Molly Peacock’s experience of widowhood wasn’t what she expected. This is the catalyst for creating her collection of poems, The Widow’s Crayon Box(W.W. Norton and Company.) As an internationally beloved poet, biographer, and creativity activist, Molly is no stranger to the creative process or the act of releasing a book into the world. Still, to some extent, releasing a new book always carries some unexpected twists and turns.

In this Power Q & A, we asked Molly what she anticipates readers might find most surprising about her breathtaking new book.

Michelle Berry and Peter Dearbyshire are Canadian writers who are widely regarded as masters of their genres. Berry is known for her exhilarating and provocative literary thrillers. Her most recent novel, Satellite Image (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024), has been hailed as “a super-creepy, anxiety-filled tale that will dash any urbanite's fantasy of escaping to the tranquil countryside.” (Elyse Friedman, author of The Opportunist and The Answer to Everything.) Peter Darbyshire is renowned for wild and immersive speculative fiction that “mashes pop-culture genres together, exposing profound truths beneath classic tropes in ways at once hilarious, weird, and heart-breaking.” (Publishers Weekly.) Staring with The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, Darbyshire’s Cross Series, (which was originally published by the now defunct ChiZin)e, is enjoying a second reincarnation this year thanks to Hamilton, Ontario’s beloved publisher Wolsak & Wynn.

Secrets in the Water by Alice Fitzpatrick is an absorbing mystery set in Wales that tells the story of Kate, a recently divorced woman who returns home to the fictional location of Meredith Island after her grandmother’s passing. There, she learns that her beloved aunt’s suicide may not have been a suicide. What follows is an exciting whodunnit in the tradition of great British mysteries.

Took the fat family bible and tossed it 
off the Lions Gate Bridge 
Goodbye Toronto pre-Depression infant death So long psalms of Edwardian fiscal failure 
Hurled it the same as Cobden-Sanderson  
into the Thames his blocks of type 
so no one could come after 
so no one could traffick in his lonely fight 
Good riddance to fleshpress and letterpress 
the antiquarian appetites of every cast 
let the orca swallow the bile anvil 
for a fibrillating sponge 
and sound so deep 

Award-winning writer Elizabeth Ruth’s first collection of poems, This Report is Strictly Confidential, (Caitlin Press, 2024) is stunning readers with its tender and biting look at Elizabeth’s aunt’s life in a notorious government-run residential hospital. These are poems that centre humanness in inhumane situations and undress taboo, pushing darkness into light and giving voice to the often voiceless.

Because the collection is so autobiographical in nature, we wanted to ask Elizabeth about the choices she made in deciding to share these parts of her aunt’s story with the world. Elizabeth was gracious enough to answer our question.

Stephanie Cesca’s heartwarming debut novel, Dotted Lines (Guernica Editions, 2024), is a binary-breaking book existing in stunning defiance of the “evil stepparent” narrative. It shows readers how sometimes, it’s the person who owes you nothing who gives you everything. Bibliophiles across the country are already sharing how much they enjoyed this novel and Stephanie’s ability to challenge stereotypes with her clear, straightforward, and utterly absorbing storytelling.

It always starts with a definition. Whether you start by negative inference or Apollonian gazes over the landscape, it starts with a definition. Translation as it is practiced today should be slotted under another rubric – perhaps transliteration – the agronomical spewing out of words from one language or dialect to another. A semantic thresher. But, in the end, not up to the task. Garbage in, garbage out.

Translation is something that sups from a different chalice. It originates with an act of surpassing hubris. based on the belief that you are capable of mind-reading – of knowing the inner thoughts of the original author – be he or she writer, musician, or politician or even judge – and to even know these thoughts in their inchoate form, pre-articulation, while still hovering in the antechamber of the mind.

There’s nothing like connecting with other passionate, inclusive feminists to make our day. That’s why we were so thrilled to learn about Aurora, host of It’s Just Feminism. On this show, which runs on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok , Aurora interviews other feminists from a delightfully dizzing array of backgrounds and explores what it means — and what it doesn’t mean — to be a feminist.

Aurora is an international PhD student of Feminist and Gender Studies who moved to Canada from her home country of Croatia—and we are so happy to have her here in Canada, and on this Power Q & A.

Welcome, Aurora!

On a cool night, Denys, Andrej and I make our way to what will likely be our last evening with Coach Peter. The ice on the rink is thin, and there are bits of weeds and twigs poking through.

As I’m climbing up the chain-link fence, the last one over, I see a man emerge from the shadows. He moves differently than Coach Peter. I do a double take in the darkness. He is definitely shorter than our coach, and his back is more curved.

Denys and Andrej see him, too.