Watch the Canada Reads 2023 book trailers
The great Canadian book debate takes place March 27-30
Canada Reads 2023 will take place March 27-30.
This year, the great Canadian book debate is looking for one book to shift your perspective.
The stories we tell, and the way we tell them, can shape how we see ourselves, our communities and the world. This collection of books is an opportunity to broaden our horizons, expand our worldview and think differently about the world around us and our place in it.
The 2023 contenders are:
- Jeopardy! super-champ Mattea Roach champions Ducks by Kate Beaton
- Actor Keegan Connor Tracy champions Greenwood by Michael Christie
- Bhangra dancer Gurdeep Pandher champions Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
- TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi champions Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Actor Michael Greyeyes champions Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Listen and on CBC Books.
The debates will take place live at 10:05 a.m. ET (that's an hour earlier than recent years!). You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice. You can see all the broadcast details here.
Watch the book trailers and get to know the creators behind them below!
Ducks by Kate Beaton
Ducks is an autobiographical graphic memoir that recounts author Kate Beaton's time spent working in the Alberta oil sands. With the goal of paying off her student loans, Beaton leaves her tight-knit seaside Nova Scotia community and heads west, where she encounters harsh realities, including the everyday trauma that no one discusses.
Ducks will be championed by Jeopardy! star Mattea Roach.
The trailer for Ducks was created by Braden and Jennifer Poirier.
The Poiriers reside in Calgary, and have been exploring the creative side of life for over a decade together. They met while studying animation at Sheridan College and have collaborated in a variety of artistic mediums and fields including screenprinting, sewing, stop motion animation, comic books, painting, sculpture and toy design.
Jennifer is a location designer and colour artist for animated series and continues to explore illustration using traditional media.
Braden is an animation industry veteran, and has worked on numerous animated series, music videos and short films. They are currently continuing work on their creator owned comic book, Monster Dog.
The trailer for Ducks was narrated by Jana Peck.
Jana Peck is a Canadian writer and actor. She co-created a sketch show called Madge & Peck that won Best Pitch at the JFL festival in Montreal in 2019.
Her unique voice has been in countless radio and TV commercials. She is currently starring in Red Ketchup, a new animated adult series launching this spring on Cartoon Network. She's appeared in Chucky, Kim's Convenience, A Teacher, The Hot Zone, Saving Hope, Suits, Rookie Blue and Ruby and the Well.
The sound design was by Alex Redekop and the script was written by Ashly July.
Greenwood by Michael Christie
In Greenwood, it's the year 2038 and most of the world has suffered from an environmental collapse. But there is a remote island with 1,000-year-old trees and Jake Greenwood works as a tour guide there. From there, the novel takes you back in time as you learn more about Jake, her family and how secrets and lies can have an impact for generations.
Greenwood will be championed by actor, director and writer Keegan Connor Tracy.
The trailer for Greenwood was created by concept artist Hasali Baddewithana. Baddewithana's work is primarily composed of illustration, design and 3D modelling of environments and props with a focus on the video game or movie industries. She hopes to use her art and her life experiences to tell stories of the small things that are often underestimated and unappreciated in life, and in turn, to inspire the next generation of artists and storytellers to do the same.
The trailer for Greenwood was narrated by David Ferry, who also narrated the audiobook.
As an award winning theatre director, Ferry has worked nationally and internationally in a wide variety of genres of theatre. He has also worked increasingly as a director and narrator of Audio Books for Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, ECW Press and Audible.
Ferry has also enjoyed success as an actor who has worked on stage across Canada including at the Stratford Festival, in England, Australia and the U.S. (performing on and off Broadway). He has filmed in over 100 projects on the movie screen and TV in a career that has spanned 50 years.
The sound design was by Alex Redekop and the script was written by Ryan B. Patrick.
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
Hotline is about Muna Heddad, a widow and mother who has left behind a civil war in Lebanon and is living in Montreal in the 1980s. The only work she can find is as a hotline operator at a weight-loss centre where she fields calls from people responding to ads in magazines or on TV. These strangers have so much to say about their challenges, from marriages gone bad to personal inadequacies. Although her life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers, Muna is privy to her clients' deepest secrets.
Hotline will be championed by bhangra dancer Gurdeep Pandher on Canada Reads.
The trailer for Hotline was created by artist G.C. Houle in collaboration with animator J.L.J-F. Léger.
G.C. Houle is a comic artist and illustrator based in the heart of Acadia. They are best known for a colourful and sleek style influenced by their earlier training as a graphic designer. A strong believer in the legitimizing power of art, Houle seeks to create work that reflects the unique beauty and concerns of marginalized people, especially those within the queer community.
J.L.J-F. Léger is a professional animator currently residing in Halifax. With backgrounds in game design, animation and film, he is constantly on the lookout for new and exciting ways to push his creativity. He is currently working on his first graphic novel.
The trailer for Hotline was narrated by Leen Amarin.
Amarin is a Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian and newly Canadian author, creative, researcher and human rights advocate. Born and raised in Amman, Jordan, Amarin immigrated to Canada in 2013. Now based in Toronto, she attempts to reconcile with her identity as a migrant-settler through her creative practice and advocacy. Committed to equity and anti-oppression organizing, she held leading roles in the fight for refugee human rights and the empowerment of marginalized creatives and intellectuals. She's currently a student of Human Rights & Equity Studies at York University interested in further exploring concepts of belonging in imagining decolonized futures.
The sound design was by Alex Redekop and the script was written by Ryan B. Patrick.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic is a gothic horror novel set in 1950s Mexico. It tells the story of a young woman named Noemí who is called by her cousin to save her from doom in her countryside home, the mysterious and alluring High Place. Noemí doesn't know much about the house, the region or her cousin's mysterious new husband, but she's determined to do whatever it takes to solve this mystery and save her cousin.
Mexican Gothic will be championed by TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi on Canada Reads 2023.
The trailer for Mexican Gothic was created by Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea.
Gustavo is a Colombian Canadian animator, music video director, festival programmer, producer and educator. His work is influenced by psychedelia, genre filmmaking, and Colombia's history of violence. His work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and festivals, such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Glas Animation Festival, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, among others.
Gustavo has also directed music videos and performances for Grammy-nominated singer, Lido Pimienta, and served as creative producer, animator, and production designer for her CBC Gem show, LidoTV. Gustavo is the current president of the Toronto Animated Image Society and teaches at OCAD University.
The trailer for Mexican Gothic was narrated by Sofia Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was born and raised in a hot desert city surrounded by mountains: Monterrey, Mexico. Pre-collonially, it was the land of nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples recorded as Alazapas, Coahuiltecos, Huachichiles and Borrados. Sofia is an immigrant and settler in Toronto, sometimes called the place 'where there are trees standing in the water', land of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishnaabeg, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Wendat peoples.
She is immensely grateful to get to live, love, learn, heal and play for a living working as a multidisciplinary creator and performer.
The sound design was by Alex Redekop and the script was written by Ryan B. Patrick.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven is a dystopian novel that takes place on an Earth undone by disease, following the interconnected lives of several characters — actors, artists and those closest to them — before and after the plague. One travels the wasteland performing Shakespearean plays with a troupe, while another attempts to build community at an abandoned airport and another amasses followers for a dangerous cause.
Station Eleven will be championed by actor Michael Greyeyes on Canada Reads.
The trailer for Station Eleven was created by Alina Pete. Pete is a nehiyaw artist and writer from Little Pine First Nation in Saskatchewan.
They grew up urban, but spent summers wandering the Qu'Appelle valley with their cousin from Cowessess First Nation. Alina is best known for their Aurora award-winning comics, but they also write short stories, poems and TTRPG supplements and their work has been featured in several Indigenous comic anthologies.
Pete lives on unceded Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, and Tsawwassen land with their partner and three parrots who enjoy sitting on their shoulder as they write.
The trailer for Station Eleven was narrated by Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud.
Jasmine is a nonbinary, mad and multiply disabled, digital media artist of Guyanese and English descent living in Treaty 13 territory. They are interested in where community arts meets community health. Their creative work seeks to create breathing space for survivors and queer, disabled, racialized communities.
During the pandemic, this work has grown to revolve around explorations of love-grief as praxis, on a multi-sensory scale, and through the celebration of diverse bodyminds. Chosen media include: poetry, film, illustration.
Jasmine is a current participant in the Ways of Attuning Curatorial Study Group for emerging QTBIPoC curators.
The sound design was by Alex Redekop and the script was written by Ryan B. Patrick.
