“I used pop culture…as a kind of glue to hold me together when I was hurtling through disaster…jamming a piece of pop culture into an absence in my life, no matter how poorly matched, seemed fine. It seemed like the only, no, the best thing to do,” (Sookfong Lee 4). Author Jen Sookfong Lee has always …
“What follows are some of the most dangerous stories of my life: the ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. These are the stories that have haunted and directed me, unwittingly, down circuitous paths,” (Polley 3). Screenwriter, director, and actor Sarah Polley encounters …
“Witches were never capitalists. We were the thing that stood in the way of capitalism, which is just the engine of the patriarchy, after all. Witches were not all killed by fire. We are the fire,” (Dimaline 133). Lucky St. James is not so lucky. Her beloved Metis mother Arnya died when she was young, she’s …
I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review. Caroline is the daughter of The Prophet and excited for her Divine Birthday, when the Angels will come and impregnate her. She knows her boyfriend Ian will make a great father; he’s promised her he read all the materials and is fully ready …
“One step forward, two steps back. You think this house is going to be a real windfall and then – boom – it’s haunted,” (Hendrix 153). When Louise Joyner learns her parents have died in a car accident, she’s understandably heartbroken, but she doesn’t want to go back home. She doesn’t want to leave her five-year-old …
“Guilt casts a spell like the one cast by despair. The spells of love and hope don’t linger like the others,” (Johnston). When fourteen-year-old Ned Vatcher comes home from school after the first snowstorm of the season he finds his house locked, the family car missing, and his parents gone. Word spreads across Newfoundland about the …
“I don’t want to talk about the rain or the trees or the…guilt I feel every single minute of every single day. And if I write it all down, I want to do it in pencil so I can rub it straight back out again, erasing that whole part of my life so it smudges …
I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review. Reenie wants to dance just like her mother who worked hard to make a spot for herself on the stage and her grandmother who worked behind-the-scenes making costumes. It’s her legacy, and like the other young dancers in her ensemble Reenie feels that …
” Are you a Christian?’ Ilonka finally asked. ‘No, I am dying.” Anya turned a page. “Dead people have no religion,’” (Pike 4). Ilonka Pawluk has checked-in to Rotterham Home, a hospice for teenagers, typically state wards, who are soon to die. But Ilonka is different, she’s taking better care of herself, and once her …
“People love an idea, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Even if they only know how to do exactly the wrong thing,” (Machado 228). In her memoir, Carmen Maria Machado finds the words, after years and difficulty, to articulate what it was like being in an abusive same-sex relationship. Part fairy-tale, horror …
Sarah O'Connor 