#67 | Fall/Winter 2015 http://ambp.ca/pbn/ FREE EDGE Science plus: New work from Alice Major, Fiction and Fantasy Armin Wiebe and Richard inside Van Camp Publishing celebrates Prairie books for kids & young adults 15 years page 28 Family secrets, As well as drama, poetry, secret histories & non-fiction … and much more! Maureen Fergus Publications Mail Agreement Number 40023290 PAGE 25 has 3 fall titles! Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Association of Manitoba Book Publishers page 46 404–100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, MB R3B 1H3 Finding Home in the Promised Land Refuge A Personal History of Homelessness Mary Vingoe and Social Exile Ayinom, a former soldier from Eritrea, has Jane Harris arrived in Canada without papers, and seeks Finding Home in the Promised Land is the fruit of refugee status. Seen through the eyes of the Jane Harris’s journey through the wilderness of couple that take him in and the lawyer who social exile after a violent crime left her injured represents him, the play lays bare some of the and tumbling down the social ladder toward shortfalls of the refugee system as it exists in homelessness—for the second time in her life— Canada today. Refuge combines verbatim text in 2013. Her Scottish great-great grandmother from CBC radio interviews with the fictional world Barbara`s portrait opens the door into pre- of the characters to create a work with uncommon Confederation Canada. Her own story lights our resonance and verisimilitude. journey through 21st Century Canada. 978-1-927922-16-3 70pp $15.95 978-1-927922-11-8 192pp $22.95 WinterWINTER2015 2015 www.jgshillingford.com REPRESENTED BY THE CANADIAN MANDA GROUP • DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Nicimos The Wilberforce Hotel DRAMA DRAMA The Last Rez Christmas Story Sean Dixon BY NICIMoS Curtis Peeteetuce BY It’s the 1830s. Two travelling minstrels are passing north from London, Ontario, with their song and THE LAST REZ This Christmas season, things have gone awry for dance show on the local circuit. Having fallen afoul the kohkoms of Kiwetinohk. Clare Bear is engaged CHRISTMAS of the law and desperate for a night’s lodging, they to be married, Zula Merasty is moving off-reserve stumble into the Wilberforce Hotel, owned and STORY and Sihkos Sinclare is in jail. It all comes to fruition operated by Austin Steward, the president of this at Clare’s stagette. stalwart black settlement. 978-1-927922-18-7 60pp $15.95 Curtis Peeteetuce Sean Dixon 978-1-927922-19-4 86pp $15.95 Give something extra special to the readers on your holiday list After Light The Brink of Freedom Executor Missing Children Catherine Hunter Stella Harvey Louise Carson Gerald Lynch 978-1927426-73-9 978-1927426-76-0 978-1927426-67-8 978-1927426-79-1 $23.95 $22.95 $16.95 $16.95 www.signature-editions.com @SigEditions facebook.com/signatureeditions #67 FALL/WINTER TOC 2015 NON- FICTION The Idea of a 13 Human Rights Museum 25FAMILY SECRETS, 44 SECRET HISTORIES YOUNG ADULT Sons and Mothers & CHILDREN Beatrice More Moves In OUR FEATURED PUBLISHER 16 Launch, Lead, Live: A proactive POETRY approach is imperative when 28 Living on the EDGE: Alberta 34 Autobiographical Fictions: dealing with organizational publisher celebrates 15 years Mierau’s latest collection change examines popculture and celebrity 17 Master of My Fate: Authors FICTION 35 Niche: Poet’s latest collection has examine Canada’s physician- strong ecological emphasis 4 Armin’s Shorts: Collection offers assisted death policies a brief retrospective of Armin 36 Standard Candles: Science a 18 Settler: Authors want Canadians Wiebe’s career source of metaphor in Major’s to talk about colonialism 5 Corvus: Novel explores the effects latest 19 So Far and Yet So Close: Book of climate change, war 38 Talking to the Diaspora: Maracle compares frontier ranching in uses poetry as a call to action 6 Moving Parts: Debut collection Canada and Australia examines social issues 20 The Idea of a Human Rights DRAMA 7 A Blanket of Butterflies/Night Museum: New book examines Moves: Van Camp releases graphic how the CMHR came to be 41 The Wilberforce Hotel: Play novel, short story collection shines light on a piece of little- 8 The Afterlife of Birds: Debut FAMILY SECRETS, SECRET known Canadian history novel a modern love story HISTORIES YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN 10 The Loxleys and Confederation: 25 Sons and Mothers: Mennonite Graphic novel takes a new look at men reflect on their mothers 44 Beatrice More Moves In: Author Canadian Confederation wants kids to know perfection is 26 Friendly Fire: First time novelist by no means ideal wants people to talk about NON-FICTION domestic violence 45 Creep Con: Cosplay novel for teens shows how obsession can 13 Crash to Paywall: Journalist 30 After Light: Family history at the go too far examines business practice in core of Hunter’s latest Canada’s media 46 Good things come in… Maureen 31 calling down the sky: Poet Fergus releases three picture 14 From Treaty Peoples to Treaty documents her mother’s books Nation: Authors seek to get to the residential school experience truth behind reconciliation 32 Let Us Be True: Debut novel 15 Heart Waters: Author examines examines family dynamics 53 Bookends/About Our Contributors how humans have changed the 33 Liberty Street: Dianne Warren Bow River explores the mysteries of ordinary lives in new novel fiction He writes short SHORTS Collection offers a brief retrospective of Armin Wiebe’s career by Margaret Anne Fehr here’s an aspect of a literary homecoming in Armin TWiebe’s recent collection of short fiction, Armin’s Shorts. The stories represent an offering of Wiebe’s creations, encompassing nearly 40 years of “little fictions” strewn hither and yon in western Canadian grass roots publications, including Prairie Fire, Grain, and Rhubarb, and numerous anthologies. The opportunity to round up these wayward Readers of Wiebe’s novels will recognize and progenies was not to be squandered, says Wiebe. become re-acquainted with Wiebe’s motley, “Gathering my short fiction into one book unvarnished cast of characters including Oata had been on my mind for some time, and and Yasch of The Salvation of Yasch Siemens being closer to 70 than to 60 gives one some and Beethoven Blatz of The Moonlight Sonata incentive to do that.” of Beethoven Blatz, the stage play produced by He explains that about half of the stories Theatre Projects Manitoba in 2011 that garnered had been published in small magazines both popular and critical acclaim. with rather specialized audiences, while the The previously written stories that made the unpublished pieces were at risk of vanishing cut met a few benchmarks. “The main selection should we stop believing in bits criterion was that the stories had not appeared and bytes. in my previous books,” Wiebe says. “The second ARMIN’S SHORTS “I felt that readers might get criterion was that I was not embarrassed by them.” Armin Wiebe some enjoyment from these The more seasoned Wiebe resisted the urge to Turnstone Press stories if they were gathered substantially revise his earlier work, and did only $19.00 pb, 304 pages in a book,” he says. copy edits to smooth out the awkward passages. isbn: 978-0-88801-546-4 Wiebe also wrote a number “I let the stories stand as they were when I wrote of stories specifically for this them,” he says. book, and he appreciates the As for imposing themes, Wiebe clarifies, “There attractions of the short form, particularly the may well be themes running through these stories, reduced time commitment, which is “refreshing but I tend to allow them to emerge from stories rather after the eternity of struggling with a novel.” than writing stories to fit a preconceived theme.” Now into his third retirement from teaching, Wiebe is probably best known for his comic Wiebe recognizes a pattern to his productivity. “The vision. first one lasted a year and I wrote one novel. The “While I frequently see experience through second one lasted seven years and I completed two a comic lens, the comedy happens because of novels and a draft of a third. In this third retirement the honesty of the characters’ thoughts as they I’ve written a draft of a novel waiting to be rewritten, encounter the incongruities and ironies in the world a full-length stage play, a one-act stage play (both around them,” he says. produced), and some new stories for Armin’s Shorts. “At times, too, the characters are clowns with “I still enjoy the process of writing which is a pre- oversized painted smiles hiding the sad face requisite for the thrill of having written.” underneath.” 4 Prairie books Now | fall/winter 2015 fiction ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT DREARY Novel explores the effects of climate change, war by David Jón Fuller arold Johnson’s fifth novel Corvus is set in an imagined late Htwenty-first century, in which climate change and war have dramatically changed Canada. The idea for Corvus came when better life, such as those offered in Johnson heard David Suzuki, Al Gore, exclusive communities floating high and James Lovelock discuss climate above the ground. A third, Richard, change. Gore asserted climate change just wants to live an ethical life on the could be fixed. Lovelock said it was too margins, but finds poorer communities late; climate change is the new reality. off the grid have their own hierarchies. He advised Suzuki to move north and “I took the idea that people will move build nuclear reactors for electricity. north and increased the population of a small town in northern Saskatchewan to a megacity, added some technology, CORVUS and simply wrote those things that are already predicted,” says Johnson.