December Gratitude: Check Out 5 of Our Favourite Author Interviews & Excerpts from 2021

For our final instalment of December Gratitude, the series in which we are rounding up of some of our favourite postings from 2021, it's a double-whammy: we're sharing five of our favourite author interviews and five of our favourite book excerpts! 

It's been incredibly tough to choose from all the amazing posts we've had the opportunity to host this year, and we want to share our gratitude to the publishers and authors we are so lucky to work with. 

Looking back, here are just a few from amongst our many favourites from 2021...

2021 Author Interviews in Review:

• Makambe K Simamba on her inspiring playwrighting process and how she wrote a loving epitaph for the Black men and boys taken from their families by anti-Black violence
• Jamie Swift and Elaine Power on the overwhelming evidence in favour of a universal basic income, where the pushback against the idea really comes from, and how basic income is a public health issue 
• Jen Sookfong Lee on the best, hard-won advice and tips she has for emerging and aspiring writers after decades of creating, editing, and teaching writing
• Christy Ann Conlin on bringing past characters back for a powerful new book, and how she fell in love with the "fortitude, ferocity, verve, and heart" of her east coast women characters
• Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo on why she finds most memoirs "too careful by far" and how she shared an unvarnished version of her journey as a queer, Christian, socialist politician in her own memoir

2021 Book Excerpts in Review:

• The Secret Life of a Mother (Playwrights Canada Press) by Hannah Moscovitch, Maev Beaty, & Ann-Marie Kerr: a tough, beautiful, darkly funny exploration of motherhood for modern artists
• Blue Marrow (Kegedonce Press) by Louise Bernice Halfe - Skydancer: a re-release of the Parliamentary Poet Laureate's iconic collection that weaves together Cree and English
• The Rebellious Tide (Dundurn Press) by Eddy Boudel Tan: an electric family story of rage, loss, and subterfuge set on the high seas, by a talented author who was named a Writers' Trust Rising Star
• The Union of Synchronized Swimmers (Book*hug Press) by Cristina Sandu: a gorgeous, tense story from the Finnish literary superstar, following six young women athletes as they defect from an unnamed, repressive Soviet regime 
• A Ghost in the Throat (Biblioasis) by Doireann Ní Ghríofa: a genre-defying work of art from one of Ireland's most highly regarded writers, detailing a writer's obsession with an iconic ancient Irish poem in the midst of her postpartum identity crisis

We are so grateful to our readers, our partner publishers in the OBPO, our funding partners, and the writers who make it possible for Open Book to exist. 

From the books lovers at Open Book to all of you, our thanks and best wishes for a healthy, happy New Year filled with great reads.