CELA and our Contact Centre will be closed Thursday, December 25, Friday, December 26 and Thursday, January 1, 2026. We will be open and available on Monday, December 29, Tuesday, December 30 and Wednesday, December 31. We will resume regular hours on Friday, January 2. Happy holidays!
Showing 1 - 20 of 27 items
A fierce and illuminating debut from FOLD founder Jael Richardson about a young woman who must find the courage to…
determine her own future and secure her freedomSet in an imagined world in which the most vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society, Gutter Child uncovers a nation divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. In this world, Elimina Dubois is one of only 100 babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity as part of a social experiment led by the Mainland government. But when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina finds herself all alone, a teenager forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs. Elimina is sent to an academy with new rules and expectations where she befriends Gutter children who are making their own way through the Gutter System in whatever ways they know how. When Elimina’s life takes another unexpected turn, she will discover that what she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she longs for after all. Richardson’s Gutter Child reveals one young woman’s journey through a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking injustices. Elimina is a modern heroine in an altered but all too recognizable reality who must find the strength within herself to forge her future and defy a system that tries to shape her destiny.
In this story collection, a woman contemplates her Congolese traditions during a family wedding, a teenage girl looks for happiness…
inside a pack of cigarettes, a mother reconnects with her daughter through their shared interest in fish, and a young woman decides to shave her head in the waiting room of an abortion clinic. These punchy, sharply observed stories blur the lines between longing and choosing, exploring the narrator's experience as an involuntary one. Tinged with pathos and humour, they interrogate the moments in which femininity, womanness, and identity are not only questioned but also imposed. 2019.
The killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 by a white assailant inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, which quickly spread…
outside the borders of the United States. The movement’s message found fertile ground in Canada, where Black activists speak of generations of injustice and continue the work of the Black liberators who have come before them. Until We Are Free contains some of the very best writing on the hottest issues facing the Black community in Canada. It describes the latest developments in Canadian Black activism, organizing efforts through the use of social media, Black-Indigenous alliances, and more."Until We Are Free busts myths of Canadian politeness and niceness, myths that prevent Canadians from properly fulfilling its dream of multiculturalism and from challenging systemic racism, including the everyday assaults on black and brown bodies. This book needs to be read and put into practice by everyone." —Vershawn Young, author of Your Average Nigga: Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity and co-author of Other People's English: Code Meshing, Code Switching, and African American Literacy Contributors: Silvia Argentina Arauz - Toronto, ON Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - Toronto, ON Patrisse Cullors - Los Angeles, CA Giselle Dias - Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON OmiSoore Dryden - Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS Paige Galette - Whitehorse, YK Dana Inkster - University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB Sarah Jama - Hamilton, ON El Jones - Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS Anique Jordan - Toronto, ON Dr. Naila Keleta Mae - University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON Janaya Khan - Los Angeles, CA Gilary Massa - York University, Toronto, ON Robyn Maynard - University of Toronto, Toronto, ON QueenTite Opaleke - Toronto, ON Randolph Riley - Halifax, NS Camille Turner - York University, Toronto, ON Ravyn Wngz - Toronto, ON
"An intensely unsettling read." -David Demchuk, author of The Bone Mother and RED XVIOLENCE WAS HIS FIRST LANGUAGE. After years…
of imprisonment, a Deaf teen escapes his father's basement. Bloody, alone, and without language, he stumbles through the Saskatchewan prairie until he lands in an isolated psychiatric facility, where he meets Felix, another Deaf teen, who eagerly teaches him Sign Language. As the two grow closer, the ambitious and cunning Felix begins to see his pupil less like an individual and more like a mind that he can mold in his own image, and as his ego grows, his plans to break free from the facility become increasingly more dangerous.Told entirely from a Deaf perspective, Apparitions is a powerful story like no other. With prose compared to Cormac McCarthy and Jack Ketchum, this is horror literature at its finest.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERTwelve years after the lights go out . . . An epic journey to a forgotten homelandThe hotly…
anticipated sequel to the bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow.In the years since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy, Evan Whitesky has led his community in remote northern Canada off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions, isolated from the outside world. As new generations are born, and others come of age in a world after everything, Evan’s people are stronger than ever. But resources around their new settlement are drying up, and elders warn that they cannot stay indefinitely. Evan and his teenaged daughter, Nangohns, are chosen to lead a scouting party on a months-long trip down to their traditional home on the shores of Lake Huron—to seek new beginnings, and discover what kind of life—and what danger—still exists in the lands to the south.Waubgeshig Rice’s exhilarating return to the world first explored in Moon of the Crusted Snow is a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth.
Production note: This title was created through eBOUND's Literary Image Description project. The author and illustrator wrote or consulted on…
the image descriptions, which are included in the body and narration of the text. "A moving story told in visual art and fiction about gentrification, aging in place, grief, and vulnerable Chinese Canadian elders. Bringing together ink artwork and fiction, Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes (illustrations) and Christina Wong (text) follows the elderly Wong Cho Sum, who, living in Toronto's gentrifying Chinatown-Kensington Market, begins to collect bottles and cans after the sudden loss of her husband as a way to fill her days and keep grief and loneliness at bay. In her long walks around the city, Cho Sum meets new friends, confronts classism and racism, and learns how to build a life as a widow in a neighborhood that is being destroyed and rebuilt, leaving elders like her behind. A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable."
A moving story told in visual art and fiction about gentrification, aging in place, grief, and vulnerable Chinese Canadian elders…
Bringing together ink artwork and fiction, Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes (illustrations) and Christina Wong (text) follows the elderly Wong Cho Sum, who, living in Toronto's gentrifying Chinatown–Kensington Market, begins to collect bottles and cans after the sudden loss of her husband as a way to fill her days and keep grief and loneliness at bay. In her long walks around the city, Cho Sum meets new friends, confronts classism and racism, and learns how to build a life as a widow in a neighborhood that is being destroyed and rebuilt, leaving elders like her behind. A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable
*National Bestseller**Named a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year*A Most Anticipated Book Pick by Toronto Star,…
CBC, The Walrus, Good Morning America, Bustle, CrimeReads, Electric Literature, Debutiful, Ms. Magazine, The Nerd Daily, and PasteA mind-bending, gripping novel about Native life, motherhood and mental health that follows a young Mohawk woman who discovers that the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequencesOn the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be. She's just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve, is nothing but supportive; and they've recently moved to a wealthy neighborhood in Toronto. And yet, Alice feels like an imposter. She isn't connecting with Dawn, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from her watchful white neighbors. Her growing self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story.At first, Alice is convinced her discomfort is of her own making, but then strange things start happening. She finds herself losing bits of time, hearing voices she can't explain, and speaking with things that should not be talking back to her, all while her neighbors' passive-aggressive behavior begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn's survival. . . . She just has to finish it before it's too late.Told in Alice's darkly funny voice, And Then She Fell is an urgent and unflinching look at inherited trauma, womanhood, denial, and false allyship, which speeds to an unpredictable—and surreal—climax.
Longlisted for Canada Reads 2023 • One of Tor.com's Can't Miss Speculative Fiction for Fall 2023 • Listed in CBC…
Books Fiction to Read in Fall 2023 • One of Kirkus Reviews' Fall 2023 Big Books By Small Presses • A Kirkus Review Work of Translated Fiction To Read Now • One of CBC Books Best Books of 2023 In an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees. In an alternate history of Detroit, the Motor City was never surrendered to the US. Its residents deal with pollution, poverty, and the legacy of racism—and strange and magical things are happening: children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves. When Gloria arrives looking for answers and her missing granddaughters, at first she finds only a hungry mouse in the derelict home where her daughter was murdered. But the neighbours take pity on her and she turns to their resilience and impressive gardens for sustenance. When a strange intuition sends Gloria into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city’s orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can’t imagine the strength she will find. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love—together.
A Real Simple Must-Read Book of Summer 2023 "Mai Nguyen has proven herself to be a real standout." - Taylor…
Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author. A tender, humorous, and page-turning debut about a Vietnamese Canadian family in Toronto who will do whatever it takes to protect their no-frills nail salon after a new high end salon opens up--even if it tears the family apart. Perfect for readers of Olga Dies Dreaming and The Fortunes of Jaded Women. Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked. Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they've built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon? Sunshine Nails is a light-hearted, urgent fable of gentrification with a cast of memorable and complex characters who showcase the diversity of immigrant experiences and community resilience.
A runaway bestseller in Quebec, with foreign rights sold to 15 countries around the world, Kim Thúy's Governor General's Literary…
Award-winning Ru is a lullaby for Vietnam and a love letter to a new homeland.Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow - of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism. Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder: its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy. Translated by Sheila Fischman.
'I absolutely adored it! Sweet and sexy, this friends-to-lovers romance is the perfect escape. I loved Mags and her fiercely…
loyal friend group, the food descriptions are TO DIE FOR (guaranteed to make you salivate) and the romance is sooo satisfying. Five stars!!' Netgalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐The Maid of Honour. Her college best friend. And a sexy doctor...Maggie wants to find her Prince Charming, but all she's finding are total frogs. As the Maid of Honour in both her upcoming best friends' weddings, time is running out to find a date worthy of being a Plus One. Then she meets Blake at the gym, a dreamy, muscular heart surgeon who sets off butterflies in her stomach. Blake is confident, a fine-as hell-Georgetown grad with chocolate-brown eyes, thick lips and a dimpled smile. What more could she ask for?Meanwhile, her college bestie, Garrett, throws salt in everyone's game. At every swipe, with every date, he just has to point out red flags. When Maggie asks why he isn't happy for her, he finally admits that he can't be. Not when he's not with her.Now Maggie is stuck in the most confusing love triangle, forced to choose between the near-perfect guy she's been waiting for and best friend who has never hurt her. She's gone from thinking all the good ones are taken, to been torn between two great guys. If she doesn't figure it out soon, she'll lose them both...An absolutely hilarious and steamy romantic comedy that will make you fall in love - and hungry along the way! Fans of Jasmine Guillory, Talia Hibbert and Sara Desai won't be able to put this one down Readers are RAVING about The Good Ones Are Taken: 'Maggie is such a relatable character, especially being the only single friend out of her friend group. You are rooting for her to find her one true match, and laughing alone the way at all the shenanigans that Tinder puts you through . . . Garrett has you swooning and smiling from ear to ear! If this man exists in real life, please let me know . . . a perfect book for the romcom lovers, you won't want to put it down and it might make you want to redownload Tinder. 😉' Goodreads reviewer'Delightfully steamy. This was a fun, fresh read and readers will delight in Taj McCoy's unique voice.' Netgalley reviewer'The love story of Maggie and Garrett! Wow this spicy best friends turned lovers kept me on the edge! . . . A steamy, romantic, rom com! A must read!' Netgalley reviewer'a delightful and lighthearted romance that I definitely recommend!' Goodreads reviewer'A wonderful look at the complexities that often face professionals in the black community looking for love . . . the plot will keep you turning the pages and renew your belief in friendship and true love.' Netgalley reviewer'ooooh this book wouldn't let me put it down! i liked this book SO much and feel like, in some ways, this is what i have been waiting for from Taj McCoy and i am thrilled' Goodreads reviewer'This book makes women everywhere have hope that their Mr. Right is out there looking for her just like she's looking for him. Great read!!' Goodreads reviewer
"A charming, funny, and unique twist on challenging the laws and traditions that shape us."—Abby Jimenez, New York Times bestselling author of Yours…
TrulyA bride-to-be convinced she&’s cursed in romance finds her luck changing—at exactly the wrong time.Maya Mirza is so convinced she&’s unlucky in love that she&’s come up with a list of laws to explain it. Most importantly… Maya&’s Law #1: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.But that&’s about to change. Maya&’s headed to Pakistan for an arranged marriage with a handsome, successful doctor who ticks all the right boxes. First comes marriage, then comes love—she&’s sure of it. Except… Law #4: When you think you&’re lucky, think again.From the start, Maya's journey is riddled with disaster, and the cynical lawyer seated next to her on the plane isn&’t helping. When a storm leaves them stranded in Switzerland, she and Sarfaraz become unlikely travel companions through bus breakdowns and missed connections. Law #6: Trips are never smooth sailing.And before long, Maya&’s wondering whether she&’s just experienced the ultimate in misfortune—finally meeting the right man a few days before she marries someone else. And Maya might just be the worst person to keep a secret. Law #18: If you&’re overtired, you&’ll always spill your guts.But maybe, if she&’s willing to bend some laws, this detour could take her somewhere totally—and wonderfully—unexpected."Rooted in Pakistani and Muslim culture and faith, this romance is a fun romp that features plenty of adventure and plot twists. Recommend to fans of Uzma Jalaluddin."—Library Journal, starred review
CBC BOOKS: 2024 SPRING FICTION PREVIEWA queer writer travelling through India can't escape the regrets of his past, nor the impending…
ruin of his present. "I am leaving for the winter – I have to get away from this small town and all its dangers – to write, read, think, all the most important things in the world but which are thought the least important, the most expendable."Thus begins the Indian winter of our narrator, a queer writer and translator much like the author, a winter that includes a meandering journey through India, trying to write about a long-ago lover whose death he has just learned of. While on this journey into memory, he flees his current faltering relationship in search of new friendships and intimacies. Inspired by Antonio Tabucchi's Indian Nocturne, and by the writings of Anaïs Nin, Rachel Cusk, and Carole Maso, among others, Indian Winter finds itself where the travel diary, the künstlerroman, poetry, and autofiction meet. But the heartbreak brought on by his unravelling relationship and his family's inability to accept his queerness cannot be outrun; as he traverses India, our narrator can't help but repeatedly encounter himself and the range of love and alienation he has within.
They're walking on the wild side…The Plan was simple: find a cure for the cancer that nearly took her sister&’s life.…
But for Zoey Fong, something about The Plan isn&’t working anymore. When a crucial tissue sample accidentally winds up in the hands of a very distracting—and disarmingly handsome—visitor, Zoey jumps at the chance to follow him home to retrieve it. Davy Hsieh&’s rugged island estate is no manicured suburban park. His plan is simple: establish a legitimate animal sanctuary and embrace life as a hermit to make up for a sketchy past. Zoey invading his fortress of solitude should not, under any circumstances, be a romantic development. And yet it&’s the single most invigorating week of their lives…when they're able to set their many differences aside and embrace it. Stranded amid all manner of flora and fauna—including a semidomesticated cougar called Baby—Davy and Zoey first have to survive the island. Then they'll need to take a leap of faith, maybe even trusting in each other, to save it. "An absolutely charming opposites attract story that will have you swooning for Davy, feeling for Zoey, and swearing to stay away from geese." —Lily Chu, author of The Stand-In and The Comeback
Black Cake meets Death at a Funeral in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family grappling with…
their matriarch’s sudden passing while their auntie insists that her sister is coming back, from an author with a “razor-sharp, smart and tender” (Nafiza Azad, author of The Wild Ones) voice. Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. The recently divorced life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing is also the dutiful Nigerian daughter who has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own. As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids try to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition: Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ himself on Easter Sunday. Desperate to believe that they’re about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community and the host of AJAfrika TV to help spread the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling to deal with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.Filled with humour and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page, Pride and Joy will draw in readers as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven’t actually lost Mama Mary for good and grappling with what her loss would truly mean for each of them.
In this unusual, engaging, and intimate collection of personal essays, Lambda Literary Award finalist Tania De Rozario recalls growing up…
as a queer, brown, fat girl in Singapore, blending memoir with elements of history, pop culture, horror films, and current events to explore the nature of monsters and what it means to be different.Tania De Rozario was just twelve years old when she was gay-exorcised. Convinced that her boyish style and demeanor were a sign of something wicked, her mother and a pair of her church friends tried to “banish the evil” from Tania. That day, the young girl realized that monsters weren’t just found in horror tales. They could lurk anywhere—including your own family and community—and look just like you. Dinner on Monster Island is Tania’s memoir of her life and childhood in Singapore—where she discovered how difference is often perceived as deviant, damaged, disobedient, and sometimes, demonic. As she pulls back the veil on life on the small island, she reveals the sometimes kind, sometimes monstrous side of all of us. Intertwined with her experiences is an analysis of the role of women in horror. Tania looks at films and popular culture such as Carrie, The Witch, and The Ring to illuminate the ways in which women are often portrayed as monsters, and how in real life, monsters are not what we think. Moving and lyrical, written with earnest candor, and leavened with moments of humor and optimism, Dinner on Monster Island is a deeply personal examination of one woman’s experience grappling with her identity and a fantastic analysis of monsters, monstrous women and the worlds in which they live.
Lyrical and devastating, The Singularity is a breathtaking study of grief, migration, and motherhood from one of Sweden’s most exciting…
contemporary novelists.In an unnamed coastal city filled with refugees, the mother of a displaced family calls out her daughter’s name as she wanders the cliffside road where the child once worked. The mother searches and searches until, spent from grief, she throws herself into the sea, leaving her other children behind. Bearing witness to the suicide is another woman—on a business trip, with a swollen belly that later gives birth to a stillborn baby. In the wake of her pain, the second woman remembers other losses—of a language, a country, an identity—when once, her family fled a distant war.Balsam Karam weaves between both narratives in this formally ambitious novel and offers a fresh approach to language and aesthetic as she decenters a white European gaze. Her English-language debut, The Singularity is a powerful exploration of loss, history, and memory.
Persepolis meets Crying in H Mart in this astonishing, deeply moving graphic memoir of three generations of women, exploring love, grief, exile,…
identity, and forgiveness.In her evocative, genre-defying graphic memoir, Tessa Hulls tells the story of three generations of women: her grandmother, Sun Yi; her mother, Rose; and herself.Sun Yi was a Shanghai journalist caught in the political crosshairs of the 1949 Communist victory in China. After fleeing to Hong Kong with her young daughter, Sun Yi wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival—then promptly had a breakdown that left her committed to a mental institution.Growing up, Tessa watches her mother care for Sun Yi, both of them struggling under the weight of Sun Yi&’s unexamined trauma and mental illness. Vowing to escape her mother&’s smothering fear, Tessa leaves home and travels to the farthest, most remote corners of the globe. But once she turns thirty, her roaming begins to feel less like freedom and more like running away, so she returns to face the history that shaped her family.Extensively researched and gorgeously rendered, Feeding Ghosts is Tessa&’s homecoming, a vivid journey into the beating heart of one family, set against the dark backdrop of modern Chinese history. By turns fascinating and heartbreaking, inventive and poignant, Feeding Ghosts exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, and the love that holds them together.