Skip to content Skip to navigation

Books

Books

Here is where we’ll bring you coverage of books. General criticism, reading lists, editorial picks, and much more!

Brian Bartlett's Reading Recommendation

For many years I’ve immediately re-read poetry books. Some collections pull me back for a deeper appreciation of their language, music and structures; others I find disappointing and frustrating, yet I remain curious enough to give them a second go. Immediate re-reading, however, rarely carries over into my experiences of novels or books of non-fiction (now and then I do read back through short-story collections right away).

J Brooke's Reading Recommendations

My wife and I moved during the pandemic, from the historic house in a former whaling village where we raised our kids to a late 20th Century human terrarium along a river. Every day since moving-in four months ago, I take advantage of the myriad pathways that wind through the woods along the side of our new habitat not facing the river, traversing a couple miles per wander in bucolic bliss. I have seen fox, heard coyotes, come upon wild turkeys congregating in groups larger than I’d imagined turkeys mingled. Neighbors report black bears, but I’ve so far been spared those encounters.

Shirley Harshenin's Book Recommendations

Shirley Harshenin writes from her home in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. She believes in angels, caffeine, and the human spirit’s extraordinary resilience. Her work has been published in Room Magazine, Contrary Magazine, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Entropy: Woven, Nailed, Crack the Spine, The Nasiona, and others. Her "Invisible Walls: A Decentred Hermit Crab Sticky Note Narrative" was published in the 2022 creative nonfiction issue of The Fiddleheadwww.shirleyharshenin.ca 

Ellen McGinn's Reading Recommendation

Ellen McGinn lives on Saturna Island with her husband and their dog. A graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MFA programme, she has published a book of poetry, From Dark Horse Road and her essay "Tabernacle" was published in the 2022 creative nonfiction issue of The Fiddlehead. Her plays were produced in the Vancouver and Victoria fringe festivals. Her current play, Antarctica Welcomes International Women’s Year 1975 is in its third draft. One of her favourite things was volunteering with Students On Ice. 

Corinna Chong’s Reading Recommendation

Corinna Chong’s novel, Belinda’s Rings, was published by NeWest Press in 2013, and her stories have most recently appeared in Grain and Riddle Fence. Her story "Love Cream Heat" is featured in the new autumn issue of The Fiddlehead. She won the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize for “Kids in Kindergarten.” She lives in Kelowna and teaches at Okanagan College 

Joe Enns' Reading Recommendation

Joe Enns is a writer, painter, and fisheries biologist on Vancouver Island. His works have appeared in Portal Magazine and The Link, and short-listed for FreeFall’s 2020 Prose and Poetry Contest. His poetry is featured in the new autumn issue of The Fiddlehead. Joe has a BSc in Ecological Restoration and is finishing a BA in Creative Writing at Vancouver Island University. 

Pages