Hey everyone! One quick piece of news to begin: I know this is coming up soon, but I'm teaching a two-hour public seminar at Carleton University on Monday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to noon, on Research for Writers. Still time to sign up if you can make it!
I love getting requests for topics to cover in this newsletter. (You can respond to them any time, or ping me on social media.) I had a request recently for recommendations of books by Canadian writers. That’s a topic I’m happy to talk about — actually, the challenge for me is that once I start talking, it’s hard to know where to stop! I know a lot of Canadian writers, both personally and through their work.
A good place to start, if you’re interested in Canadian speculative fiction, is the series of anthologies edited by Stephen Kotowych. Volume 3 of the Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction is kickstarting now.
To keep this list short, I’ve set some parameters: these are recent books by 9 Canadian and Indigenous writers whose previous work I have enjoyed, even though I haven’t read these particular books yet. They’re some of the books that are at the top of my “to read” pile. I'm up to my eyeballs in research books for the next novel at the moment, though, so the "to read" pile is going to keep taunting me for a while.
I've been reading Emma Donoghue for at least 20 years. Young Kate read Slammerkin and The Sealed Letter and thought, maybe I could write like this. She's still a hero and role model. I've had the great fortune in recent years to join her in panel discussions and she's absolutely lovely. We also share a (wonderful) publicist now at HarperCollins Canada, which is something Young Kate would have found hilariously impossible to contemplate. I try to read every Emma Donoghue novel (and she's quite prolific!) so The Paris Express is on my list.
I first encountered the work of Peggy Blair when I read her novel The Umbrella Man, when I was on the jury for the Ottawa Book Award. It blew me away. She's an incredible mystery writer, and a force of nature here in Ottawa. She got fed up with traditional publishing trying to tell her that readers didn't want to read stories set in Canada (yep, this is still a problem, especially in genre fiction) so she 's now publishing work by other Canadian writers as well as her own. The Bone-finder is coming out very soon.
Another of my literary heroes! I have adored everything Nalo Hopkinson has written, and admire her prose and the deep humanity in her work. I had the great thrill of having dinner with her and some other writers recently, and I have a signed hardcover of Blackheart Man literally on my bedside table, and yet, the research pile keeps me from it still… (I do love research but I need to clone myself!)
Julie Czerneda is a writer of incredible imagination and her characters are always so real. She’s also one of my favourite people, a person who brings light into the world wherever she walks. This book is #3 in a series of fantasy novels (beginning with A Turn of Light, which I read and loved) set in a world inspired by the history of Ontario, where we both live.
Determining what the most recent book is from Premee Mohamed is a bit of a task, because hoo boy, she's been busy! This one is not the most recent but it’s one of the recent ones I have not yet read. A fabulous writer, with the story-crafting skills to match her incredible imagination. The sort of writer who makes you stare out the window and think. I loved (and blurbed) The Annual Migration of Clouds, set in future Alberta. So the sequel, We Speak Through the Mountain, is at the top on my list.
I've really enjoyed Suzan Palumbo's short fiction, and I've been meaning to read her novella Countess since it came out. Queer, anti-colonial Caribbean adventure in space, inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo – yes please! I have read a little of this one already but I need to get to the rest soon.
It’s always nice when your friends and inspirations are the same people! Amal’s a dear friend and writing buddy, and I greatly respect and admire her astonishing writing. I've been saving her debut novella, The River Has Roots, for a moment when I can savour it as I know it will deserve.
Omar El Akkad is a journalist and novelist (I loved his novel American War, which is an important work doing what speculative fiction does best, as well as being a page-turner that'll grab your heart.) I've heard him speak and I know this book about the failed and broken promises of the West will make me a better and smarter human, just as soon as I get to it.
I know I've talked about Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice in my newsletter before. It's a wonderful novel, and like American War, it's become a touchstone for me, an example of what speculative fiction can do – and it's helped to guide my thinking about community and politics. Also, Waub is a fellow former-journalist and someone I really enjoy talking with. Naturally, I eagerly pre-ordered the sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves – and now I can't find my copy. It's somewhere in the house. I need a locator spell for books.
If you beat me to any of these books, let me know what you think! I'd recommend any work by any of these writers, if you'd rather check out their earlier stuff first.