Review by Rachel Jansen It would be a mistake to assume Cason Sharpe’s slim debut, Our Lady of Perpetual Realness & Other Stories, is a quick read. These stories are dense and complex, deserving of a slow eye and...
Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change
Edited by Bruce Meyer
Exile Editions
Review by Emilie Moorhouse
A woman waits in line to get her water ration. She hasn’t had a sip of water in nearly three days. Her mouth is parched; she stumbles as she waits her turn for over an hour in the hot sun. When she he finally gets to the iTap and inserts her card into the machine that controls the water flow, the light turns red and her card is rejected. Her water credits have run out.
Continue reading Courage and Imagination in Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change
We are happy to announce that our 2nd Grouse Grind Lit Prize for V. Short Forms is now open for entry. $500 Grand Prize, $150 runner-up, $50 2nd runner-up. Max. word count: 300 words. Please submit only ONE piece per submission. Please...
Fun Home: The Coming of Age Musical
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Review by Mikaela Asfour
“At times my father appeared to enjoy having children,” Alison narrates, “but the real object of his affection was his house.”
As a fan of Alison Bechdel’s comics, I was pleased to see Fun Home: The Coming of Age Musical onstage in its Canadian premiere at Arts Club Theater’s Granville Island Stage in Vancouver. Fun Home, based on Bechdel’s 2006 autobiographical family tragicomic of the same title, was adapted for the stage by Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music). In its 2015 Broadway run, the show won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. A heart-rending drama balanced with wonderful moments of levity, Arts Club Theater’s production of Fun Home met my high expectations for the show.
Continue reading Moments of Perfect Balance in Fun Home: A Coming of Age Musical
Interview by Jessica Johns
Hello, friends. Meet Adebe DeRango-Adem, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of two full-length poetry collections: Ex Nihilo, nominated for the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize and Terra Incognita, which was a finalist for the 2015 Pat Lowther award. Her newest poetry collection is forthcoming from Mansfield Press. After reading Selina Boan’s Get to Know with Liz Howard, Adebe reached out and introduced herself. After reading some of her work online (her WordPress site is astounding), I asked if she’d like to be a part of the series.
Interview by Jessica Johns and Claudia Wilde
In addition to providing resources for emerging writers on our website, PRISM is dedicated to featuring spaces and organizations that exist at the intersection of writing and community. Spaces that are essential to bridging the gap between what is uncertain and what is possible. Naturally, our attention turned to Massy Books, a 100% Indigenous-owned and operated bookstore. Currently, the store is located at 2206 Main Street, Vancouver, but will be moving to their new location of 229 E. Georgia St at the end of February. Though the new location will have a different layout, it will preserve its secret bookshelf door (built by carpenter Sam Grzesik, owner of S.G. Contracting and who also worked on the set of Harry Potter!). Other features include 14 ft high pipe shelving with semi-rolling ladders and a 500 sq. ft art gallery space upstairs.
Our newest issue 56.2 is hot off the press and full of amazing content! Get your own issue now! Contents Judge’s essay: Alicia Elliott – Strength in Survival Non-Fiction Grand Prize Winner Gwen Benaway – Between a Rock and a Hard Place Non-Fiction...
Demi-Gods
Eliza Robertson
Penguin Random House, 2017
Review by Kyle Schoenfeld
Eliza Robertson’s debut novel Demi-Gods is the story of Willa, a girl growing up in British Columbia in the 1950s and ‘60s. In luminous prose, Robertson shows her protagonist’s formation in a world set on teaching her about others’ power to shape her. Willa finds this restrictive power crystallized in Patrick, the son of her mother’s boyfriend and a monstrous presence who slinks into rooms and haunts the summers of the narrator’s childhood. As a parable of the oppressive weight of other people’s desire, Demi-Gods is lush and compelling, however unsettling it may be to read.
Continue reading Mirrored Bodies: Reflecting on Eliza Robertson’s Demi-Gods
Project Compass
Lizzie Derksen, Matthew Stepanic, Kristina Vyskocil, Robert Strong
Monto Books, 2017
Review by Peter Takach
What do you get when you take four emerging Edmonton writers and give them each a quadrant of their city to explore? In Project Compass, publisher and editor Jason Lee Norman has assembled a crack crew to take readers on an odyssey through a city that, despite producing its fair share of writers, is rarely the explicit setting of their stories. The result is an engaging and emotionally-arresting collection of four concurrent novellas that all unwind on June 21, 2016. Starting from the north, south, east, and west, we follow four Edmontonians as they wander their way through the longest day of the year and reflect on the paths they have taken.
Continue reading Despite the Odds: a Review of Project Compass