Ten years, ten authors, ten critics.

The Canadian Literature Centre/Centre de littérature canadienne reaches into its ten-year archive of Brown Bag Lunch readings to sample some of the most diverse and powerful voices in contemporary Canadian literature.

This anthology offers readers samples from some of Canada’s most exciting writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each selection is introduced by a brief essay, serving as a point of entry into the writer’s work. From the east coast of Newfoundland to Kitamaat territory on British Columbia’s central coast, there is a story for everyone, from everywhere. True to Canada’s multilingual and multicultural heritage, these ten writers come from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, and work in multiple languages, including English, French, and Cree.

Ying Chen | essay by Julie Rodgers Lynn Coady | essay by Maïté Snauwaert Michael Crummey | essay by Jennifer Bowering Delisle Caterina Edwards | essay by Joseph Pivato Marina Endicott | essay by Daniel Laforest Lawrence Hill | essay by Winfried Siemerling Alice Major | essay by Don Perkins Eden Robinson | essay by Kit Dobson Gregory Scofield | essay by Angela Van Essen Kim Thúy | essay by Pamela V. Sing

Marie Carrière dirige le Centre de littérature canadienne de l’Université de l’Alberta, où elle enseigne aussi en études anglaises, françaises et comparées. En 2012 a paru sa deuxième monographie, Médée protéiforme, aux Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa ; elle a rassemblé, avec Patricia Demers, les textes de Régénérations : écriture des femmes au Canada (University of Alberta Press, 2014).

Marie Carrière's profile page

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Curtis Gillespie has written four books, including the memoir Playing Through: A Year of Life and Links Along the Scottish Coast, and the novel Crown Shyness. He has won numerous awards for his fiction and non-fiction, including the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and three National Magazine Awards. His journalism has been widely published, and he is the editor and co-founder of Eighteen Bridges magazine. He lives in Edmonton with his wife and two daughters.

Curtis Gillespie's profile page

Jason Purcell is a graduate student at the University of Alberta in the Department of English and Film Studies. He is the Communications Officer for the Canadian Literature Centre/ Centre de littérature canadienne at the University of Alberta, the Circulation Coordinator for Eighteen Bridges magazine, and the Manuscript Coordinator at NeWest Press.

Jason Purcell's profile page

• Runner-up, Independent Publisher Awards, Anthology

"[A] compilation of excerpts of creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.... Each of the ten featured works is preceded by a critic’s essay, giving sharp insight into this transcultural anthology and further contextualizing individual works for the reader. The selections...are...preoccupied...with the relationship between spatiality, geography, and Canadian identity. Displacement and journeying—the impulse to search for the self—are most clearly seen in the anthology’s latter works." Canadian Literature 233 (Summer 2017) [Full review at http://canlit.ca/article/landscapes-of-the-mind]

Rachel Lallouz

"...the collection is ideal for students and teachers of Canadian Literature at the high school or undergraduate levels, but would also be a useful resource for any active, engaged reader.... Overall, it imparts the impression of a vibrant, lively Canadian literature ranging widely in interests and preoccupations. The editors have been careful to select a diverse range of writers.... The net impact of this slim volume is to force a reconsideration of who in the world of Canadian literature is canonical and worthy of sustained, thoughtful examination. Every writer selected lives up to this standard.... [the] collection functions as something of a sampler pack of some of the most interesting writers working in Canada today."

Event Poetry and Prose, 46.1

#6 on the Edmonton Journal's Non-fiction Bestsellers list for the week of October 28, 2016 The Edmonton Journal

The Edmonton Journal