Margaret Atwood, Jay Baruchel, Canisia Lubrin among writers of new anthology that explores Canadian identity
Elbows Up! will be published Oct. 14, 2025
Responding to the current political climate, prominent Canadian writers and personalities will pen essays about Canada in an upcoming book.
Elbows Up! Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance, edited by Canadian writer, podcaster and current host of CBC Radio's Commotion Elamin Abdelmahmoud, will be published on Oct. 14, 2025.
The collection, inspired by the 1963 book The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinion of the U.S., explores the relationship that Canadians of different backgrounds have with our country, America and national narratives.
It will feature essays from Margaret Atwood, Jay Baruchel and Canisia Lubrin, among others.
The Ottawa-born Atwood has published over 50 books — poetry, fiction, essays — and is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature.
Her books include The Edible Woman, Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye, the essay collection Burning Questions and the nonfiction work Survival.
Atwood has won several awards for her work including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Writer in the World Prize, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the German Peace Prize.
Baruchel is a Canadian actor born in Ottawa, raised in Montreal and currently living in Toronto. He's best known for roles in How to Train Your Dragon, She's Out of My League and This Is the End.
Lubrin is a writer, editor and teacher. Her debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis was longlisted for the Gerald Lambert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award.
Her poetry collection The Dyzgraphxst, won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It won the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Prize for poetry.
Her short story collection Code Noir won the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Fiction prize and the Trillium Book Award.
Other contributors include Canadians such as Jeanne Beker, Dave Bidini, Omar El Akkad, Catherine Hernandez, Iain Reid, CBC Radio's Tom Power and more.
The essays aim to create a time capsule to remember this major moment in Canadian history.
"The anxiety around who we are as a nation never really goes away, but there are moments when it comes into sharp focus. Currently, there is a new momentum around these big national questions," said Abdelmahmoud in a press statement.
"I feel immensely fortunate to work with some of the country's best writers to grapple with our vulnerability, trace how we got here, and, if we listen carefully, maybe even map a way out."
