  | | | | Katie Welch's debut novel, Mad Honey, fuses the twists and turns of a gripping mystery with the heart of a family saga, all interspersed with a magical realism inspired by the natural world.
The story follows Melissa Makepeace, who's looking after the family farm amidst the disappearance of her boyfriend Beck Wise — the second person to vanish from her life after her father also went missing when she was only 11.
But when Beck reappears three months later, he returns with the memory of having lived as — wait for it — a colony of bees. Trying to unravel this mystery ties into the ongoing questions over where Melissa's long-gone father went, with the narrative culminating in an unexpected plot twist.
Welch spoke with CBC Books about how bees, music and a long-ago acid trip served as inspirations while writing her first novel.
| | |  | | Canadian American author Fonda Lee, Winnipeg author and politician Wab Kinew and Alberta author Premee Mohamed are among the winners of the 2022 Aurora Awards, which recognize the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy literature.
Portland-based Lee won the best novel award for her fantasy novel Jade Legacy, the third instalment in her Green Bone Saga series, which also includes Jade War and Jade City.
Kinew's book Walking in Two Worlds won the best YA novel award.
Mohamed won the best novelette/novella award for her book The Annual Migration of Clouds.
The awards are voted on by members of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association.
See the full list of winners! | | | | |  | | | | Canadian American author and illustrator Johnnie Christmas and acclaimed comic creator Jeff Lemire are among the nominees for the 2022 Harvey Awards for outstanding work in comics.
Vancouver-based comic creator Johnnie Christmas is nominated for Best Children's or Young Adult Book for his middle-grade novel, Swim Team.
Toronto-based comic writer Lemire is nominated for the Digital Book of the Year Award for Snow Angels, a collaboration with acclaimed Scottish cartoonist Jock.
Toronto illustrator Jamal Campbell is also nominated for his work on Far Sector the comic debut of award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author N.K. Jemisin. The book is a finalist for Book of the Year.
The awards will be given out on Oct. 7, 2022 at this year's New York Comic Con. | | |  | | | | Lillian Allen is a groundbreaking artist in spoken word, poetry and dub. Allen is one of the leading creative Black feminist voices in Canada, a two-time Juno award-winning recording artist, a dub poet, and a professor at Toronto's OCAD University. Drawing on Jamaican reggae music for its rhythm and diction, she's been performing for audiences around the world for more than 30 years. Her poetry often focuses on the totality of Black life and the unique experiences of those from the Black diaspora.
Make the World New is a collection of poetry based on Allen's most notable work. It is a selection of new and uncollected poetry — and also features poems from her collections Rhythm an' Hardtimes, Women Do This Everyday and Psychic Unrest.
Make the World New was named among the best Canadian poetry of 2021 by CBC Books.
Allen spoke with The Next Chapter's Shelagh Rogers about Make the World New. | | |  | | | | Steven Heighton was a Canadian novelist, short story writer and poet from Kingston, Ont. His books included the Governor General's Literary Award-winning poetry collection The Waking Comes Late, the novel The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep and the memoir Reaching Mithymna, which was a finalist for the 2020 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Heighton died from cancer at the age of 60 in April 2022.
Joshua Levy is a writer of creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry. He was the 2018 CBC/Quebec Writers' Federation writer-in-residence, made the 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist for My Brother's Engagement and was a reader for the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize. His first book of poetry, The Loudest Thing, was published in 2019.
Most importantly, Levy considered Heighton a friend.
Born Aug. 14, 1961, Heighton would have been 61 in 2022.
Read Levy's tribute to the acclaimed Canadian poet.
| | |  | | | | Bill T. Jones changed the face of modern dance. He's one of the most adventurous and celebrated dancer-choreographers, known for provocative works that blend traditional and modern influences. While remarkably sensual and tender, his productions take on big subjects — race, politics, sexual orientation and death.
In 2009, Jones created two new shows that looked at the legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
When he spoke with Writers & Company's Eleanor Wachtel in New York in 2010, he had a hit Broadway musical, Fela!, based on the life of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti. It went on to be nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including best choreography, which Jones won. | | |  | | | | At first glance, Anna Fitzpatrick's debut novel Good Girl might seem like a major shift from her work in children's literature. However, while the novel's content is categorically adult, the Toronto-based author of Margot and the Moon Landing draws inspiration from YA literature for the witty, casual tone of her new novel she dubs an "overgrown young-adult book."
Fitzpatrick's novel, billed as "Secretary meets Fleabag," follows Lucy, an aspiring Toronto writer in her 20s, as she attempts to navigate friendships, work, dating and sex — all of which are profoundly affected by her desire for approval.
Fitzpatrick told CBC Books about what went into writing her debut novel Good Girl. | | |  | | Check out the bestselling Canadian books for Aug. 7 - Aug. 13, 2022. | | | | |  | | | | In Jamie Chai Yun Liew's debut novel, Dandelion a young woman, Lily, is in the throes of new motherhood when she sets out to uncover what happened to her own mother after she mysteriously left Lily in her youth.
In order to do so, Lily must ask herself questions about her identity, family and childhood growing up in one of the few Asian families in a small British Columbia mining town. Chief among those questions are: what makes a good mother? And what will a family sacrifice in order to survive?
The first-time author, who was recently named one of CBC Books writers to watch in 2022, spoke with CBC Books about the questions she asked herself about her culture, her career and what it means to belong when writing Dandelion. | | |  | | | | Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm writes powerful fiction and poetry. She's also a performer, librettist, spoken-word artist and respected educator who founded Kegedonce Press, Ontario's longest-running Indigenous literary publisher.
Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. She is the author of the collection of short stories The Stone Collection and wrote the story Nimkii for This Place: 150 Years Retold.
Her latest book is a collection of poems from throughout her career called (Re)Generation.
Akiwenzie-Damm spoke with The Next Chapter's Shelagh Rogers at an event at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, hosted by the novelist Michelle Good. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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