Taking a tip from Dickens, writers and publishers – including Toronto author Gare Joyce, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, and Stephen King, along with his publisher, Scribner – are heading a revival of serialized books. Toronto writer and Broken Pencil co-founder Hal Niedzviecki joins them with his first novel in a decade.

Niedzviecki and his publisher, Winnipeg’s ARP Books, are releasing his latest novel, The Archaeologists, as online serial instalments in five Canadian literary magazines: Broken Pencil, Geist, The New Quarterly, SubTerrain, and Taddle Creek. All 34 chapters will be released on alternating websites from April to October, with the paperback print edition due from ARP in the fall. The Archaeologists deals with issues such as “the environment, consumerism, ennui, and repatriation” as it follows six people involved in the fight over the fate of a riverbed in their Ontario town.