DebutsTag

"It’s All About Having a Laugh and Experimenting" Poet MLA Chernoff on Affect Apocalypses, the Meaning of Squelch, and More

MLA Chernoff's debut full length poetry collection, the delightfully titled [SQUELCH PROCEDURES] (Gordon Hill Press) explores childhood and identity, touching on gender norms, trauma, poverty, and more ...

"I Learned How to be Human from Writing This Novel" Nic Brewer on Her Unforgettable and Fantastical Debut Novel, Suture

Nic Brewer's hotly anticipated debut novel, Suture (Book*hug Press), asks pointed questions about the cost of art—on artists, on their loved ones, and more—through fantastical storytelling that pushes ...

Helen Walsh, Author of Film Festival-Set Mystery Pull Focus, Shares Essential Writing & Publishing Tips & Advice

With TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) just having started up for last week, it seems like perfect timing for Helen Walsh's Pull Focus (ECW Press), a brainy and dark mystery novel set against ...

Aaron Schneider's Debut Story Collection Plays with Genre Constraints & Brings Readers Into the Experiment

Aaron Schneider's debut story collection What We Think We Know (Gordon Hill Press) asks readers to consider the genre through the lens of the title. What do we know about the short story? Schneider plays ...

September 2021 Writer-in-Residence Angélique Lalonde Explores "Home" in Her Dazzling Debut Story Collection

Journey Prize winner Angélique Lalonde's short fiction has been praised as evoking the feeling of a "contemporary classic". Her stories, with their humour, wisdom, and insight, showcase a writer who ...

Read an Excerpt from Debut Novelist Pamela Korgemagi's The Hunter and the Old Woman, Featuring a Literal Cougar as Its Protagonist

Pamela Korgemagi's debut novel The Hunter and the Old Woman (House of Anansi Press) features a protagonist unlike almost any other. The titular Old Woman is not a woman at all — she's a cougar, living ...

A Message of Hope: Silmy Abdullah's Debut Story Collection Spins Beautiful Tales of Migration, Family, & Self

When home is in flux, our sense of who we are can feel unanchored too. Enter writer and lawyer Silmy Abdullah's debut collection of short fiction, Home of the Floating Lily (Dundurn Press), which, ...

Aimee Wall's Stunning Debut Novel Follows the Legendary Underground Abortion Network, "Jane"

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Jane was more than a name. It was an organization, an underground, a password. It was the anonymous name for all the women involved in the underground abortion movement, ...

"Their Story is Already Complete" Sofi Papamarko on Commitment in Short Fiction and Writing the Outsider

Sofi Papamarko's debut collection of stories, Radium Girl (Wolsak & Wynn), makes it clear she is a writer who does nothing by halves: the stories are big, brave, and refreshing, leaping into perspectives ...

Michelle Good Wins Amazon Canada First Novel Award for Her Multi-Award Nominated Debut, Five Little Indians

Michelle Good's Five Little Indians (HarperCollins Canada) was undoubtedly one of the biggest books of 2020, snagging nominations for two of the largest fiction awards in the country: the Scotiabank ...