I’ve spoken a few times about my role as President of the Board of Directors for The Writers’ Guild of Alberta. It’s a volunteer position that I feel very strongly about, and am so proud to have been a part of this board for four years now (going on five!). One of the best parts…
I’ve always been a fan of short story collections, especially because they are the ‘hidden gems’ of the literary world; not many them are published because they don’t typically sell very well. But it is my expert humble opinion that readers of all kinds should read short stories, so I’m always happy to profile them…
I’m torn about Melanie Mah’s The Sweetest One. The author has so much going for her book, that it’s hard for me not to love what she’s written. Firstly, she’s Albertan, so I’m excited to read any books written by a local author (she lives in Toronto now, but we won’t talk about that). Secondly,…
Before I dive into my review, I should come right out and say that the author Glenn Dixon is a friend of mine. I met him shortly after I moved to Calgary and I don’t know exactly how we came to be friends, but I do know that I would see him out at numerous…
If you were ever wondering how to pick up a maid in Statue Square, you will quickly find the answer to your question in Rea Tarvydas’s debut collection of short stories (whew, am I right?). Statue Square by the way, is a real place in Hong Kong, and I’ve tracked down an image of it…
Obviously this post is a bit late seeing as the Giller Prize has already been awarded to Madeleine Thien. But, right before the Calgary Giller Light party I recorded this segment for the CBC, and I don’t want to brag, but I did predict Thien winning. Her book wasn’t my first choice, but whatever, she’s…
Since I started this blog in 2013, I’ve made a few observations about the book blogging community as a whole. They are as follows: most of us love drinking tea while reading cats are our favourite animal we love holidays romance and YA bloggers are easy to find and are very passionate about these genres…
What do you think of, when you think of Canmore, Alberta? Mountains most likely, lots of tourists, old white people in hiking boots, etc. Do you ever think of graphic novels? Or kids books? Well you should start, because Canmore is not only home to Olympic athletes, it’s home to the publisher Renegade Arts Entertainment…
One of my Presidential duties at the Writers’ Guild of Alberta includes attending very fun events to represent our organization. Last night, the Calgary Awards was a perfect example of this. The WGA partners with the city to present the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, so we always make an appearance at the event to help…
Wow, I’ve made a big mistake. I waited way too damn long to read this book. Fishbowl by Bradley Somer came out in 2015, has won a bunch of awards since then, and I still didn’t read it until last week, right before I was slated to talk about it on the radio. What was…
My fixation on Alberta writers comes with good reason. I’m on the board for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta yo! Their mission is to connect, encourage, inspire, promote and support Alberta writers and their writing, so it would be a down right travesty if I didn’t feature them on one of my radio segments this…
In honour of the recent Alberta Book Awards being given out, I wanted to highlight another wonderful book I just finished by an award-winning Alberta author Joan Crate. Black Apple follows a young Aboriginal girl named Sinopaki as she is forcefully taken from her family and brought to the residential school of St. Mark’s. Throughout…
