Spring preview 2013: highlights

Rumours to the contrary notwithstanding, publishing is alive and well moving into spring. In the January/February issue, Q&Q looks ahead at some of the season’s biggest books.

Click on the slideshow to see some of spring’s most-anticipated Canadian fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, and international titles.

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95394 Chicago-born author Jennifer Close is back with her first full-length novel. While her debut, the linked short-story collection Girls in White Dresses, focused on the romantic relationships and friendships of a group of young women, her follow-up appears to be more of a family affair. In The Smart One (Doubleday Canada, $29.95 cl., April), readers are introduced to Weezy and Will Coffey, who are desperately trying to help their adult kids navigate grown-up life. Despite having done everything they could to raise their three children properly, things seem to be falling apart: Martha returns to live at home after her career goes awry; her sister, Claire, locks herself in her New York apartment after suddenly cancelling her wedding; and Max, the youngest sibling, is having major girlfriend problems during his senior year at college. Can Close approach the level of wit and relatability she achieved in her first book? If so, readers will be in for a truly entertaining read about the comforts of a good home. “Laura Godfrey (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) A family affair: Jennifer Close https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Close-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Close.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Close.jpg 588 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-close/ sp-close 0 0

95395 George Fetherling ought to be well known among CanLit connoisseurs. The prolific poet and essayist is the author of some 50 books, including more than a dozen poetry collections, a small library of memoirs and travelogues, a novella, and three novels, including, most recently, Walt Whitman's Secret (2010). He has also been an avid cultural commentator in literary journals (including this one) and in works such as his seminal biography of George Woodcock. In The Writing Life: Journals, 1975“2005 (McGill-Queen's University Press, $37.95 cl., April), Fetherling shares a trove of observations and anecdotes from a life lived in the literary trenches, touching on some of the leading Canadian cultural figures from the past three decades. The book, edited by Brian Busby, draws on thousands of pages from Fetherling's meticulous, wryly observed daily journal, offering both a snapshot of a transformational period in Canadian culture and the story of one man's not insignificant role in helping to shape it. “Stuart Woods (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) A life in literature: George Fetherling https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Fethering-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Fethering.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Fethering.jpg 382 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-fethering/ sp-fethering 0 0

95396 There's nothing worse than a loser who doesn't know he's a loser, writes Cameron Dodds, the corrosively cynical narrator of Darren Greer's 2004 novel, Still Life with June. The Nova Scotia author's fiction is peopled by both kinds of losers: those who recognize their condition and those who remain blithely oblivious. In Greer's first novel, Tyler's Cape (2001), Luke Conrad flees his hometown to escape the clutches of his domineering mother, only to return to take care of her after she breaks her hip. Just Beneath My Skin (Cormorant Books, $21 pa., June), Greer's long-awaited third novel, extends themes of family, identity, and the price of freedom. Set in a small town plagued by poverty and despair, the novel tells the story of a minister's son named Jake MacNeil who abandons his young child, consigning the boy to the care of his abusive mother. When Jake returns to make amends for past sins, he must also reckon with the denizens of the town and his troublesome family, all of whom want nothing more than to drag him back into the life he thought he had left behind. “Steven W. Beattie (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) More than skin deep: Darren Greer https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Greer-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Greer.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Greer.jpg 434 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-greer/ sp-greer 0 0

95397 In the early years of the Canadian experiment, a brutal murder was committed in rural New Brunswick. The victim was a young woman named Mercy Hall, whose mentally disturbed brother was later sentenced to hang for his role in her horrific death. More than 200 years later, Debra Komar “ a leader in the field of forensic anthropology “ revisits the sensational case in the true-crime tale The Ballad of Jacob Peck (Goose Lane Editions, $19.95 pa., March). The aim of the book is not to prove the guilt or innocence of the accused, but rather to examine how an itinerant preacher named Jacob Peck may have fomented the crime via his incendiary sermons. The resulting book promises to be a unique account of life on the Canadian frontier, and a gripping tale of how isolation and religious fervour led to this dark episode buried deep in our history. “Stuart Woods (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) Cold blood country: Debra Komar https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Komar-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Komar.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Komar.jpg 395 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-komar/ sp-komar 0 0

95398 How do you get reluctant boy readers interested in books? Long-time Globe and Mail columnist Roy MacGregor seems to have figured out a solution to that perennial problem with his Screech Owls series, which marries hockey with mystery and adventure. Published by Tundra Books, the series will be resurrected with the February release of Face-Off at the Alamo ($9.99 pa.), ending a four-year hiatus. As in previous instalments, the book chronicles the adventures of a small-town Ontario hockey team as it travels around the world for tournaments. This time, Travis, Sarah, Nish, and the gang are bound for Texas. As usual, there's more than just hockey occupying the kids, who discover a plot to destroy the titular landmark. In addition to five new titles, scheduled to be released at a rate of two per year, Tundra is also reissuing five of the series' original 24 books, complete with new covers. “Dory Cerny (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) The puck stops here: Roy MacGregor https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Macgregor-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Macgregor.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Macgregor.jpg 399 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-macgregor/ sp-macgregor 0 0

95399 For Frank Viva, the accolades attached to his 2011 picture book debut, Along a Long Road, represented the cherry on top of fulfilling a long-held dream. I have wanted to make children's picture books ever since I read Go, Dog. Go!, says the Toronto-based graphic designer. Already an established talent in the world of commercial illustration, Viva has embraced the role of children's author with zeal, resulting in a second picture book, A Long Way Away (HarperCollins, $19.99 cl., April). As in his debut, Viva created the book as one long (in this case, 26-foot) work of art using Adobe Illustrator, then folded it into pages. But rather than telling the story in a traditional horizontal fashion, Viva turned the book on its side, allowing readers to flip the pages in either direction to follow the main character, an adorable octopus-like alien, on its journey down from space or up from the sea. We wondered how people would approach the book physically “ top down or bottom up, [and] we realized the easiest way to make sure people wouldn't become disoriented was to make sure it didn't matter, Viva explains. So we made a book that you could read in either direction, which is not the easiest way to write or illustrate a book. But I love puzzles. “Dory Cerny (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) A different world: Frank Viva https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Viva-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Viva.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Viva.jpg 508 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-viva/ sp-viva 0 0

95400 D.W. Wilson's literary arrival was announced with something akin to a barbaric yawp. Born in the Kootenay Valley region of B.C. and now residing in London, England, Wilson became the youngest author to win the £15,000 BBC National Short Story Award for his story The Dead Roads, which was called note perfect by the jury. The story was included in Wilson's debut collection, Once You Break a Knuckle (2011), which takes up themes of bruised masculinity, violence, and the often antagonistic relationships between fathers and sons. Wilson has not strayed far from this subject matter in his debut novel. Ballistics (Hamish Hamilton Canada, $32 cl., June) is another drama set in Western Canada. At the request of his dying grandfather, Alan West embarks on a mission to rescue his estranged father from a dangerous wildfire. A parallel story follows the trail of a Vietnam deserter who comes to Canada and initiates the chain of events that results in Alan's father abandoning him. “Steven W. Beattie (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) Fathers and sons: D.W. Wilson https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Wilson-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Wilson.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-Wilson.jpg 446 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-wilson/ sp-wilson 0 0: (Illustration: Kagan McLeod)

95401 According to The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, renga is a once popular but now seldom practiced genre of Japanese poetry in which verses (ku) ¦ are joined into long sequences according to rules (shikimoku) that govern how constituent images are to be employed. Popular in the late Medieval period, the orthodox renga form eventually gave way in the early modern era to unorthodox or comic haikai [no] renga ¦ which has far fewer restrictions on topics and vocabulary than the orthodox variety. In 2006, a quartet of poets composed of Susan Gillis, Mary di Michele, Jan Conn, and Jane Munro decided to collaborate on a series of linked verses in the Japanese mode. Writing in the haikai [no] renga style, the poets initially worked via email, soon amending the formal constraints or abandoning them altogether. The experiment culminated in a three-day session in 2008, during which the poets met to revise earlier work and complete their cycle. Collectively calling themselves Yoko's Dogs, the group is releasing the results of its experiment in what looks to be one of the most interesting collections in recent memory. Whisk: A Haikai no Renga Cycle ($20 pa.) is due out from Pedlar Press in April. “Steven W. Beattie (Illustration: <a href="http://kaganmcleod.com/">Kagan McLeod</a>) What the poets are doing: Yoko's Dogs https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-YokosDogs-90x90.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-YokosDogs.jpg https://quillandquire.com/wp-content/uploads/SP-YokosDogs.jpg 534 600 [] https://quillandquire.com/book-news/2013/01/09/spring-preview-2013-highlights/slide/sp-yokosdogs/ sp-yokosdogs 0 0

Q&Q‘s spring preview covers books published between Jan. 1 and June 31, 2013. ¢ All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time. ¢ Titles that have been listed in previous previews do not appear here.

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Spring preview 2013: highlights

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