The CBC Books fall reading list: 51 books to check out this season
A list of our favourite books to inspire your next read this fall
Need a good book to hang out with this season? Check out this list of notable Canadian and international titles out right now.
Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
Blackheart Man is a fantasy novel about the magical island of Chynchin. It follows Veycosi who is training as a griot (historian and musician) and is hoping to score a spot on Chynchin's Colloquium of scholars. When children start disappearing and tar statues come to life, it's clear that sinister forces are at play — the demon called the Blackheart Man is causing trouble.
Nalo Hopkinson is the author of many novels and short stories, including Brown Girl in the Ring, which won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and was defended on Canada Reads in 2008 by Jemeni. Her other books include Sister Mine, Midnight Robber, The Chaos, The New Moon's Arms and Skin Folk. In 2021, she won the Damon Knight Grand Master award, a lifetime achievement award for science fiction.
Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey, with Leslie Jamison
Peggy tells the story of Peggy Guggenheim and her rise to making her name synonymous with art and genius. From her early beginnings in New York as the daughter of two Jewish dynasties to her adventures in the European art worlds, she is forced to balance her loyalty to her family and her desire to break free from conventions and live her own original life.
Rebecca Godfrey was an author and journalist known for her books The Torn Skirt, which was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the true crime story Under the Bridge, which was adapted to screen. She grew up in Canada but lived in upstate New York. Peggy is her final novel, completed by Leslie Jamison after she died.
Jamison is the Brooklyn-based author of The Empathy Exams, The Recovering, the novel The Gin Closet and the memoir Splinters.
May Our Joy Endure by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler
In May Our Joy Endure, Céline is a celebrated architect and icon. When her first megaproject in her home of Montreal is met with harsh criticism for bringing on gentrification, she is fired as CEO from her firm. She must try to understand what exactly she is being accused of and figure out what to tell herself so that she can continue to justify her world of privilege.
Kevin Lambert is a Montreal-based author who grew up in Chicoutimi, Que. May Our Joy Endure won the Prix Médicis, Prix Décembre and Prix Ringuet. His novel Querelle de Roberval was a finalist for numerous prizes in Quebec, Canada and France. His first novel, You Will Love What You Have Killed, won a prize for the best novel from the Saguenay region.
Donald Winkler is a Montreal-based translator. He has won three Governor General's Literary Awards for French-to-English translation.
All Hookers Go To Heaven by Angel B.H.
In All Hookers Go To Heaven, Mag falls for a girl while training to become an evangelical missionary. Ashamed and regretful, she leaves the Church and becomes a sex worker, hoping to break free from her repressed past and change her life. The novel details all the challenges and danger she faces as she tries to come to terms with herself, her sexuality and her faith all while trying to make a living.
Angel B.H. is a writer from Nova Scotia currently living in Europe. All Hookers Go To Heaven is her first novel.
The Wedding by Gurjinder Basran
In a Bollywood-inspired family drama, The Wedding transports readers to Surrey and Vancouver, B.C. in the lead-up to the lavish Sikh wedding between Devi and Baby. Offering glimpses into the lives of the wedding party, guests and the event staff making it all happen, the novel is all about community, tradition and the union of two people.
Gurjinder Basran is a writer living in Delta, B.C. Her novels include Everything Was Good-bye, the winner of the BC Book Prize and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, Help! I'm Alive and Someone You Love is Gone.
The Pages of the Sea by Anne Hawk
The Pages of the Sea tells the story of Wheeler and her older sisters on a Caribbean island after their mother moves to England to find work. As she waits for her mother to send for her, Wheeler feels alone and must navigate the tensions between her aunts who took her and her sisters in.
Anne Hawk is a writer who grew up in the Caribbean, the U.K., and Canada. The Pages of the Sea is her first novel. She previously worked as a journalist, paralegal and school teacher. She is currently based in London.
I Never Said That I Was Brave by Tasneem Jamal
I Never Said That I Was Brave recounts the lifelong friendship of two women who immigrated from Uganda to Canada as children. As adults, their dynamics are constantly shifting as they grow yet feel stifled by expectations of their South Asian community.
Tasneem Jamal is a Kitchener, Ont.-based writer who was born in Uganda. She also is the author of Where the Air is Sweet and was named one of CBC's writers to watch in 2014. Her work has appeared in Chatelaine, Saturday Night and the Literary Review of Canada. Jamal is The X Page Storytelling Workshop's writing coach and an editor at The New Quarterly.
The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley
In The Lightning Bottles, an unlikely duo of fallen rock star Jane Pyre and sullen teenage superfan Hen take a road trip to find out what happened to Elijah, Jane's bandmate and soulmate. A love letter to music and female artists who deserve the same powerful legacies as their male counterparts, Stapley wrote The Lightning Bottles to give a voice to both them and the teenagers listening to music, waiting for their lives to begin.
Marissa Stapley is a Toronto writer, journalist and author of romance, thrillers and romantic comedies. Her books include Mating for Life, Things To Do When It's Raining, The Last Resort, Lucky and The Holiday Swap, which was co-written with Karma Brown under the pen name Maggie Knox.
Hair for Men by Michelle Winters
Struggling with trauma from her teenage years, Louise lives a life of punk violence until she gets a job at a men's hair salon in the novel Hair for Men. There, she builds relationships with her clients and begins to feel more settled. But when that sense of calm is destroyed, she runs away to the East Coast to escape her past, which she does successfully until a man from the Bay of Fundy arrives and gives her the opportunity to right her wrongs.
Michelle Winters is a writer, painter and translator from Saint John currently living in Toronto. Her novel debut novel, I Am a Truck, was shortlisted for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize. She also translated Kiss the Undertow and Daniil and Vanya by Marie-Hélène Larochelle.
A Way to Be Happy by Caroline Adderson
A Way to Be Happy is a short story collection that follows various characters as they try to find happiness. Ranging from mundane to extraordinary, the stories feature everything from a pair of addicts robbing parties to fund their sobriety to a Russian hitman dealing with an illness and reliving his past.
Caroline Adderson is the Vancouver-based author of five novels, including The Sky is Falling, Ellen in Pieces and A Russian Sister. She has also published two short story collections, including the 1993 Governor General's Literary Award finalist Bad Imaginings.
Adderson's awards include three B.C. Book Prizes, a National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Fiction. She has received the 2006 Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement. She is also a three-time winner of the CBC Literary Prizes, and A Way to Be Happy was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Death by a Thousand Cuts by Shashi Bhat
Death by a Thousand Cuts traces the funny, honest and difficult parts of womanhood. From a writer whose ex published a book about their breakup to the confession wrought by a Reddit post, these stories probe rage, loneliness, bodily autonomy and these women's relationships with themselves just as much as those around them.
Shashi Bhat's previous novels include The Family Took Shape, a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and The Most Precious Substance on Earth, which was also a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 2022. Her short stories won the Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Her novel Death by a Thousand Cuts was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Bhat lives in New Westminster, B.C.
What I Know About You by Éric Chacour, translated by Pablo Strauss
In What I Know About You, Tarek is on the right path: he'll be a doctor like his father, marry and have children. But when he falls for his patient's son, Ali, his life is turned upside-down as he realizes his sexuality against a backdrop of political turmoil in 1960s Cairo. In the 2000s, Tarek is now a doctor in Montreal. When someone begins to write to him and about him, the past that he's been trying to forget comes back to haunt him.
What I Know About You is shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Éric Chacour is a Montreal-based writer who was born to Egyptian parents and grew up between France and Quebec. In addition to writing, he works in the financial sector. What I Know About You is his first book and was a bestseller in its French edition, winning many awards including the Prix Femina.
Pablo Strauss has translated 12 works of fiction, several graphic novels and one screenplay. He was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation for The Country Will Bring Us No Peace, Synapses and The Longest Year. His translation of Le plongeur by Stephane Larue called The Dishwasher won the 2020 Amazon First Novel Award. He lives in Quebec City.
Bad Land by Corinna Chong
When Regina's brother shows up on her doorstep with his six-year-old daughter after seven years, her quiet loner life is never the same. The longer they stay, the clearer it becomes to Regina that something terrible has happened — and once the secret is revealed, they're sent on a fraught journey from Alberta to the coast of B.C. Bad Land was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Originally from Calgary, Corinna Chong lives in Kelowna, B.C. and teaches English and fine arts at Okanagan College. She published her first novel, Belinda's Rings, in 2013. In 2023, she published the short story collection The Whole Animal which includes Kids in Kindergarten, the winner of the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.
Curiosities by Anne Fleming
Curiosities is a novel that centres around an amateur historian who discovers an obscure memoir from 1600s England that explores a love that could not be explained in those times. Weaving together different fictional accounts, the novel tells the life stories of Joan and Thomasina, the only two survivors of a village ravaged by the plague, and how they eventually find each other again — Thomasina, now Tom, navigating the world in boy's clothes and as a male — and the struggles they face when they're discovered, naked, by a member of the clergy.
Curiosities is shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Anne Fleming is an author based in Victoria. Her books include Pool-Hopping and Other Stories, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and her middle-grade novel, The Goat, which was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection.
Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr
In Prairie Edge, Isidore (Ezzy) Desjarlais and Grey Ginther live together in Grey's uncle's trailer, passing their time with cribbage and cheap beer. Grey is cynical of what she feels is a lazy and performative activist culture, while Grey is simply devoted to his distant cousin. So when Grey concocts a scheme to set a herd of bison loose in downtown Edmonton, Ezzy is along for the ride — one that has devastating, fatal consequences.
Prairie Edge is shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer who hails from many prairie towns and cities, including Saskatoon. He now lives in Edmonton. A 2022 CBC Books writer to watch, his previous works include the novels Old Gods and Avenue of Champions, which was longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the ReLit award the same year. Kerr currently teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta.
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
This Strange Eventful History follows a French Algerian family over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010. The book tells the story of the Cassars as they are separated in the Second World War, flee Algeria after it declares independence and try to build their lives elsewhere, with the social and political upheaval of their recent past fresh in their minds. As she grows up and wants to understand her family's history, Chloe, the youngest member of the family, convinces her parents and grandparents that sharing this part of them will bring them peace.
This Strange Eventful History was also longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and the 2024 Giller Prize.
Messud is a Canadian American author with French Algerian roots. Her books include The Emperor's Children, which was longlisted for the Booker in 2006, and When the World Was Steady and The Hunters, which were both finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She has won Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Cambridge, Mass.
Held by Anne Michaels
Weaving in historical figures and events, the mysterious generations-spanning novel Held begins on a First World War battlefield near the River Aisne in 1917, where John lies in the falling snow unable to move or feel his legs. When he returns home to North Yorkshire with life-changing injuries, he reopens his photography business in an effort to move on with his life. The past proves harder to escape than he once thought and John is haunted by ghosts that begin to surface in his photos with messages he struggles to decipher.
Held is longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and shorlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Michaels is the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Trillium Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has been short listed for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Giller Prize.
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
Kit McNair was born Kathleen to an Irish farming family in Ontario and, a tomboy in boy's clothes, doesn't fit in with the expectations of a farmgirl set out for them. When Rebekah, a German-Canadian's doctor's daughter comes to town, she, Kit and Kit's older brother Landon find themselves in a love triangle which tears their families apart. All three of them separate and join different war efforts but all eventually return home — and they'll have to move forward from their challenging and storied past.
Loghan Paylor is an Ontario-born author currently based in Abbotsford, B.C. They have an MA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and their short fiction and essays have previously appeared in publications including Room and Prairie Fire. Their debut novel, The Cure for Drowning, is a historical work that centres queer and non-binary characters was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Peacocks of Instagram by Deepa Rajagopalan
The collection of stories in Peacocks of Instagram provide a tapestry of the Indian diaspora. Tales of revenge, love, desire and family explore the intense ramifications of privilege, or lack thereof. Coffee shop and hotel housekeeping employees, engineers and children show us all of themselves, flaws and all.
Peacocks of Instagram is short listed for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Rajagopalan was the 2021 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award winner. Born to Indian parents in Saudi Arabia, she has lived across India, the United States and Canada. Her previous writing has appeared in publications such as the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology, the New Quarterly, Room and Arc. Rajagopalan now lives and works in Toronto.
In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart
In Winter I Get Up at Night tells the story of music teacher Emer McConnell who lives in rural Saskatchewan. One day, as she heads to work in the early morning, she takes a trip down memory lane, taking us on her life's journey, from the prairie storm that left her in a children's ward when she was 11 to family secrets and distant love affairs.In Winter I Get Up at Night was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
Jane Urquhart is a novelist and poet. In 2005, she was made an officer of the Order of Canada. Urquhart has written seven critically acclaimed novels. In 1994, she received the Marian Engel Award, now known as Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award. Her debut, The Whirlpool, received Le prix du meilleur livre étranger (Best Foreign Book Award) in France. The 1993 speculative fiction novel Away won the Trillium Award, was a finalist for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and a contender on Canada Reads 2013, when it was defended by Charlotte Gray.
real ones by katherena vermette
Following two Michif sisters, lyn and June, real ones examines what happens when their estranged and white mother gets called out as a pretendian. Going by the name Raven Bearclaw, she's seen success for her art that draws on Indigenous style. As the media hones in on the story, the sisters, whose childhood trauma manifests in different ways, are pulled into their mother's web of lies and the painful past resurfaces. real ones was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize.
vermette is a Métis writer from Winnipeg. Her books include the poetry collections North End Love Songs and river woman and the four-book graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo. Her novels are The Break, The Strangers, The Circle. North End Love Songs won the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. The Break was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. It was defended by Candy Palmater on Canada Reads 2017. The Strangers won the 2021 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and was longlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Martyr! follows a 20-something Iranian American poet named Cyrus in his early years of sobriety. When he becomes fascinated with the stories of historical martyrs, he finds himself on his way to interview a terminally ill artist in Brooklyn — a journey and conversation that changes the course of his life.
Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian American writer who has taken the literary scene by storm with his debut novel, Martyr! And now he's the very first guest on Bookends with Mattea Roach, CBC's new author interview show. Previously known for his poetry, Akbar's foray into fiction draws partially on his own experiences and has changed the course of his own life, making him a New York Times bestselling author and garnering rave reviews.
The Capital of Dreams by Heather O'Neill
The Capital of Dreams is a dark fairytale set in a small European country during a period of war. Fourteen-year-old Sofia is the daughter of the revered writer, Clara Bottom. When their country is invaded, Clara bundles Sofia onto the last train evacuating children out of the city. Clara gives her daughter her latest manuscript to smuggle to safety.
When the children's train stops in the middle of the forest, Sofia senses they are in danger. She manages to escape, but loses her mother's beloved manuscript. Soon Sofia finds herself alone in a country at war on an epic journey to find all that she has lost.
Heather O'Neill is a novelist, short story writer and essayist from Montreal. She won Canada Reads 2024, championing The Future by Catherine Leroux, which was translated from French by Susan Ouriou. O'Neill is the first person to win Canada Reads as both an author and a panellist. Her debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals won Canada Reads 2007 when it was defended by musician John K. Samson. Her other books include Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and her short story collection Daydreams of Angels.
Oil People by David Huebert
Oil People weaves together two narratives and timelines to unravel family secrets and the toxic yet powerful nature of oil. The first narrative is the story of 13-year-old Jade Armbruster in 1987, who is living on the family's oil farm, a deteriorating property built by an ancestor, as her parents decide what to do about the land and their business. The other story is that of Clyde Armbruster in 1862 who built the oil farm and the rivalry he fell into with his neighbours — the reverberations of which are still felt by Jade and her family.
David Huebert is a Halifax-based writer who has won the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize and The Walrus Poetry Prize. He is the author of short story collections Peninsula Sinking, which won a Dartmouth Book Award and was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and Chemical Valley, which won the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize.
Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley
In Grief is for People, American writer Sloane Crosley reckons with her grief using philosophy and art as a framework, writing with her trademark irreverence and honesty.
Sloane Crosley is an American writer known for her humorous essay collections I Was Told There'd Be Cake and Look Alive Out There.
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş
The Anthropologists centres on a young immigrant couple in an unnamed city navigating friendships, the guilt of being away from family and the search for an apartment.
Ayşegül Savaş is a Paris-based Turkish novelist and short story writer celebrated for her mesmerizing depictions of daily life, art and identity, often drawing from her own experiences.
Degrees of Separation by Alison McCreesh
Degrees of Separation blends stories, drawings and sketches that chronicle Alison McCreesh's decade spent living in the North. From being stranded in the High Arctic to raising a baby in a small shack with no running water, the book is a coming-of-age story that recounts the challenges and joys of life living and working north of the 60th parallel.
McCreesh is an artist who currently lives in Yellowknife. She has travelled around the Arctic and sub-Arctic and the theme of contemporary day-to-day life in the North carries through her creative work.
The Knowing by Tanya Talaga
In The Knowing, Tanya Talaga retells her family story to explore Canada's history with an Indigenous lens. The Knowing starts with the life of Talaga's great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and charts the violence she and her family experienced for decades at the hands of the Church and the government.
Talaga is a writer and journalist of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She is a member of Fort William First Nation. Her book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City won the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and the First Nation Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult Award. Her book All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward was the basis for the 2018 CBC Massey Lectures.
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
The Pairing tells the story of Kit and Theo, two exes with a long history of love and friendship. They accidentally end up on the same European food and wine tour after not seeing each other for four years.
To make matters worse, they originally planned to take that same trip together, years earlier, but they broke up on the flight there — leaving them both with unresolved feelings, frustrations and a need to prove that they're totally, 100 per cent over each other.
Trapped together at some of the most romantic places in the world, Kit and Theo jump headlong into a friendly European hookup competition to get their mind off their ever-present chemistry.
Casey McQuiston is the author of Red, White & Royal Blue, One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler. Their work has appeared in The New York Times,The Washington Post and Bon Appetit. They were born and raised in Louisiana but currently live in New York City.
Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
In Revenge of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell revisits the lessons of his groundbreaking book The Tipping Point and reframes the subject of social epidemics in the current context. Using stories and research, Gladwell highlights a concerning form of social engineering and offers a guide to making sense of modern contagion.
Gladwell has written many nonfiction books including The Tipping Point, Blink, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers and The Bomber Mafia. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, a company that produces the podcast Revisionist History among others as well as audiobooks. Gladwell grew up in Elmira, Ont. and now lives in the U.S.
Poutine by Justin Giovannetti Lamothe
Journalist Justin Giovannetti Lamothe writes about the odd, winding origins of the closest thing Canada has to a national dish — Poutine. Through his research, he learns more about Canadian history and draws closer to the Québécois heritage he used to drift away from.
Giovannetti Lamothe is a Montreal-based journalist who has covered major events such as the Lac-Mégantic rail explosion and the Fort McMurray wildfires. He was born in rural Quebec and has lived in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.
Hearty by andrea bennett
Hearty is an essay collection that explores andrea bennett's love and appreciation for food as someone who's worked in the industry for decades and uses food to show they care. The essays examine specific foods as well as broader themes like food media and home gardening in a blend of journalism, cultural commentary and personal experience.
bennett is a writer and senior editor at The Tyee. Their writing can be found in The Walrus, Chatelaine, The Atlantic and the Globe and Mail. Their work includes the essay collection Like a Boy but Not a Boy and poetry collection the berry takes the shape of the bloom. They live in Powell River, B.C.
Unlike the Rest by Chika Stacy Oriuwa
Unlike the Rest charts how Chika Stacy Oriuwa's realized her dream of being a doctor — and the systemic discrimination she faced as the only Black student in her medical school class of 259 students at the University of Toronto. She vividly describes what it's like to train in the hospital, have doubts and familial pressure to achieve success and become an advocate for change.
Oriuwa is a psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto. She was named one of Time magazine's 2021 Next Generation Leaders and was on Maclean's Power 50 list in 2022. She has been on multiple boards and is an advocate for creating spaces of wellness and inclusion.
Proof by Beverley McLachlin
Criminal defense lawyer Jilly Truitt is taking some well-deserved and needed time off with her new baby when she's asked to take on the case of Katie, a high-profile mother accused of kidnapping her own child. Katie's prospects aren't looking good and police begin to suspect that her daughter, Tess, is dead — and she's one the responsible. Jilly must quickly solve the case to save both Katie and Tess.
Beverley McLachlin was the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. She held the position for nearly 20 years. After McLachlin retired from the court, she became a writer, publishing the memoir Truth Be Told, which won the Writers' Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and the Ottawa Book Award for Nonfiction, and the thrillers Full Disclosure and Denial.
Dear Da-Lê by Anh Duong
Written for his daughter, Anh Duong tells his previously untold story as a child during the Vietnam War and a refugee in Iran in the late 1970s. Compelled by his daughter's involvement in student protests, in Dear Da-Lê, he decides that it's finally time to share his journey to ending up in Canada in 1980.
Duong is a Calgary-based writer. He was born in Thua-Thien Hue, Vietnam and moved to Iran in the 1970s. He worked for years as an engineer in the petroleum industry after his 1980 arrival to Canada.
A Constellation of Minor Bears by Jen Ferguson
A Constellation of Minor Bears tells the story of Molly, her brother Hank and his best friend Tray. When Hank suffers a traumatic brain injury while indoor climbing, Molly is devastated to embark on their planned graduation trip without him. Tray, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind. This infuriates Molly who's harbouring layers of resentment towards him surrounding her brother's accident.
But as the two trek through the wilderness together, they'll have to hash it all out and band together for the journey's twists and turns.
Jen Ferguson is a YA author, activist and academic of Michif/Métis and Canadian settler heritage, based in Los Angeles. Ferguson has a PhD in English and creative writing. Her debut novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, won the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text.
Under All the Lights by Maya Ameyaw
When Ollie Cheriet's song becomes popular online he's approached to write an album, go on tour and fulfill all his dreams as long as he can learn to manage his stage fright. As the pressure of being in the spotlight grows, his new touring partner Jesse begins to make him feel more at ease. In the coming-of-age novel Under All the Lights Ollie explores what it means to be an artist in the spotlight while he learns more about his anxiety disorder and bisexuality.
Maya Ameyaw is a writing instructor and author based in Toronto. Her books include the YA novel When It All Syncs Up and the anthology Brilliance is the Clothing I Wear.
The Beauty of Us by Farzana Doctor
Set in a private boarding school in 1984, The Beauty of Us follows three young women as they navigate family hardships back home and fitting in as racialized people at Thornton College. Zahabiya is a keen 15-year-old sent to Thornton only to find herself the target of 17-year-old Leesa's bullying. Nahla is a newly graduated teacher haunted by the ghost of her predecessor, Mademoiselle Leblanc. As all three of their lives become more interconnected, can they grow to help one another?
Farzana Doctor is an Ontario-based novelist, activist and psychotherapist of Indian ancestry. She is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Seven and the novels All Inclusive and Six Metres of Pavement, which won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. She was the recipient of the 2011 Dayne Ogilvie Prize from the Writer's Trust of Canada for an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer and the 2023 Freedom to Read Award.
Mummy & Me by Danesh Mohiuddin
In this funny and original picture book, Mummy and Wee Wolf emerge from their coffin to start their 'day' every night when the sun goes down. Wee Wolf loves his Mummy and tries to be a well-behaved monster, but isn't always successful. Mummy & Me explores the hilarity and tender moments of a parent-child relationship.
Mummy & Me is for ages 3-6.
Danesh Mohiuddin is an illustrator and a cartoonist and has previously worked as a toy and games designer. Mohiuddin was born in India and now lives in Toronto. Mummy & Me is his first picture book.
The Mango Monster by Derek Mascarenhas, illustrated by Meneka Repka
In The Mango Monster Marianne and her cousin Zoe are trying to solve the mystery of who is stealing the mangoes from their mango tree. They have waited all year for mango season, so when mangos start to disappear from the lower branches of their trees, they are determined to find out who is responsible. Could it be a mango monster?
The Mango Monster is for ages 4-7.
Derek Mascarenhas is a Toronto writer. His previous books include the short story collection, Coconut Dreams, and the picture book, 100 Chapatis, which was illustrated by Shantala Robinson.
Meneka Repka is Sri Lankan-Canadian illustrator and teacher. The Mango Monster is her first children's book. Repka lives in Victoria.
It Bears Repeating by Tanya Tagaq, illustrated by Cee Pootoogook
It Bears Repeating is a counting picture book for young readers, celebrating Inuktitut language and art, that features the fascinating Arctic animal — the polar bear. From one to 10, more polar bears make their way through the icy landscape while they play, dance and search for food. This book combines English and Inuktitut words for young readers and parents alike.
It Bears Repeating is for ages 3-7.
Tanya Tagaq is an Inuk writer and Juno Award-winning throat singer. Her first novel, Split Tooth, set in 1970s Nunavut, won the Indigenous Voices Award for best published prose in English in 2019.
Cee Pootoogook is an Inuk artist and illustrator. He has worked in carving, stone cutting and illustrations. It Bears Repeating is his first picture book.
Broom for Two by Jennifer Maruno, illustrated by Scot Ritchie
In the picture book Broom for Two, a young witch is practising for her flying test but she keeps misplacing her broom. On one such occasion she finds her missing broom in the woods near a little rat's house, and the broom has been bent and chewed. With a broom that is no longer fit for purpose, Little Witch must overcome obstacles to pass her flying test and gets help from an unlikely friend.
Broom for Two is for ages 3-7.
Jennifer Maruno is an educator and author. Her debut novel, When the Cherry Blossoms Fell, was shortlisted for the Hackmatack Award and the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award. She also wrote the picture book, While You Sleep, illustrated by Miki Sato. Maruno lives in Burlington, Ont.
Scot Ritchie is a Vancouver author-illustrator of over 60 books including See Where We Come From!, Zander Stays, written by Maureen Fergus, Join the No-Plastic Challenge!, Follow That Map! and Lilliana and the Frogs.
I Hate Parties by Jes Battis
I Hate Parties is a collection of 50 poems on Jes Battis' experiences of being queer, autistic and nonbinary. Focusing on the feelings of intense anxiety that come with growing up in the nineties in Canada as a marginalized person, Battis writes of adolescence, queer parties and panic attacks through metaphor and honest verse.
Battis is a queer autistic writer and teacher at the University of Regina, splitting their time between the prairies and the west coast. They wrote the Occult Special Investigator series and Parallel Parks series. Battis' first novel, Night Child, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award.
Their novel The Winter Knight was on the Canada Reads 2024 longlist.
echolalia echolalia by Jane Shi
In echolalia echolalia a collection of poems focus on the body politic and the experiences of being queer, disabled and in the diaspora. Reflecting on her own identities, author Jane Shi writes about chosen family and resisting colonial projects and ideologies that seek to dehumanize.
Jane Shi is a writer and poet based in B.C. Her writing has appeared in the Disability Visibility Blog and Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry. Shi graduated from the Writer's Studio Online program at Simon Fraser University and StoryStudio Chicago. She is the winner of The Capilano Review's 2022 In(ter)ventions in the Archive Contest.
Water Quality by Cynthia Woodman Kerkham
Water Quality is a book of lamentations, monologues and haibun: a Japanese form of both prose and haiku. Focusing on water as a central force that covers a swimmer's body, the poet follows the movement and purpose of water across lakes, seas and oceans. From Hong Kong to the Pacific Northwest, the poet questions what water wants and how we can best steward it.
Cynthia Woodman Kerkham is the Victoria-based author of Good Holding Ground and with feathers and the co-editor of Poems from Planet Earth. Woodman Kerkham was shortlisted for the 2014 CBC Poetry Prize.
The Flesh of Ice by Garry Gottfriedson
Dedicated to survivors of Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) and all residential schools in Canada The Flesh of Ice is a collection of poems and personal narratives of writer Garry Gottfriedson of the Secwépemc (Shuswap) First Nation. Where Gottfriedson's last collection Bent Back Tongue discussed the history of Indigenous people in Canada as affected by the government of Canada and the Catholic Church, this book describes the lived realities of those who attended KIRS, citing their pain, their resilience and their necessary voices.
Gottfriedson is from Kamloops, B.C. He is strongly rooted in his Secwépemc (Shuswap) cultural teachings. In the late 1980s, Gottfriedson studied under Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull and others at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. He is the author of 13 books, including Skin Like Mine and Clinging to Bone. Gottfriedson received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in 2023. Gottfriedson was a juror for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize.
cop city swagger by Mercedes Eng
In cop city swagger, Mercedes Eng draws on the experiences of racialized and unhoused people in Vancouver, particularly in communities like Chinatown. Through short poems, Eng examines the threat to public safety the Vancouver police posed by assessing cases from 2019 to 2023, highlighting institutional violence and the purpose of community self-preservation.
Eng is a Vancouver prairie-born poet. She is also the author of Mercenary English. Eng is an assistant professor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Raw Sewage Science Fiction by Marc Bell
Part autofiction, part cultural criticism, Raw Sewage Science Fiction is the latest from Canadian cartoonist Marc Bell. Bell uses his unique style and humour to examine the making of art and reflect on a lost decade spent wandering from coast to coast.
Marc Bell is a Canadian cartoonist originally from London, Ont. His other books include Hot Potatoe, Pure Pajamas, and Shrimpy and Paul and Friends.
Little Moons by Jen Storm, illustrated by Ryan Howe
A year after her sister Chelsea's disappearance, teen Reanna and her family are still struggling to come to terms with her loss. In an attempt to escape the painful memories, Reanna's mom moves to the big city leaving Reanna and her brother on the reserve in the care of their dad. When lights start turning on in empty rooms and objects move without being touched Reanna starts to wonder if she's not as alone as she's been feeling lately.
Jen Storm is an Ojibway writer and artist from the Couchiching First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. She was born and raised in Winnipeg and completed her first novel, Deadly Loyalties, when she was 14 years old. She is the author of the graphic novel Fire Starters. Storm wrote Red Clouds and illustrated Nimkii with Ryan Howe for This Place: 150 Years Retold.
Storm was a 2017 recipient for CBC Manitoba's Future 40 Under 40 and in 2019, she served as the writer-in-residence for One Book UWinnipeg at the University of Winnipeg.
Ryan Howe is a comic artist, illustrator and graphic designer from Saskatoon. His work includes the Henchmen comics, Gun Street Girl: Volume 1, the Female Force collection and the ongoing Daisy Blackwood series.
Nancy Spector, Monster Detective 1 by Stephen W. Martin, illustrated by Linh Pham
In Nancy Spector, Monster Detective 1, Nancy Spector is an intrepid eight-year-old who hunts monsters with the help of her talking dog Jinx. When The Invisible Man's invisible dog Spot goes missing, he enlists Nancy to get to the bottom of the case.
Stephen W. Martin is a Canadian screenwriter and children's author based in Los Angeles.
Linh Pham is an award-winning illustrator and visual development artist from Vancouver.
Taxi Ghost by Sophie Escabasse
In Taxi Ghost, Adèle is just a normal teenager until her first period comes and with it the ability to see ghosts. When the ghosts won't leave her alone, Adèle starts to get to know them and their problems and eventually she starts helping them out in whatever ways she can.
Sophie Escabasse is a cartoonist based in Montreal. She has illustrated many books for middle-grade readers, including her bestselling graphic novel series Witches of Brooklyn.
