Some Favourite Canadian Books

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When I'm in Europe I'm often asked to recommend Canadian books I like and generally can never think of any off the top of my head. When I read Oscar of Between, I was really blown away by it, and somehow it inspired me to make this (obviously really subjective) list. As is my habit, it is in no particular order. I think the list might get a bit longer in the days, months or years to come... (Edit: as I hope we all already know: so-called "Canada", stolen land, resource-devouring colonial construct, which I am both against and benefit from.)



Islands of Decolonial Love – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 
Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) – Hazel Jane Plante
We, Jane – Aimee Wall
Prophetess – Baharan Baniahmadi
Zong! – M. NourbeSe Philip
All Hookers Go To Heaven – Angel B.H.
cop city swagger – Mercedes Eng
Prison Industrial Complex Explodes – Mercedes Eng
Oscar of Between – Betsy Warland
Bloodroot – Betsy Warland
Accordéon – Kaie Kellough
Dominoes at the Crossroads – Kaie Kellough
knot body – Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
The Good Arabs – Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
May Our Joy Endure – Kevin Lambert (Translated by Donald Winkler)
nîtisânak – Jas M. Morgan
Thou – Aisha Sasha John
From the Archives of Vidéo Populaire – Anne Golden
Our Lady of Perpetual Realness & Other Stories – Cason Sharpe
Dream Rooms – River Halen
You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked. – Sheung-King
Baby Book – Amy Ching-Yan Lam
Bodymap – Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Wet Dream – Erin Robinsong
Salt Fish Girl – Larissa Lai
This Is How You Lose the Time War – Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars – Kai Cheng Thom
Antigone Undone – Will Aitken
The Subtweet – Vivek Shraya
Sitting Shiva on Minto Avenue, by Toots – Erin Moure
The Swallower Swallowed - Réjean Ducharme
Listening for Jupiter - Pierre-Luc Landry (Translated by Arielle Aaronson and Madeleine Stratford) 
The Obituary – Gail Scott
American War – Omar El Akkad
Little Fish – Casey Plett
Canadian Healing Oil – Juan Butler
Ethics Of Luxury – Jeanne Randolph
The Sorrowful Canadians & Other Poems - Wilfred Watson
The Well-Dressed Wound - Derek McCormack
The Baudelaire Fractal – Lisa Robertson
Debbie: An Epic – Lisa Robertson
Pandora - Sylvia Fraser
Saudade: The Possibilities of Place - Anik See
Smoke Show - Clint Burnham





[I have also made another list which I simply call Some Favourite Books.]



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