For nearly as long as I’ve been a reader, I’ve sought out books about/by people who were preoccupied by ideas about how and where we belong. At first, I used to look for stories with characters who felt they didn’t belong in the same ways that I felt I
Many people think of following the news as a responsibility, but this contrasting idea gave me pause, expressed in Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide (2025). Because priorities shift, during wartime, when your daily life is what other people are consuming as news—on their phones while waiting in line
This year, I’ve been reading backlisted titles I’ve missed along the way. These are mostly well-known titles by established writers, which is why they’re still occupying library space; of these ten, only the two from small presses (named) might be difficult to find overseas. They also lean towards international
Although this project was motivated by a recent statistic reported from the 2020 election in the United States, I’ve been reading about slavery since I was a kid. But, first, I watched Cicely Tyson in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) and A Woman Called Moses (1978) about
These are some summer reads which left an impression; now my stack and library card are humming and wriggling, with all the CanLit prizelist reading – including my new Shadow Jury reading responsibilities towards the 2018 Giller Prize – but these books insist on a sliver of the spotlight.
