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Video: The Book as Object, Sculpture, & Performance

This past weekend, I had the joy and honour of sharing an encore presentation of The Book as Object, Sculpture, & Performance at the When Words Collide festival for readers and writers. I presented this session for the first time back in 2019 in Calgary, Alberta, when the conference was still live. Getting to present it again online, this time as part of the 2021 virtual conference, means I now have a video record… well, of this one performance of it at least!

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Small Press Saturday: Stonehouse Publishing

This week we are bringing things back to Alberta to introduce you to Stonehouse Publishing. This small press was founded in 2014 and is run by a team of women, led by publisher Netta Johnson. They focus on Canadian authors and publish four to six titles per year. They primarily publish literary fiction with commercial appeal but also publish some thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction, and some humour.

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Books as Wall Art: A Practical Guide

This year is the tenth anniversary of When Words Collide, an annual readers and writers conference based in Calgary, Alberta. Today I had the privilege of delivering an encore presentation of my session on Books as Object, Sculpture, and Performance.

This post is not about that presentation.

But it was sparked by it, and by this photo from my slide deck…

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Book Lovers Day 2021

Now, really, every day is Book Lovers Day at the Butterflies & Aliens Library of Literary Eccentricities & Rareties, but since the all-knowing interwebs say this is a with-capital-letters Day day… albeit with an origin story lost to the mists of time… we did feel we had to post a little something.

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Small Press Saturday: Who’s on your list? Take 2!

We here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library of Literary Eccentricities and Rarities have heard word of this phenomenon called “summer holidays” mentioned in myth and legend. We thought we’d try it for a day so, through the magic of scheduled posts, we will both be taking the day off when this appears.

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Happy Underwear Day 2021!

We here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library have been a bit remiss in keeping up with our Bookish Calendar posts, but this seemed like a critical day to commemorate.

As such, we took a look under there on our shelves and pulled up Jared Chapman’s Vegetables in Underwear to share.

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Small Press Saturday: Conundrum Press

Happy Saturday!

This week we are heading out to Eastern Canada to meet a small press that has been around since 1996 and has evolved into a well-respected publisher of literary graphic novels – I am happy to introduce you to Conundrum Press!

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Small Press Saturday: Lanternfish Press

We have endured another week of drought and smoke, and this week I’ve been in the mood for more eclectic and weird reading fare.

I was scrolling through Twitter last week and came across a tweet with a photo of a horror book display in a book shop. Being a book nerd, I had to zoom in and take a closer look at the books displayed. One book in the corner caught my eye. It was The Night Library of Sternendach by Jessica Levai.

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Small Press Saturday: Portage & Main Press and HighWater Press

Happy Saturday!

It has been a week and this post is coming late in the day, but better late than never. This week less is more – the post is short, but Portage & Main Press and HighWater Press are awesome and do incredible work that you need to check out…

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Small Press Saturday: Between The Lines Press

It’s been a week, the mask mandate has been lifted in Alberta, the Calgary Stampede has begun, and Jason Kenney has shuffled the cabinet – needless to say I am in a mood about things. So today is the best day to introduce you to self-proclaimed “proudly left-wing” Between the Lines Press.

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Thing Explainer

We here at the Small-Flying-Creatures-with-Pretty-Wings-and-Creatures-from-Other-Places-in-Space Place for Books and Information love playing with words. And we love it when other people play with words. One person whose playing-with-words we love is... named using words we can't use right now.

Let me explain.

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I have a problem…

A couple of days ago, one of my favourite (and Edmonton’s oldest) indie bookstores – Audreys Books – finally reopened for in-person browsing, after over a year of online shopping and curbside pickup. I wasn’t able to make it in on that first day, but I absolutely made sure to get in by the second. The act of walking up, pulling open the door, and simply walking in was breathtaking.