guernica editions · fall & winter frontlist a schizo-philosopher’s colouring book douglas...

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No Borders, No LimitsFor close to four decades, Guernica has dared to publish fine literature with a special understanding of different cultures. We are proud to have published recent work by such authors as George Elliott Clarke, Henry Beissel, Michael Springate, Sky Gilbert, Daniel David Moses, Marianne Ackerman, Antonio D’Alfonso, Len Gasparini, and the late Austin Clarke.

Guernica Editions is home to the MiroLand Imprint—a place where our more commercial projects, from how-tos to graphic novels, can thrive—and Guernica World Editions, featuring authors from beyond Canada’s borders.

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guerniCa eDitions

Fall & Winter Frontlist

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saLes & Marketing:• Ramya’s Treasure will be launched at Guernica’s September

Book Launch in Toronto.• Other readings and signings to take place in the GTA.• Available on NetGalley and listed on Goodreads.

saLes & Marketing:• Fate’s Instruments will be launched at Guernica’s

September Book Launch in Toronto.• Other readings and signings to take place in Toronto and

Montreal.• Available on NetGalley and listed on Goodreads.

Canadian Literary FictionISBN-13: 978-1-771833288 ISBN-10: 1-771833289 $25.00 | trade paperback5" x 8" | 285pp September 2018

Canadian Literary FictionISBN-13: 978-1-771832601 ISBN-10: 1-771832606 $25.00 | trade paperback6" x 9" | 285pp September 2018

The immigrant reality: neither here nor there.

Ramya immigrated to Canada from India with her husband about 15 years ago. She typifies the first generation immigrant—a person who straddles two cultures, two countries, two continents, even perhaps two different worlds altogether. The novel has two intertwined threads of narration simultaneously unspooling. The one set in the present is about Ramya’s battle to rebuild her life. The other, a series of sorties into the past, examines Ramya’s sundry relationships. One narrative skein is Canadian, modern and multicultural, while the other is Indian, steeped in myth and mysticism. They are the two sides of the same coin, the obverse and the reverse—the world as seen through the bifocal lens of immigrant reality. It has been so many years since she has given a thought to the chest, and today, god knows why, it was dredged up from the unfrequented depths of her memory.

An underwriter by day and a writer by night, Pratap Reddy writes about the angst and the agonies (on occasion the ecstasies) of newly arrived immigrants. Ramya’s Treasure is his first novel, having published the short story collection Weather Permitting & Other Stories. He lives in Mississauga with his wife and son.

The struggle for love and dignity.

Paul, an aspiring writer in his mid-twenties, marries Carlos, a boyfriend he lived with in Guatemala, brings him to Montreal, and looks forward to a life of bliss. Things go wrong from the beginning, and the trouble Carlos causes leaves Paul little time for much else—and they break up. Bill, whom Paul sees as the father he always wanted, helps him overcome his guilt about his sexuality. At the peak of Paul’s troubles, Bill dies. Then fate, in the form of a brain tumour, strikes Paul. He receives support from his brother Jay, Lionel (himself a brain tumour survivor), friends, and the enigmatic Professor Bram. But it is Paul’s exploration of his Vincentian childhood and new-found love that restores his equilibrium.

In a corner opposite the sitting men was a blue pail. The buzzing flies and the stench coming from it told me what it was. ~from Fate’s Instruments

H(ubert) Nigel Thomas is the author of ten books and dozens of essays. His novels Spirits in the Dark and No Safeguards were shortlisted for the Quebec Writers Federation Hugh MacLennan Fiction Prize. In 2013 he was awarded Université Laval’s Hommage aux créateurs. His books Behind the Face of Winter and Lives: Whole and Otherwise have been translated into French. Nigel lives in Montreal.

Ramya’sTreasurePrataP reddy

Fate’sInstruments No Safeguards 2, Paul’sStoryh. nigel thoMas

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Fall & Winter FrontlistFall & Winter Frontlist

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A Schizo-Philosopher’sColouring Book douglas ord

The Shining Fragments roBin BlackBurn McBride

Philosophy’s drawing power: thoughtful colouring between authority and anarchy.

A Schizo-Philosopher’s Colouring Book is a playful experiment in what the philosopher Gilles Deleuze might call “crowned anarchy.” The crown of authority is worn by the format “colouring book,” in a style that repeats with difference. Anarchy enters via a swarm of figures from philosophical, literary, theological, and art history, each with a quotation. These distribute themselves over some 50 drawings, producing little machines that are desirous of colour and driven by paradox, whose “organization of surface ... assures the resonance between two series.”

“The hardness of the hammer, the joy even in destruction, are in a decisive way part of the preliminary conditions for a Dionysian task.” —Friedrich Nietzsche

Born in the Thousand Islands area of Ontario, Douglas Ord is the author of numerous books, including: The National Gallery of Canada, Ideas Art Architecture (2003), Navigating Without a Compass (2000), Oscar and Jeannie (1999), and Tommy’s Farm (1998). He lives in Bruce Mines, ON.

Abandonment, obsession, love, memory, visionary power: a family saga.

The Shining Fragments is a family saga about the Irish in Canada that explores the ramifications of abandonment, obsession, love, memory, and visionary power. Spanning the years 1882–1904, it follows Joseph Conlon from his early childhood in Ulster to his experiences of youth and adulthood as an immigrant. Left behind as a small boy on a Toronto train station platform like so much forgotten luggage, Joseph grows up in a city bleak with bigotry. He discovers that he has artistic talent and becomes a designer of stained-glass windows. He is haunted by the spirit of his unborn sister, Annie, and the powerful and often conflicting influences of the women in his life. In the end, Joseph is given the gift of hope on the same station platform where he was abandoned as a child.

“[U]niquely set in a well-researched, turn-of-the-century Toronto. The struggling characters come from all classes and, most important, their dramatic interactions are told with a gripping, compassionate power.” –Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters

Author and coach in human potential, Robin Blackburn McBride’s self-help eBook, Birdlight: Freeing Your Authentic Creativity, was an Amazon Best Seller, and has been released in paperback and as an audio book. In 2002, Guernica published a collection of her poetry, In Green. The Shining Fragments is her first novel. Robin lives in Gatineau, QC.

Colouring Book | PhilosophyISBN-13: 978-1-771832960ISBN-10: 1-771832967$20.00 | large format paper 10" x 9" | 120pp October 2018

Canadian Literary Fiction ISBN-13: 978-1-771832663 ISBN-10: 1-771832665 $25.00 | trade paperback6" x 9" | 260pp October 2018

saLes & Marketing:• A Schizo-Philosopher’s Colouring Book will be

launched at Guernica’s November Book Launch in Toronto.

• Specialized social media campaign focusing on visual platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.

saLes & Marketing:• The Shining Fragments will be launched at Guernica’s

November Book Launch in Toronto.• Other readings and events will take place in Toronto (with

a focus on neighbourhoods mentioned within the novel), Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal.

• Available on NetGalley and listed on Goodreads.


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Fiction | Translation ISBN-13: 978-1-771832632 ISBN-10: 1-771832630 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 125pp September 2018

Fiction | Short Stories ISBN-13: 978-1-771831055 ISBN-10: 1-771831057 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 180pp October 2018

Fiction | Short Stories ISBN-13: 978-1-771832571 ISBN-10: 1-771832576 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 140pp September 2018

Of destiny and choice: the pursuit of happiness.

Portrait of a Husband with the Ashes of His Wife addresses themes of destiny and the repercussions of our choices. Before she dies, actress Alma Joncas instructs her husband to bury her ashes where she was happiest. He decides that was their garden. But rela-tives, friends, and Alma’s colleagues disagree. After they tell him where they think she was happiest, not only is he no longer sure about the garden, he wonders if he truly knew the woman he was married to for 24 years.

Pan Bouyoucas is a Montreal novelist and playwright. Portrait of a Husband with the Ashes of His Wife is his fourth novel translated into English.

Multi-award winner Sheila Fischman has translated almost 200 Quebec novels into English, including works by Michel Tremblay, Marie-Claire Blais, Anne Hébert, and Yves Beauchemin. She lives in Montreal.

Boccaccio and Chaucer for the 21st century: lust, vice, death.

A Rogue’s Decameron consists of ten tales based within the spirit of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s The Decameron: extravagance, joy, and ribald humour around sex, lust, vice, death, and other “hungers” of human beings. Using a similar framing technique as these works, the stories explore themes such as social commentary and satire aimed at personal politics, societal mores and customs, hierarchies, and religious beliefs. All with Toronto as a backdrop and brought up to date for the sensibilities of a 21st century audience.

Stan Rogal’s work has appeared in magazines and anthologies in Canada, the US, and Europe, some in translation. He is the author of 21 books: five novels, five story collections, and 11 poetry collections, including after words (Guernica, 2014). He lives in Toronto.

Myth, folklore, magic, and storytelling: The Eye has it.

Myth, folklore, and magic permeate the stories in Marianne Micros’s collection Eye. Set in ancient and modern Greece, and in contemporary Europe and North America, these tales tell of evil-eye curses, women healers, ghosts, a changeling, and people struggling to retain or gain power in a world of changing beliefs. Some stories show that people still seek refuge in myth and folk beliefs; the ways of the past are not gone. Magic is not dead but rises again in unexpected ways. Marianne Micros’s publications include the poetry collections Upstairs Over the Ice Cream and Seventeen Trees (Guernica). She is currently completing a collection of poetry, The Aphrodite Suite, and a second book of short fiction. She lives in Guelph.

ARogue’sDecameron stan rogal

Portrait of a Husband with the Ashes of His Wife Pan Bouyoucas; translated By sheila FischMan

Eye Marianne Micros



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Memoir ISBN-13: 978-1-771833158 ISBN-10: 1-771833157 $25.00 | trade paperback 6" x 9" | 425pp September 2018

Literary Essays ISBN-13: 978-1-771832939 ISBN-10:1 -771832932 $20.00 | trade paperback 4.25" x 7" | 170pp October 2018

Memoir ISBN-13: 978-1-771832724 ISBN-10: 1-77183272X $25.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 250pp October 2018

Stations of the cross: an iconoclast’s journey.

A Voluntary Crucifixion depicts the Via Dolorosa of David J. MacKinnon, disciple of Mary Magdalene, Gilles de Rais, Barabas, the low latin poets, ekstasis, and the levitating saints. Survivor-in-exile of leftist purges, dictators both tinpot and tyrannical, chronically plagued by Cassandra’s curse. Now bidding the ancestors to inflict hery, a poxy wind of Old Testament revenge upon the colluders, queen bees, and eusocial kowtowers sucking off the teat of the common weal, while squatting in the derelict basement of his imagination.

A lawyer by training, David MacKinnon has worked in oil fields, factories and warehouses, morgues and operating rooms, lumberyards, shipyards, construction sites, and in the courtroom as a trial lawyer. He has published two novels with Guernica—Leper Tango and The Eel. David lives in Toronto.

Dismantling genre: how to combine, story, essay, and memoir.

Small Things is a book of mini anti-essays, part of Sky Gilbert’s project to dismantle and challenge the rigid classifications of genre, thus challenging 21st century notions of truth. Inspired by Oscar Wilde, Foucault, and the post-structuralist project, the small writings in small things are story, essay, and memoir combined. They question the notion that an essay is necessarily fact, or fair opinion, or even informed opinion, while at the same time challenging the dictum that fiction might necessarily be free of didacticism, or at least ideas.

Sky Gilbert is a professor, theatre director, and drag queen extraordinaire. He has written seven novels, three books of poetry, and a memoir. He has won numerous awards for his theatre work. He lives in Hamilton, ON.

A critical autobiography: creating an atypical American.

A Life Out of Whack has two parts. The first part is autobiographical and sketches the atypical early life of a future academic scholar from family poverty to marriage and divorce at nineteen, from eight years in big-city and federal law enforcement to starting college at the age of 26, culminating with a doctoral fellowship in French Studies at Brown University. The second part presents an alternative critical look at contemporary life and ethos: aging, nature, corporate capitalism, and American, French, and global cultures.

Les Essif is the author of several dozen scholarly professional essays and three monographs: Empty Figure on an Empty Stage (Indiana UP, 2001); The French Play (U of Calgary P, 2006), and most recently American ‘Unculture’ in French Drama (Palgrave, 2013). He lives in Knoxville, TN.

A Life Out of Whack Confessions and ReflexionsofanUn-American All-American les essiF

small things (a random selection of anti-essays) sky gilBert

A Voluntary Crucifixion david Mackinnon


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Canadian Poetry ISBN-13: 978-1-771832779 ISBN-10: 1-771832770 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 80pp September 2018

Memoir ISBN-13: 978-1-771832366 ISBN-10: 1-771832363 $20.00 | trade paperback6" x 9" | 175pp September 2018

Literary Essays ISBN-13: 978-1-771832908 ISBN-10: 1-771832908 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 170pp September 2018

Using everyday objects to create themes of translation and engagement.

Jennifer Zilm’s poetry collection, The Missing Field, concerns themes of translation, preservation, and the engagement with the transitory documents of everyday life, whether a snapshot of a Vancouver bus, postcards from the Middle East, lecture notes on Euripides, a van Gogh museum catalogue, or marginalia in a water-damaged collection of Rilke poems.

Vancouver poet Jennifer Zilm’s first book Waiting Room was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and selected by the CBC as one of the most anticipated books of 2016. She is also the author of two chapbooks.

Gardening and psychology: how to face the inevitable.

Attempting to make sense of her life and change her sad demure to a happy one, the author of In the Backyard: Relearning the Art of Aging, Dying and Making Love seeks out the help of her in-house therapist/husband, Dr. George Nemeth. The accredited psychologist’s answers to the big questions provide a compassionate and humorous backdrop on to how to seize the day and not give up hope when faced with the nasty realities of poor health and unrealized aspirations.

Montrealer Mary Melfi has published over a dozen books of critically acclaimed poetry, prose, and plays. Her novel, Infertility Rites, was translated into French and Italian as was her memoir, Italy Revisited. Melfi received the Giornata Internazionale Della Donna Award in 2010.

Exploring David Helwig: novelist, essayist, teacher, poet laureate.

Poet, novelist, and essayist David Helwig has published close to 50 books and edited numerous others. He has written for television and radio, worked at the CBC, taught at Queen’s University, been Poet Laureate of Prince Edward Island, and named to the Order of Canada. Yet, he remains little known. This volume is the first to gather new essays, an interview, and earlier material in order to introduce and explore Helwig’s body of work, while documenting the broad range of his literary talents and accomplishments.

Ingrid Ruthig is the author of This Being, League of Canadian Po-ets’ 2017 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award winner, and Slipstream, as well as the editor of The Essential Anne Wilkinson and Richard Outram: Essays on His Works (Guernica). She lives in Ajax, ON.

The Missing Field JenniFer zilM

In the Backyard Relearning the Art of Aging, Dying and Making Love Mary MelFi

David Helwig Essays on His Works edited By ingrid ruthig



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Canadian Poetry ISBN-13: 978-1-771832465 ISBN-10: 1-771832460 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 80pp October 2018

Canadian Poetry ISBN-13: 978-1-771832762 ISBN-10: 1-771832762 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 80pp October 2018

Canadian Poetry ISBN-13: 978-1-771832786 ISBN-10: 1-771832789 $20.00 | trade paperback 5" x 8" | 80pp September 2018

Of love and loss: contemplating self and family.

I Sleep in the Arms of Your Eyes is a reflection on love freely given, and loss fully lived. These poems are a contemplation on family life, and on the navigation through attachment, devotion, and attempts at connection. They convey in brave simplicity of grounded language a sense of self where it belongs: “nose-touching-close,” “sustained and articulate.”

Beverly Ellenbogen is a poet and school psychologist who resides in Vaughan, ON. Currently she works at the York Region School Board consulting with families, educators, and students. I Sleep in the Arms of Your Eyes is her second collection of poems.

In the flesh: making the separate into the one.

Flesh—a composite of poems perceived, evoked, discovered, moving between and among sensory boundaries as they eschew forward, backward. or around exterior life to interior. Here flesh of person, nature, language, spaces meet separate and become one. Flesh as surfaces, layers, textures, beings with sense memory perceptions of an unforgiving. Flesh that scars and the forgiving. Flesh that rebuilds itself.

Sonia Di Placido’s poems can be found in: Carousel Magazine, Puritan, the White Wall Review, Jacket2, Canthius, the California Journal of Women Writers. Her first book Exaltation in Cadmium Red was published with Guernica Editions. She lives in Toronto.

Evoking the cadence and tremor of a beating heart.

Carol Barbour’s new book of poetry, Infrangible, is a heady concoction of sumptuous beauty and dangerous relations—by turns playful, refined, and ferocious. Nudging at the edge of being, the poems evoke the cadence and tremor of a beating heart. The idea of breakage resonates throughout, alluding to the necessity of dismantling patterns, and acknowledging vulnerability.

Toronto author Carol Barbour’s writing has been published in literary and arts journals including Sein und Werden, Transverse, Matriart, Resources for Feminist Research, the Toronto Quarterly, and Impulse. As well, her hand-made artist books can be found in collections around the world.

Infrangible carol BarBour

Flesh sonia di Placido

I Sleep in the Arms of Your EyesBeverly ellenBogen


Backlist HigHligHts

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Backlist HigHligHts

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Like Max Layton

PoetryISBN-13: 978-1-771832472 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $20.00

Poetry Is Blood Keith Garebian

PoetryISBN-13: 978-1-771832793 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $20.00

Radius Islamicus Julian Samuels

FictionISBN-13: 978-1-771832540 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $20.00

Nobody Looks That Young Here by Daniel Perry


If You’re Not Free at Work Where Are You Free? Tom Wayman

Non-Fiction ISBN-13: 978-1-771832878 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $25.00

A Boy at the Edge of the World David Kingston Yeh


Mouth of Truth: Buried Secrets by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz


Most Precious Blood Vince Sgambati

Fiction | A Guernica World Editions BookISBN-13: 978-1-771833066Spring 2018 | trade paperback $25.00

Immortal Water Brian van Norman


Arise The Dead II: World War Two by Elizabeth Langridge

Memoir | A Miroland Book ISBN-13: 978-1-771832847 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $25.00

Arise The Dead I: The Great War by Elizabeth Langridge

Memoir | A Miroland Book ISBN-13: 978-1-771832816 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $25.00

Land for Fatimah Veena Gokhale

Fiction ISBN-13: 978-1-771832694 Spring 2018 | trade paperback $25.00


guernica editions · fall & winter frontlist a schizo-philosopher’s colouring book douglas...

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