2026 Spring Preview: Nonfiction

Over the course of three instalments, Q&Q presents the titles we’re most excited about this spring. This week’s instalment features nonfiction books. Last week’s instalment looked at this season’s short fiction, graphic novels, and poetry. Our first instalment featured forthcoming novels.

Q&Q’s spring preview covers books published between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2026. All information (titles, publication dates) was supplied by publishers.

New nonfiction titles out this spring include books that explore the multi-faceted and complicated circumstances of being human at this moment in time, as well as a cache of books about the Indigenous experience and reconciliation, and a bevy of memoirs.

Life in 2026

Toronto Book Award–winner Maggie Helwig’s next title perhaps captures the current prevailing mood best: Instructions for the End of the World. Helwig’s book is one of many releases this season that explore different aspects of life in the current complicated moment, from health care and oil to our relationship with each other in the context of the rise of AI.

The Handover: A Nurse’s Last Shift
Tilda Shalof with Lisa Mochrie
Aevo/University of Toronto Press, Jan.

Fire and Silence: A Roadmap for BIPOC Leaders
Annahid Dashtgard
Dundurn Press, Feb.

The CEO of Anima Leadership, a company that focuses on equity and racial justice in organizations, provides leaders with minority backgrounds with strategies and tools – combined with real-life examples – to succeed without compromising who they are.

Anon: The Future of Love and Friendship in the Age of AI
Caia Hagel
HarperCollins, Feb.

Spying on America: An Irreverent Road Trip through the American West
Bill Gaston
Goose Lane Editions, April

Exhumations: Inside the Body of a Petrostate
Joanne Leow
Alchemy by Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada, April

Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff
Harper, April

Pizza Before We Die: An Eyewitness Account in Gaza
Hassan Kanafani and Yasuko Thanh
Arsenal Pulp Press, May

The expression of a small hope that gives this work of citizen journalism its title reflects the nature of existence during the Gaza war, as told by an ordinary Palestinian. First posted on Reddit, collected by activists, and shaped with Yasuko Thanh, this literary narrative bears urgent, harrowing, yet unsensationalized witness to the struggles of civilians trapped in Gaza.

Free To Be More: Creative Activism in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Syrus Marcus Ware and Ra’anaa Yaminah Ekundayo, eds., with d’bi young anitafrika
University of Regina Press, May

Instructions for the End of the World: Homilies of Comfort and Resistance
Maggie Helwig
Coach House Books, June

My Year of Living Anonymously
Ian Thornton
At Bay Press, June

In their own words

Forthcoming memoirs include books from notable Canadians – such as former parliamentary poet laureate Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, David Suzuki, and Mary Walsh – and titles from writers with unique stories and perspectives.

wīthtamawik / Tell Them: On a Life of Inspiration
Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer
University of Regina Press, March

Unshaming: A Memoir of Recovery, Relapse, and What Comes After
Jowita Bydlowska
Signal Editions/Penguin Random House Canada, March

Sincerely, Katherine.
Katherine Dudtschak
Page Two Books, March

Lessons From a Lifetime: Ninety Years of Inspiration and Activism
David Suzuki, with Ian Hanington
Greystone Books, March

Brassy Bit of Aging Crumpet: A Memoir in Pieces
Mary Walsh
HarperCollins, March

In Fertility: The Story of a Miracle and the Big Business Behind It
Kathryn Blaze Baum
Viking Canada/Penguin Random House Canada, April

Jelly, Baby: Essays on Disability and Vulnerability
Therese Estacion
Book*hug Press, April

Therese Estacion unpacks the impacts of ableism, her trauma, rage, and internalized ableism in the face of her disability, and examines social attitudes as well as the vulnerabilities and possibilities of transformation through a series of revelatory personal essays.

From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall
Whit Fraser
Douglas & McIntyre, April

The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street
Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho
Douglas & McIntyre, April

Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho was 12 when her parents, due to economic pressures, returned to Taiwan, leaving their children in Vancouver to study, a separation that lasted years, fracturing the sense of family. This rarely told story chronicles the struggles for survival and identity when families are separated by borders and political circumstances.

The First Lady Next Door: A Canadian’s Memoir of Iceland, Identity, and Unexpected Adventure
Eliza Reid
Simon & Schuster Canada, April

Notes from a Wayward Son
Adrian De Leon
Bond Street Books/Penguin Random House Canada, May

Poet and academic Adrian De Leon, son of a military officer, and martial arts master, recounts his difficult relationship with his father as he was growing up in Scarborough, Ontario, after the family immigrated from the Philippines. A literary memoir about immigrant father and son relationships, love of family, and forgiveness.

Dog Days: A Memoir
Emily LaBarge
Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House Canada, May

My Year in Fairyland: Grief, MAID and a Lifetime of Books
Sarah Ellis
Stonehewer Books, June

waaseya’sin Christine Sy (photo courtesy waaseya’sin Christine Sy)

Indigenous voices

These five new titles offer Indigenous perspectives on land, treaties, and reconciliation.

Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada
Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky
Collins/HarperCollins Canada, Feb.

Everyday Reconciliation: A Guide to Action and Change for All of Us
Derek Aronhie:nens Montour and Elin Sandberg Miller
HarperCollins Publishers, June

See Us Fly from the Point of the Arrow: Indigenous Womxn on Our Lands, Waters and Relations
waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy, ed.
Wolsak & Wynn, May

The Seven Cycles of Life: Seeking Healing, Connection and Justice in Anishinaabe Teachings
John Borrows
Random House Canada, May

The Power of the Little People
Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch and Patricia Big George, trans.
Kegedonce Press, May

Presented in both English and Anishinaabemowin, and transcribed from Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch’s storytelling, this collection gathers ancient stories originating on the north shore of Lake Huron about the Maymaygwesiwak, the little people of Anishinaabe culture who are guardians of the earth and of tradition.

Graphic nonfiction

Arizona O’Neill debuts with a graphic memoir about losing her father to overdose and being forced, as his next of kin, to make a decision about whether to donate his organs, while a new book revisits the divisive Reesor Siding strike of 1963.

Opioids & Organs
Arizona O’Neill
Drawn & Quarterly, May

Blood on the Snow: The Tragedy at Reesor Siding
Jacques Poirier and Christian Quesnel, ill; Sarah Moses, trans.
Between the Lines, May

Nature

Three forthcoming titles explore the resilience of the forest, the singularity of Antarctica, and the cycles of nature.

When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World
Suzanne Simard
Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, March

Where the Earth Meets the Sky: A Story of Penguins, People, and Place in Antarctica
Louise K. Blight
Bond Street Books/Penguin Random House Canada, April

Dead Bees Still Sting: Tales of Life at the Edge of Nature
Susan Cormier
Greystone Books, May

History

The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII
Mark Braude
Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Books, Jan.

On writing and writers

A selection of forthcoming titles that offer fresh takes on the craft, and a new biography that sheds light on fantasy trailblazer Charles R. Saunders.

To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy
Jon Tattrie
McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada, Jan.

I Made a Promise I Could Not Keep: Speculative Essays
David Homel
Linda Leith Publishing, March

Do It Wrong: How to Be a Poet In the Twenty-First Century
Derek Beaulieu
Assembly Press, April

Literary Life After Death: Commemorations of Writers in English-Speaking Canada
Carole Gerson
Concordia University Press, May

ART

These forthcoming books examine the origins of Haida Manga and the works of photographer Edward Burtynsky and Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy.

Fractured Landscapes: The Life and Work of Edward Burtynsky
James King
Sutherland House Books, April

Alan Syliboy: The Journey So Far
Pamela Edmonds, Catherine Anne Martin, Diane Langevin, Michelle Sylliboy, Catherine Girard, and Aaron Prosper
Nimbus Publishing, May

The Lost Haida Manga: A Compendium
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, intro by Wade Davis
Douglas & McIntyre, May