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How to Hold a Pebble
by Jaspreet Singh
How do we scale up our imagination of the human? How does one live one’s life in the Anthropocene?
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How to Hold a Pebble—Jaspreet Singh’s second collection of poems— locates humans in the Anthropocene, while also warning against the danger of a single story. These pages present intimate engagements with memory, place, language, migration; with enchantment, uncanniness, uneven climate change and everyday decolonization; with entangled human/non-human relationships and deep anxieties about essential/non-essential economic activities. The poems explore strategies for survival and action by way of a playful return to the quotidian and its manifold interactions with the global and planetary.
Trade Paperback / Oct. 15, 2022 ISBN 10: 1-77439-053-1
ISBN 13: 978-177439-53-5
BISAC 1: POE011000 BISAC 2: POE023040 95 pp / 6” x 9” / $20.95 cdn $16.95 usd
~ Donna Kane, author of Orrery finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award
About The Author
Jaspreet Singh’s non-fiction has appeared in Granta, Brick, and the New York Times. He is the author of the novels Chef, Helium, and Face; the story collection Seventeen Tomatoes; the poetry collection November; and most recently, the memoir My Mother, My Translator. His work has been published internationally and has been translated into several languages. He lives in Calgary.
ADDITIONAL SALES POINTS
• Part of the Crow Said Poetry series. Notable Crow Said Poetry titles include Coconut by Nisha Patel and The Response of Weeds by Bertrand Bickersteth. • Book will appeal to fans of ecopoetry and poetry about identity. • Has been published in literary journals across Canada.
MARKETING PLAN
• International press release mailout. • Digital ARC available. • Announcement of book’s release by email newsletter and on the NeWest Press Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. • Podcast/reading interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio. • Press releases and review mailouts to various CBC outlets across the nation, both radio and television. • Online Zoom launch, and eventual in-person launches in Calgary and Edmonton. • Ads in ARC, Glass Buffalo, Prairie Books NOW, Prairie Fire, PRISM international, Read Alberta Books (Alberta Views), subTerrain, and the ULS Super Forthcoming Catalogue. • Submit to all eligible awards.
MARKETS
• National trade: lyrical poetry • US and UK trade: lyrical poetry • Edmonton, ON
COMPARISON TITLES
• Welcome to the Anthropocene by Alice Major (978-1-772123-68-5, University of Alberta Press, 2018) • sulphurtongue by Rebecca Salazar (978-0-771094-69-9, McLelland & Stewart, 2021) • That Winter the Wolf Came by Juliana Spahr (978-1-934639-17-7, Commune Editions, 2015)
The Response of Weeds
by Bertrand Bickersteth
• Winner of the 2021 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award; the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry; the High Plains Book Award for First Book; and the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry!
“...a vigorous and erudite excavation of history and a carefully constructed reclamation of place.” ~ Steven W. Beattie, Quill & Quire (starred review)
Trade Paperback / Apr. 1, 2020 ISBN 13: 978-1-988732-79-4 88 pp / 5.5 x 9 / $18.95 cdN $15.95 uSd
In Veritas
by C.J. Lavigne
• Finalist for the 2021 Crawford Award! • Best of List for Tor.com and Every Book a Doorway!
“Lavigne’s debut urban fantasy novel, part of the ‘Nunatak First Fiction’ series, is full of wonder, darkness, and hope.... Reminiscent of the best of Charles de Lint, this is a book readers will not want to put down.” ~ Jennifer Beach, Library Journal
Trade Paperback / May 1, 2020 ISBN 13: 978-1-988732-83-1 344 pp / 6 x 9 / $ 21.95 cdN $19.95 uSd
Hunger Moon
by Traci Skuce
• Shortlisted for the Seventh Annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, Literary Fiction Category!
“The artful writing and the complexity of the emotional landscape heighten the appeal and significance of each story.” ~ Marjorie Anderson, Winnipeg Free Press
Trade Paperback / Apr. 15, 2020 ISBN 13: 978-1-988732-80-0 216 pp / 5.5 x 8.5 / $ 19.95 cdN $17.95 uSd
Horseplay
by Norm Boucher
• Shortlisted for the Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book at the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence!
“True crime buffs will find much to admire in this eye-opening personal narrative.” ~ Publishers Weekly
Trade Paperback / Nov. 15, 2020 ISBN 13: 978-1-988732-98-5 280 pp / 5.5 x 8.5 / $ 21.95 cdN $19.95 uSd
Taken by the Muse
by Anne Wheeler
• Finalist for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize at the 2021 Alberta Literary Awards and for the 2021 High Plains Book Awards, Nonfiction Category!
“What Taken by the Muse ultimately demonstrates is that ... moments of growth and joy occur when you veer off a given path and create something worthwhile out of the diversion.” ~ Madeleine Wall, Quill & Quire
Trade Paperback / Oct. 15, 2020 ISBN 13: 978-1-77439- 001-6 256 pp / 5.5 x 8.5 / $ 20.95 cdN $16.95 uSd
Goth Girls of Banff
by John O’Neill
• Shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Awards, Short Fiction Category!
“The depth and variety of perspectives O’Neill writes make this collection a staggeringly endearing pastiche.” ~ Courtney Eathorne, Booklist
Trade Paperback / Nov. 15, 2020 ISBN 13: 978-1-988732-95-4 208 pp / 5.5 x 8 .5 / $19.95 cdN $15.95 uSd
The Broken Places
by Frances Peck When the earthquake hits, the city erupts in chaos and fear. Kyle’s and Charlotte’s families, along with two passersby, are thrown together in an oceanfront mansion.
“Peck masterfully brings together a cast of complex characters, each broken in their own way, and weaves a compelling story set against the backdrop of a catastrophic earthquake.” ~ Brian Francis, author of Fruit and Missed Connections
Trade Paperback / Apr. 1, 2022 ISBN 13: 978-1-77439-045-0 400 pp / 6” x 9” / $24.95 cdN $20.95 uSd
Ezra’s Ghosts
by Darcy Tamayose
Award-winning author Darcy Tamayose returns with Ezra’s Ghosts, a collection of fantastical stories linked by a complex mingling of language and culture, as well as a deep understanding of grief and what it makes of us.
“[A]n immersive and intelligent page turner.... this is a treasure.” ~ Publishers Weekly
Trade Paperback / May 10, 2022 ISBN 13: 978-1-77439-047-4 288 pp / 5.5” x 8.5” / $20.95 cdN $16.95 uSd
Up The Coast
by Kathryn Willcock A memoir that reveals growing up in coastal BC logging camps in the 1960s, when children played in the wilderness, women kept rifles next to the wood stove, and loggers risked their lives each day.
“Told with humour, honesty, and charm, the author depicts Orford Bay’s memorable cast of characters as well as experiences both bizarre and everyday.” ~ Meaghan Marie Hackinen, author of South Away
Trade Paperback / May 15, 2022 ISBN 13: 978-77439-051-1 224 pp / 6” x 9” / $24.95 cdN $20.95 uSd
To Those Who Killed Me
by J.T. Siemens
Disgraced ex-cop Sloane Donovan has relied on her job as a fitness instructor to keep her mental illness and PTSD in check—until she finds a close friend dead. Now she must push herself beyond her limits to find out who really killed her friend.
“This gritty crime tale, which snakes through Vancouver’s squalid backstreets, plunges the fearless, at times reckless heroine into a surfeit of horrific encounters with addicts and abusers, rapists, and killers. This isn’t for the faint-hearted.” ~ Publishers Weekly
Trade Paperback / Apr. 1, 2022 ISBN 13: 978-1-177439-043-6 392 pp / 5” x 8” / $21.95 cdN $17.95 uSd
Why I’m Here
by Jill Frayne
It’s 1995, and one counselling agency for kids and families serves all of the Yukon. As she treats 15-year-old Gale, Helen realizes that Gale’s distress too closely parallels a calamity from her own past.
“The challenges Frayne’s characters face in this tough, beautiful and forgiving novel don’t come from the land, but from their own inability to leave their pasts behind.” ~ Wayne Grady, author of The Good Father
Trade Paperback / May 1, 2022 ISBN 13: 978-77439-049-8 288 pp / 5.5” x 8.5” / $21.95 cdN $17.95 uSd
rump + flank
by Carol Harvey Steski
A tenacious and unapologetic debut that explores the body in nature’s many incarnations: human, animal, plant, microbe, even chemical.
“Cutting, sharp and sonically rich, the poems in rump + flank dazzle with rhythm, image and meaning. ~ Catherine Graham, author of The Celery Forest and Aether: An Out-ofBody Lyric
Trade Paperback / Sept. 1, 2021 ISBN 13: 978-1-77439-028-3 96 pp / 5.5” x 9” / $19.95 cdN $15.95 uSd
