Lucky Seven InterviewTag

Aparna Kaji Shah on Writing Strong Women, the Importance of Writer Friends, & the Timeless Value of Middlemarch

The title of Aparna Kaji Shah's The Scent of Mogra (Inanna Publications) refers to species of flowering jasmine, a beautiful and fragrant plant cultivated in South and Southeast Asia. It gives a nod ...

"I Could Only Find the Answer as I Wrote" Mina Athanassious on His Collection of Coptic Egyptian Coming of Age Stories

Mina Athanassious's A Face Like the Moon (Mosaic Press) gathers eight deeply personal stories of Coptic children growing up in Egypt, including a story set in the largely-Coptic neighbourhood where the ...

Shauntay Grant Brings an Important Chapter of Black Canadian History to the Page for Children

Africville was once a vibrant community in Halifax. For over 150 years, it was home to Black Nova Scotians. Due to neglect and targeting by the city government however, the community eventually shuttered ...

"The Words Felt Right and Honest" Deep Underwater author Irene Luxbacher on Finding Her Way Through Tough Times with Writing

Irene Luxbacher's Deep Underwater (Groundwood Books) calls out to the wild imagination of young readers, those years when we were sure we could find mermaids, adventures, and secrets, if we could just ...

Chadwick Ginther on Writing a Necromancer Who Longs for a Normal Life & Discovering His Themes

Corrupt morticians. Dead twins. Animated skeletons. And a necromancer named Winter who protects the city. This ain't your grandfather's Winnipeg. Instead, it's Chadwick Ginther's wonderfully dark and ...

"My Goals Were Very Visual and Atmospheric from the Start" Scott A. Ford on His Gorgeous New Graphic Novel, Ark Land

Acclaimed illustrator, author, and comic artist Scott A. Ford's Ark Land (ChiZine) follows Kairn, a scavenger who pawns debris from the arks of the alien animals who came to her planet a century ago. ...

Catherine Fatima on her Raw & Frank Auto-Fictional Debut Novel, Sludge Utopia

Catherine Fatima's debut novel Sludge Utopia (Book*hug) is as ambitious as it is raw, exploring sexuality and desire as conceptual experiences while still grounding the narrative in a deeply introspective, ...

"How Do We Transform?" Susannah M. Smith on Her Unique, Imaginative Novel The Fairy Tale Museum

Susannah M. Smith's The Fairy Tale Museum (Invisible Publishing) is populated with a cyborg cyclops, fortune tellers and vampires, lovers with the heads of birds, and countless other characters who live ...

"All Transformations Have a Cost" Dian Day on Her Arresting New Novel The Madrigal

It's no surprise that in a novel called The Madrigal (Inanna Publications), music is front and centre. Frederick (who shares a surname with the title) and his mother are both singers - but they experience ...

Lise Weil on Reconciling Zen and Desire, Visionary Books, & How a Lost Cat Led to Love

The '70s and '80s were a time of radical change and evolution, and the queer community was particularly instrumental in resisting and interrogating the environmental and social crises of that time, the ...