FALL 2013 CONTENTS MEDIA CENTRE Click below to navigate FEATURED AUDIO Click on the links below to hear the voices behind our recent books. FRONTLIST LOVE AT LAST SIGHT 3 FRONTLIST RUPERT’S LAND 4 FRONTLIST THE INSISTENT GARDEN 5 Thea Bowering, Love at Last Sight FRONTLIST FOXED 6 Meredith Quartermain, Rupert’s Land FRONTLIST SHALLOW ENOUGH TO WALK THROUGH 7 Rosie Chard, The Insistent Garden COMPLETE LIST 8 Garry Ryan, Foxed DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION 11 Marissa Reaume, Shallow Enough to Walk Through CONNECT Subscribe to NeWest video, audio, news, and more by clicking on these links: ITUNES PODCAST FACEBOOK TWITTER CONTENTS | NeWest Press Fall 2013 | 2 DIGITAL MEDIA Thea Bowering discusses the LOVE AT LAST SIGHT female-as-flâneur by Thea Bowering “So I have always walked alleys alone, with my monster face, listening through a wall for the words that might cultivate me, that are contained within the homes of ex-lovers, the ones who caught a Love at Last Sight spills with glimpse and ran away.” “ witty, intelligent stories that sneakily uncover the secret In the neon-slick city streets of Thea Bowering’s imagination, rococo in the everyday. monster girls and femme flâneurs roam at will, anthropologist’s Bowering’s gift makes her eyes on barroom denizens, disguising themselves in men’s clothing version of the familiar fright- and embarking on doomed love affairs. Old World meets New World ening but still as the urban cafés and piazzas of Europe’s capitals intermingle with desirable, unexpected and the dust and desolation of the 21st century modern West. funny. Every story in this collection is a jewel. Strikingly modern while also filled with fin de siècle regret, Thea —SUZETTE MAYR Bowering’s first story collectionLove at Last Sight is shot through Author of Monoceros and with literary allusion and timeless themes given new life. Venous Hum “This stellar debut collec- “ tion of stories—mercurial, polished, philosophical, funny—is a series of his- toires d’amour set in the bars and streets of urban Edmonton, written with FICTION THEA BOWERING has been published in The multiple ironic voices. Thea ISBN 13 978-1-927063-34-7 Capilano Review, Matrix, Dandelion, The Bowering has a knack for BISAC: FIC029000, Vancouver Sun and Scandinavian Canadian locating the instabilities of FIC044000, FIC048000 Studies. A native of Vancouver, she now makes the literary present in these 280 pp || 5.5 x 8.5 pb her home in Edmonton, Alberta. gifted, lively tales about September 2013 || $17.95 memory and perception, love and conduct.” —SHARON THESEN Author of The Good Bacteria NeWest Press Fall 2013 | 3 DIGITAL MEDIA Meredith Quartermain on RUPERT’S LAND the “Dirty Thirties” by Meredith Quartermain At the height of the Great Depression, two Prairie children struggle with poverty and uncertainty. Cora Wagoner wants the same rights and privi- leges as men do in her stultifying dustbowl town, to study science rather than sewing, wear dungarees instead of dresses. Surrounded by religion, law, and her authoritarian father, she daydreams about what it would be Dispossession in various like to abandon society altogether and join one of the Indian tribes she’s forms haunts this historical read so much about. “ novel. Wild longing, tart dialogue, and acute percep- Saddened by his family’s struggles with Indian Agent restrictions, Hunter tion bring Meredith George wonders why the reserve school is closed, what happened to the kids who went to residential school and why his father doesn’t want him to Quartermain’s child-narra- go where his cousins are. As he too faces drastic change, he keeps himself tors alive in their dustbowl sane with his grandmother’s stories of Wîsahkecâhk. world of few options. A remarkable first novel. Meredith Quartermain’s first novel retains the striking imagery and lyrical —DAPHNE MARLATT nature of her earlier poetic works Vancouver Walking and Nightmarker. As Author of The Given and Ana both Cora and Hunter sojourn through a landscape of nuisance grounds, Historic shantytowns, scrublands, and societal refuse, they come to realize that they exist in a land that is simultaneously moving beyond history and drowning in its excess. Reminiscent of Sheila Watson, Quartermain “ weaves the richness of myth with a parched, impoverished landscape. FICTION Growing up in Toronto, Iqaluit, Midland and then Enduring family histories ISBN 13 978-1-927063-36-1 backcountry BC, MEREDITH QUARTERMAIN sustain two youngsters from BISAC FIC014000, developed a strong sense of landscape and place opposite sides of the tracks FIC019000 which has influenced much of her writing. as they converge in a des- 304 pp || 6 x 9 pb Quartermain is the author of several poetry col- perate trek through Rupert’s September 2013 || $20.95 lections, including BC Book Prize winner Land.” Vancouver Walking, and Vancouver Book Prize —VANESSA WINN finalist Nightmarker. She is also the co-founder of Author of The Chief Factor’s Nomados, a small literary press in Vancouver. Daughter NeWest Press Fall 2013 | 4 DIGITAL MEDIA Rosie Chard tells us how gardening THE INSISTENT GARDEN can be an escape by Rosie Chard It is 1969, and somewhere far away, preparations are being made for man to walk upon the moon. Meanwhile, in the Stokers’ shabby home in the East Midlands, Edith remains a virtual prisoner, with occasional visits from her grotesque and demanding Aunt Vivian serving as the only break in her circumscribed routine. The tension never falters; se- crets, enigmatic neighbours, But when shy, sheltered Edith begins to quietly cultivate a garden in “ revulsion and fear surround the shadow of her father’s wall, she inadvertently triggers a series a uniquely dysfunctional of events that might gain her independence ... and threatens to family. I do believe Rosie bring her face to face with the the mysterious Edward Black. Chard has created a new sub-genre: Rosie Chard’s follow up to her award-winning debut Seal Intestine Neo-Gothic Garden Mystery. Raincoat unfolds like a grown-up take on the children’s classic The —BETTY JANE HEGERAT Secret Garden. This is an engrossing, often mordantly funny portrait Author of The Boy and of a young woman who miraculously finds her own pathway to free- Running Toward Home dom within the most stifling of environs. A captivating, witty and beautifully written novel “ which probes the quirks and foibles of the English psyche. —TODD LONGSTAFFE- FICTION ROSIE CHARD grew up south of London, England. GOWAN ISBN 13 978-1-927063-38-5 After studying anthropology and ecology, she went Gardens Advisor, Historic BISAC FIC044000, on to qualify as a landscape architect at the Royal Palaces, London FIC045000 University of Greenwich in 1989 and practiced for several years. She moved with her family to 324 pp || 6 x 9 pb Winnipeg in 2005. Her first novel, Seal Intestine September 2013 || $19.95 Raincoat, was published in 2009 by NeWest Press, winning the 2010 Trade Fiction Book Award at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards, and receiving an honourable mention for the Sunburst Fiction Award. NeWest Press Fall 2013 | 5 DIGITAL MEDIA Garry Ryan talks Calgary FOXED crime by Garry Ryan After a long series of professional and personal upheavals, Detective Lane begins his latest adventure happy, at peace, and enjoying life with his partner Arthur, their children Christine and Matt, and his able new co-worker, RCMP officer Keely Saliba. The sixth Detective Lane But when the body of a young boy is unearthed ten years after mystery is a very welcome he was reported missing, Lane’s investigation into the crime puts “ edition to the series: a some- him in conflict with a powerful and charismatic Calgary real estate times-fun, frequently-ballsy developer and restaurateur—a cunning sociopath whose desire to read with real life complica- suppress any threat to his empire will endanger the safety of Lane’s tions and characters who own family. matter. It’s also a stark reminder that there is life The sixth book in Garry Ryan’s award-winning and Calgary Herald- outside Toronto, Vancouver bestselling series of Detective Lane mysteries pits Lane against his and Montreal. Add this one most dangerous antagonist yet. to your pile of recommended reading. Better yet, crack it “Garry Ryan is one of our finest novelists in any genre.” —Drewey open right away and be the Wayne Gunn, Reviewing the Evidence first to say, Told you so! —JEFFREY ROUND Lambda Award-winning author of Lake On The Mountain FICTION GARRY RYAN lives in Calgary, Alberta. He received ISBN 13 978-1-927063-40-8 a B.Ed. and a diploma in Educational Psychology BISAC FIC022020, from the University of Calgary, and taught English FIC011000 and Creative Writing to junior high and high school 208 pp || 5 x 8 pb students until his retirement in 2009. The fifth of his Detective Lane mysteries, Malabarista, was October 2013 || $18.95 published by NeWest Press in 2011; NeWest released his World War II adventure Blackbirds in 2012. NeWest Press Fall 2013 | 6 DIGITAL MEDIA Marissa Reaume SHALLOW ENOUGH TO WALK THROUGH discusses rewriting your by Marissa Reaume own life “Three weeks it’s been raining, but no puddles…” As delicious as chocolate hair; as bittersweet as the Author Sara Pierce is slowly drowning in Windsor, a city where “ rain inside you; as water will seemingly not stay put long enough to form puddles. mysterious as struck out While living with her germophobic best friend Angie and dealing text, Shallow Enough to with her online gaming-addicted boyfriend Dan, Sara finds herself Walk Through delivers obsessively writing and rewriting her own story in order to gain sensory pleasure on every some sense of control over her life.