New Fall Book Releases by LGBTQ+ Vancouver Authors

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Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote

By Casey Stepaniuk

Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote is the 11th book by this celebrated Vancouver-based, Yukon-born-and-raised writer and storyteller. It’s a memoir both about Coyote’s gender non-conforming past and about carving out space as an adult who doesn’t fit neatly into gender boxes. A warm, funny account of a free-spirited tomboy childhood in the Yukon, Tomboy Survival Guide is also about the journey to an authentic adult self. Plus, as the title implies, it’s a how-to guide, full of advice for tomboys-in-training—including instructions for building your very own unicorn trap! Tomboy Survival Guide is available now from Arsenal Pulp Press. Check out this excerpt available on Coyote’s website:

When I turned 16 they wouldn’t let me play hockey with the boys anymore. I was now a legal liability, they told my parents, and the minor hockey league just couldn’t afford that kind of insurance and besides, what if I got hurt, the boys were so, much bigger now, plus, body checking. Come and play on the women’s team with us Linda said, and so I did.

That was how I met Donna Doucette, who played defense and worked as a bartender … I think I pretty much fell in love with Donna Doucette the first time I saw her spit perfectly through the square holes in the facemask on her helmet.

theremedyThe Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care edited by Zena Sharman is an anthology featuring a whole plethora of great LGBTQIA+ authors. The book features essays, stories, poems, and drawings by over 30 (many Canadian/Vancouver) writers/illustrators such as Vivek Shraya, Amber Dawn, Esther McPhee, Sinclair Sexsmith, and loads more! Sharman, who describes herself as a “femme force of nature and a passionate advocate for queer and trans health,” is clearly the perfect editor for this collection, having over a decade of experience doing health research. She also co-chairs the board of the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre, a holistic health care centre in Vancouver for transgender and gender-diverse communities. The pieces, all obviously related to issues of health and health care, vary from personal essays about experiences—good and bad—being a queer and/or trans person in the health care system, profiles of queer and trans health initiatives in Canada and the US, and advice for health care professionals. Check out the Facebook event for the launch in November!

ifiwereIf I Were in a Cage, I’d Reach Out for You by Adèle Barclay is a debut poetry collection by this Vancouver-based writer, editor, and researcher. Published by Nightwood Editions, known for diverse and dynamic new Canadian literature, this is a collection of poems by an accomplished writer whose work has been published in such places as Plenitude, The Fiddlehead, PRISM International, and Poetry is Dead. You might remember Barclay as one of the writers I featured in “Three New Queer Vancouver Writers”. The publisher’s blurb describes the book as a collection of “poems [that] dwell in surreal pockets of the everyday warped landscapes of modern cities and flood into the murky basin of the intimate.” They are poems about love, the desire for connection, and how despite our best intentions we can still misunderstand the world around us. This book of poetry was released October 1st; you can find more information on Barclay and her writing on her website. Here’s an excerpt from the first poem:

Bees are dying and it’s not even winter.
What’s left of the summer hive will fall
in love with you again. Widow is like cherub is like
the face of a dollar cinema sewing buttons
until eternity is a three-hour movie about blue
but not enough.

Casey Stepaniuk is a writer and librarian-in-training who runs the website Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian, where you can find LGBTQ+ Canadian book reviews and a queer book advice column. She also writes for Book Riot. Find her on Twitter: @canlesbrarian

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  1. Pingback: Gender Non-Conformists’ November Show in Vancouver is Gonna Be Much More than “Pretty Good” | Canada