new poetic ground in poems that are dangerous, sharp a …

Shortlisted for the 2007 Governor General's Award for Poetry
Shortlisted for the 21st Annual Trillium Book Award for Poetry in English
Finalist for an Ottawa Book Award

Part history, part invention, Muybridge's Horse is a sensual biographical long poem that follows the career of Eadweard Muybridge, a nineteenth-century British-born photographer whos …

The Cold Panes of Surfaces is the moving second collection of poems from award-winning author Chris Banks.

Rooted in the pastoral tradition of Wordsworth, Frost and Wallace Stevens, The Cold Panes of Surfaces describes the Southern Ontario landscape of trains, lakes, moose and pine with unflinchingly sharp image and metaphor. In so doing, he brings …

"Recommended... 3 stars out of 4."
-Stephanie Yamniuk, CM Magazine.

Since its publication in 1993, thousands of children have enjoyed the whimsical text and illustrations of The Ferryboat Ride and its companion volume, The Ferryboat Ride Colouring Book. These bestselling titles have garnered praise from teachers, parents and young people, with more …

Drawing on Canadian geography, culture, history, politics and even national pastimes like hockey, Kathleen Hamilton creates puzzles that celebrate Canadian identity. With their recognizable folkart covers and uniquely Canadian content, Hamilton's O Canada Crosswords books have garnered a devoted fan base of crossword aficionados from coast to coast …

"Matthew Holmes brings us to the end of his rope with a nuanced precision... we are not tethered by what he hitches us to, for as he writes, generously, 'the premise of tying' is, yes and ever, 'to untie.'"
-- Er�n Moure

"A solid debut distinguished by Holmes' far-ranging versatility."
-- Steven Heighton

Hitch is the first collection from New Br …

Shortlisted for the 2007 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award

"Satisfying and resonant... John Degen has written a very fine book—rarely is an uninvited guest so enjoyable."
— Steven Galloway, The Globe and Mail

"The Uninvited Guest offers a fictional and philosophical lens on a wide range of subjects from the lives of professional hockey …

a blewointment book

"bill bissett is my astral twin."
--Margaret Atwood

Many of Canada's most renowned poets salute a national treasure in this poetic tribute to bill bissett. bissett has been a landmark on the Canadian literary scene since the 1960s, renowned as much for his fascinating life as for his poetics. He is best known for his anti-conventi …