nonfiction

Excerpt from In Crisis, On Crisis: Essays in Troubled Times by James Cairns

Excerpt from In Crisis, On Crisis: Essays in Troubled Times by James Cairns

The move itself was frigid. Men in boots tracking snow and salt through two houses. Half of our plants died in cold moving trucks. My big orange tabby shat in his cat carrier riding next to me in the car from Hamilton to Paris. An omen? Those first weeks in Paris, I saw omens everywhere. Worst was what I found in the attic. Kneeling and feeling for drafts by a small window, I saw bones lying on the floor next to me. They comprised a full skeleton. It was as though the skeleton had been picked clean and preserved for a science class. Not a bone missing or chipped. No rotting flesh or feathers attached. A bird? Squirrel? Baby raccoon? An offering to dark gods left by previous owners? I couldn’t tell.

Excerpt from The Unravelling: Incest and the Destruction of a Family by Donna Besel

Excerpt from The Unravelling: Incest and the Destruction of a Family by Donna Besel

Call me “Incested.” 

  I earned that name. I struggled long and hard to be able to say those words. 

I cannot speak for husbands, children, sisters, brothers, cousins, wives, ancestors, friends, 

or any of the hundreds involved; I speak only for myself. I tell this from my vantage point, my version of vision, my fractured reality.

Excerpt from Seeking Spirit: A Vietnamese (Non)Buddhist Memoir by Linda Trinh

Excerpt from Seeking Spirit: A Vietnamese (Non)Buddhist Memoir by Linda Trinh

After two thousand years, the historical truth of the two sisters, Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, has evaporated into the winds of time, carried along by gusts of myth throughout the centuries. In the most traditional account of events, the one most widely reported by historians, the Trưng sisters were born into a noble family, their father part of the Lạc lords living in the Red River Delta valley, in Giao Chỉ province.

Power Q & A with Laine Halpern Zisman

Power Q & A with Laine Halpern Zisman

Laine Halpern Zisman’s latest book Conceivable: A Guide to Making 2SLGBTQ+ Family (Fernwood, 2024) is the first book of its kind in Canada.

Laine Halpern Zisman is an adjunct professor at the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria. She is founder and project lead on Family Building Canada (familybuildingcanada.com) and a Certified Fertility Support Practitioner with Birth Mark in Toronto. Her research traverses the intersections of 2SLGBTQ+ equity, culture, and reproductive care.

Excerpt from Your Roots Cast a Shadow by Caroline Topperman

Excerpt from Your Roots Cast a Shadow by Caroline Topperman

I am standing in the middle of the street, crying. “I hate this coffee. Why does everything taste so weird? Why is surówka served with everything?” To this day I don’t get what’s to love about a type of coleslaw. Why did we come here? What was I thinking? My poor husband stands helpless, watching my meltdown. He later tells me he was concerned by my extreme reaction, and worried that I was going to unravel. He felt bad, he said. He had no idea how to help me. We haven’t found our support system. For now it is just the two of us trying to navigate our daily existence. 

Power Q & A with Margaret Nowaczyk

Power Q & A with Margaret Nowaczyk

Today’s Power Q & A features best-selling Polish-Canadian author and pediatric clinical geneticist Dr. Margaret Nowaczyk. Dr. Nowaczyk’s most recent book, Marrow Memory: Essays of Discovery invites readers to examine her DNA under a microscope, sharing her vast life experiences in a series of invariably absorbing and beautifully-crafted personal essays. From growing up in Communist Poland, to immigrating to Canada as a teen, to working as a pediatric clinical geneticist and professor at McMaster University, Nowaczyk bares her soul while encouraging readers to explore the ways in which our experiences and identities are entangled with our ancestral history.