Tag: Bibliothèque
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Lee Maracle
Lee Maracle, of Salish and Cree ancestry, is a novelist, poet, instructor, and critic. A member of the Stó:lō Nation of British Columbia, Maracle is one of Canada’s most prolific First Nations writers who has been producing and performing work for more than three decades. Maracle grew up in an impoverished North Vancouver neighbourhood where she felt a simultaneous distance from her own Aboriginal and Canadian culture… READ MORE
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Blog Series
Dear Teenage Michelle
Michelle Kay is a writer/librarian and translator. She is also Shameless’s Features Editor. Originally from the Prairies, she’s lived all over and is well-versed in the art of letter-writing. Her favourite mode of communication is still with pen and paper. Follow her @yo_mk READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Coco Guzman
A queer Montreal artist from Spain, Coco Guzman, also known as Coco Riot creates art for activism. An avid visual artist/zine-maker, Coco’s work has also explored the storytelling possibilities of installations, animation film, comics, and print media. Coco’s personal memories and experience of migration are a major source of inspiration for the social and political topics they explore through bright graphics and drawing… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer femme mixed Sri Lankan (Burgher/Tamil)-Ukranian/Irish writer, poet, educator and cultural worker. Named one of the Feminist Press’ “40 Feminists Under 40 Who Are Shaping the Future,” Leah’s written work spans the genres of essays to poetry and non-fiction. Her 2012 Lambda award-winning collection of poetry, Love Cake, was ecstatically received by the LGBTQ community… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Rozena Maart
We do not come into the world like fully baked cakes; someone has provided the ingredients before us–several men and women–and it is up to us to honour their memory and to honour the history of how we came to be educated. Your generation has been buttered in the hands of our grandmothers, who made sure that our lives would be greater than theirs–always remember that. We are all as great as the community of women who raised us, and nothing is greater than the gift of gratitude… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Juliet Jacques
Juliet Jacques is a British journalist who writes extensively on gender, sexuality, film, literature, and football. She writes regularly for publications such as The New Statesman, Verso, Cineaste, and The Guardian, where she started to gain a following while documenting her gender reassignment process for which she was longlisted for The Orwell Prize in 2011. We recently talked to Jacques about her background in activism, including her involvement in co-founding The Justin Campaign against homophobia in football… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Victoria B. Robinson
Victoria B. Robinson is an Afro-German activist, author, and mentor currently based in the U.S. Victoria shared with us how difficult the reflection process was in writing her contribution to Letters Lived: Radical reflections, revolutionary paths… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Rae Spoon
You may already be familiar with Canadian writer and indie musician Rae Spoon’s body of work. Long recognized as a genre-defying singer-songwriter whose 2008 album Superioryouareinferior was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, just last year Spoon published their first book, First Spring Grass Fire. Nominated for a Lambda award (the biggest award for LGBTQ books!), First Spring Grass Fire is a collection of short stories about growing up queer in Alberta… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor (and editor): Sheila Sampath
Sheila Sampath has been deeply involved in grassroots and anti-oppressive activism in Toronto since the early 2000s. A former chair at the board for the Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-cultural Women Against Rape, Sheila became serious about helping others when she sought help from a rape crisis centre in her hometown at the age of eighteen… READ MORE
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In the Blog
Letters Lived Contributor: Grace Lee Boggs
Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing information about the amazing contributors to Letters Lived: Radical reflections, revolutionary paths. To kick it off, we’re taking a look at the life and work of the incredible Grace Lee Boggs, who wrote the book’s foreword. (NOTE: We could easily fill the entirety of the internet with writings about this amazing woman, but this is just a super small look. For further reading, we’ve provided links below… READ MORE
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In the Blog
An introduction to Letters Lived
In the coming weeks, we will be featuring cross-posted and original content from, about and inspired by this special book, edited by our very own editorial and art director, Sheila Sampath. Read on! READ MORE
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In the Blog
Chick/Lit: Toni Morrison’s Jazz and Terry McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back
In attempting to find less white, mainstream examples of chick lit, I began to think that “alternative chick lit” is an oxymoron. After all, in a genre known for its light-heartedness and uncritical focus on sex, designer shoes, and Cosmopolitans, it can feel like a world that belongs only to the privileged. Many scholars and critics agree, calling chick lit “fun … without philosophical musings” or “apolitical,” a genre “whose light-heartedness and optimism upstage social … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Why Graphic Novels are Awesome
Persepolis. The Boondocks. Dykes to Watch Out For. Archie: The Married Life. American Born Chinese. Skim. When Worlds Collide: A Boys’ Love Comic Anthology. These are a few titles in my collection of adult comics and graphic novels. Comics? Graphic novels? Archie, you say? I have heard about using art to portray feminist, gay-positive messaging but seriously? Comics are for kids! I grew up reading Archie comics; before bed, after scary movies, in the “library” (a.k.a bathroom!) So … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Chick/Lit: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary
by Carolyn Dineen I mentioned in my previous installment of Chick/Lit, I am not a great reader of chick lit. Instead, I read Jane Austen. As such, I find it suitable that one of the genre’s most famous novels, Helen Fielding’s 1996 Bridget Jones’s Diary, would draw its inspiration from Pride and Prejudice. In my mind, Austen is very much the ancestor of modern-day chick lit, and certainly an influence on the work of many women … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Rookie Yearbook One and Book launch review
by Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite and Michelle Kay In late October this year, teen blogger and editor of Rookie magazine , Tavi Gevinson arrived in Toronto to celebrate the release of Rookie’s first print volume, Rookie Yearbook One. Gevinson was in town for two events: one a more traditional book reading and signing at Indigo Yorkdale, the second a book signing and masquerade ball at Magic Pony , an art gallery and store on Queen Street West. The lineup … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Call for participation: Attention: People With Body Parts
Attention: People With Body Parts is a new international project that encourage people to celebrate body parts and their connections to ourselves and to others. The moving movement started this summer as the creator, Lexie Bean, collected letters from folks who have written to one of their body parts to unpack how different bodies are layered and connected–but far from equal and whole. The book version of this project was released in October, and is … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Guest Post: Chick/Lit: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey
I am not a reader of “chick lit.” I am, however, a reader of women writers who grapple with the same issues as today’s chick lit - relationships, motherhood, sexuality. Among my favourites are Toni Morrison, the Brontes, Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith - Jane Austen is my chick lit. But is this really fair? Is there really such a big difference between lit for chicks and literature for women? Recently, I read Fifty Shades of Grey … READ MORE
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In the Blog
UPDATED WITH GOOD NEWS: Sales team for independent Canadian book publishers defunded
GREAT NEWS! Today, the Literary Press Group was given word that the Heritage Minister has overturned the decision and the sales force will be funded for this year! I’ll leave this post as an informational post about what indie publishers in Canada do and how precarious their survival is! The LPG’s statement is here. xo Julia Dear Shameless readers, Some of you may be aware that my day job is in book publishing. I work for the distribution arms of … READ MORE
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In the Blog
Book Review: Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
SOMETHING FIERCE: MEMOIRS OF A REVOLUTIONARY DAUGHTER Carmen Aguirre [Douglas & McIntyre] [This review is expanded from the winter issue of Shameless.] Probably every twelve-year-old child has received strict instructions from their mother; but not every twelve-year-old would remember a situation where confusing the given instructions meant the difference between life and death. In Something Fierce, winner of the CBC Books 2012 Canada Reads: True Stories competition, Carmen Aguirre recalls many such situations as she brilliantly depicts her upbringing … READ MORE
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In the Blog
If I Can’t Dance, Is it Still My Revolution? An interview with AJ Withers
AJ Withers is a Canadian Disability Activist whose zine “If I Can’t Dance, Is it Still My Revolution?” had a profound effect on me as a disabled person and activist. After reviewing the zine and website for Shameless magazine (the Labour issue, out this week!) I wanted to connect with AJ and hear more about radical disability activism. Specifically, I wanted to know what it takes to build solidarity, among and with disabled people, how … READ MORE
