One Long Line of Marvel
Alan Hustak

There are parades and then there is Montreal’s St. Patrick’s parade, which has marched through the streets of the city and into Canadian history for 200 years. The street carnival has outlived the Patriote Rebellion of 1837, Fenian infiltration, Orange animosity, strained relationships among Roman Catholic priests who wanted it cancelled, two world wars, two Quebec independence referendums, and two centuries of howling March winds and chilling sub zero temperatures.

With One Long Line of Marvel veteran journalist Alan Hustak has dug up untold nuggets about the parade and nested them with historical certainty and an imaginative flourish in the setting of a Montreal that he knows. Although the author is not a son of Erin, he is considered an honorary Irishman and in 2006 walked the parade route as Chief Reviewing Officer. With this book he continues to honour Montreal’s Irish community by celebrating its personalities and by telling its stories. One Long Line of Marvel enlightens, entertains, amuses and perhaps above all superbly chronicles a long and worthwhile tradition in Montreal’s history.

National Animal
Derek Webster

National Animal, Derek Webster’s second book of poetry, inhabits a wider public space than his acclaimed debut Mockingbird. In poems that extend beyond the biographical toward the political, Webster’s quiet, sharp-eyed narrator—a man “tripping / my way forward, trying to lead my own life”—watches history being erased in favour of more socially palatable ideas and comforting self-portraits. Uncompromising and substantial, National Animal explores our “civic moment” where "birds sing oblivion / estranged from all things," and meditates, in a final image-rich sequence, on our place in a science-based cosmos.

The Civilizing Discourse
Evan Jones

“If I can impart one final message, beyond the usual declarative to read poetry and buy poetry books,” writes Evan Jones in his introduction to The Civilizing Discourse, “it is to listen to poets. The real ones offer wisdom and a perspective at odds with prevalent visions.”

In a series of passionate, enlightening, frank, engaging, and sometimes astonishing conversations, thirteen poets—many acknowledged masters—open up about their writing processes, their childhoods and marriages, their regrets, as well as their hopes for and frustration with poetry. From Norm Sibum describing his affinity with a waitresses and cabbies to Nyla Matuk’s wrenching investigations into the Palestinian side of her family; from Don Coles’s obsession with alternative universes to Robyn Sarah’s praise for discarded things; from Elise Partridge describing her shift in priorities after a cancer diagnosis to Steven Heighton’s interest in remaining childlike, The Civilizing Discourse is not only a highly readable record of the literary scene today, but, in its celebration of language, will appeal to poetry readers and poets alike.



Poets included: Daryl Hine, Norm Sibum, Marius Kociejowski, Don Coles, Elise Partridge, Steven Heighton, Robyn Sarah, A.F. Moritz, Robert Bringhurst, Anne Compton, Nyla Matuk, Iman Mersal
States of Emergency
Yoyo Comay

States of Emergency is a book-length poem about the apocalyptic present, written in a language whose meaning is liquid and full of slippage, always spilling out from its container. In Yoyo Comay’s hands, words roil, churn, and surge. By taking on different mood and modes, from the prophetic to the colloquial, he has created a form that is a constant unravelling—a leap of faith into intuitive meaning, a letting go into ongoingness. “I am catapulted into where I am,” he writes, “and the air concusses around me.”

Comay sees poetry as a visceral experience: a state of immanence, embodiment, emergence, emergency. This is poetry as diary and seismograph, an infinite scroll for the end of days. It is a debut like no other.

Spirits in the Dark
H. Nigel Thomas

First published in Canada in 1993, Spirits in the Dark is a pioneering intersectional novel of the LGBTQ+ and Caribbean-Canadian experience that was far ahead of its time.

In his powerful debut novel, H. Nigel Thomas writes with compelling honesty about the confusing maze of societal pressures that paralyze Jerome Quashee while growing up in the Caribbean, and later on in his adult life. Jerome’s intelligence at first promises him a gateway out of the poverty his parents have known, but he must compete with privileged White boys for scholarships in a racist, classist culture. Spirits in the Dark is the story of a man who represses his emerging homosexuality, fearing that it will bring his family disgrace, as he wrestles with the guilt of knowing so little about his African heritage and the pressure to let go his ties to Black culture. Under the spiritual guidance of Pointer Francis, he undergoes a religious ritual to block all sensory links to the outside world in order to see clearly into his past and face his demons.

Press

On Quicker Than The Eye:
Praise for Joe Fiorito: "[Fiorito] is a master of sparsity—there are no wasted words here, no lingering sing-song rhymes or repetitive pentameter. Each word is carefully chosen, shaping each line with sometimes delicacy, sometimes bluntness. His pen is a scalpel. With a cool surgical incision he dissects memories."—Michael Sobota, Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal

On Cathedral/Grove:
Praise for Susan Glickman: “These lyric poems have an unassuming grace and clarity.”—Barbara Carey, Toronto Star

On The Human Scale:
"Michael Lista brings a poet's heart and a philosopher's eye to the darkest parts of human behaviour. The Human Scale

On My Brother's Keeper:

Praise for My Brother’s Keeper

News

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER (click for link)
'Tis the season to give the gift of books and we have just the thing for every book lover. From pulp fiction to pop culture, true love to true crime. As we approach the end of our 50th year, thank you to everyone who supported our mission of publishing quality Canadian writing. We can’t wait to share our new 2024 titles!

FÉLICITATIONS HOTLINE!
The French translation of Dimitri Nasrallah's Hotline (translated by Daniel Grenier, published by La Peuplade) has made the longlist for the Prix des libraires du Québec! Félicitations Daniel et Dimitri!

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER (click for link)
Join us on Sat. Nov. 25 at Paragraphe to launch our fall Signal Editions poetry titles Cathedral/Grove, Quicker Than The Eye, and States of Emergency. Looking for a pulp fiction holiday gift? Buy the latest six Ricochet Noir books in a special bundle for only $75! And our books will be at the Salon du livre de Montréal courtesy Saga Bookstore from Nov. 22-26.

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER (click for link)
Join us for the launches of our fall lineup! The Word hosts Spirits in the Dark author H. Nigel Thomas on November 1 in Montreal; on November 8, in Toronto, Lisa Whittington-Hill will be at Supermarket with Girls, Interrupted; then on November 25 at 2 pm Paragraphe welcomes our fall poets and their books Cathedral/Grove, Quicker Than The Eye, and States of Emergency. And on November 3 and 4, we will be at the Concordia McConnell Building Atrium for the Read Quebec Book Fair!SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER (click for link)
We're launching our Fall 2023 Signal Editions poetry on Wednesday, October 4 at Flying Books in Toronto! Join host Carmine Starnino for readings by Susan Glickman from her new release Cathedral/Grove, Joe Fiorito reading from his new collection Quicker Than the Eye and Yoyo Comay reading from his debut book States of Emergency. You can also join best-selling mystery author Sheila Kindellan-Sheehan for the launch of My Brother's Keeper, her latest novel featuring Lieutenant Detective Toni Damiano. The event will be at Indigo Pointe Claire, 6321 autoroute Transcanadienne, on Saturday October 14 from 12 PM–3 PM. Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women by Lisa Whittington-Hill will be released next month and launched on November 8th at Supermarket Bar in Toronto. Plus, Michael Lista at Edmonton's LitFest this October and Anita Lahey in Whistler and Waterloo next month talking about her new book While Supplies Last.
Discover

Click here to see Kaie Kellough read from his QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Award winning book Dominoes at the Crossroads

Click here to listen to Rosalind Pepall's interview on CBC's All in a Weekend about Talking to a Portrait: Tales of an Art Curator.

In Periodicities’ fifth series of videos, Sadiqa de Meijer reads a few poems from her new book, The Outer Wards. Click here

Read “The Silence of A.M. Klein,” an incisive essay by our editor Carmine Starnino in the April issue of The New Criterion.



SODEC, Québec  Canada Council for the Arts Canadian Heritage
The Canada Council
Véhicule Press acknowledges the generous support of its publishing program from the Book Publishing Industry Development Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, The Canada Council for the Arts, and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec (SODEC).