Another fall title, coming soon from Pedlar Press! THE CAUSES, a debut novel by Vancouver author and visual artist Cathy Stonehouse. Here’s what Carmen Rodríguez, author of Retribution, has to say about it: “THE CAUSES is the story of José Ramírez, a young visual artist and soldier who survives the war between his native Argentina and Great Britain on the Falklands/Malvinas, only to be haunted by his memories and the spirits that helped him stay alive. Beautifully crafted, the novel claws deeply into the bodily and emotional scars caused by war, and transcends history, politics and nationality by examining enduring and universal themes such as guilt and betrayal, art and survival, and extinction and renewal.” #thecauses #canlit #debutnovel

Cathy Stonehouse Reading from The Causes

Cathy Stonehouse was kind enough to step into the (ahem) Pedlar mobile recording studio for an interview about her debut novel, THE CAUSES. Watch this space for more. (It was tough to find a quiet spot and we had to settle for this alley in east-ish Van. Thanks to the folks at @kafkascoffeetea for putting up with our antics!) This complex and unsettling debut novel follows the young Argentine conscript José Ramirez from his torture on the bleak plains of the Falklands, back into his childhood in pre-revolution Argentina, and forward across continents as he grapples with the loss of his father and his country as he knew it. Carlos Ramirez is taken by force from his apartment, leaving behind only a pair of broken glasses. His son, José, is left with unanswerable questions that become threatening after he is sent to the Malvinas to fight an impossible war. Mysterious, gripping, poetic and magic-realist, THE CAUSES is a love story for a threatened planet, set in Argentina, Spain, the UK, and the South Atlantic. ** Cathy Stonehouse writes fiction, poetry and nonfiction, and has published widely in each of these genres. Originally from the UK, she studied English at Oxford University, where she became interested in experimental traditions in women’s poetry and fiction. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, and a Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy from Langara College. Her publications include the poetry collections The Words I Know (Press Gang) and grace shiver (Inanna Publications), and the short fiction collection Something about the Animal (Biblioasis).

An interview with Cathy Stonehouse about her debut novel The Causes

Martha Baillie's reading from SISTER LANGUAGE (Pedlar Press, 2019) at the Thin Air 2019, Winnipeg's International Writer's Festival. 

SISTER LANGUAGE is a collaboration, composed mainly of letters and other writings, between two sisters, one of whom, Christina, is schizophrenic. In the careful building of a bridge between sisters, a prose nonpareil is achieved, and a linguistic "bridge" created between readers and the authors, one of whom's deep isolation is in this way diminished.

"A playful duet, a radiant howl, a swirling portrait of schizophrenia and sisterhood--this beautiful, wildly-groomed book magnifies two brilliant minds in motion. It is a story of what happens when 'everyday' language mutinies and shatters, leaving a fragile chimera of coherence. But mostly it's a tale of unshakable, vulnerable, writerly love that brought me to tears." - Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life

Martha Baillie

Enlightenment may not be on everyone’s bucket list, but for the three hundred devotees of the Master Teacher, “awakening” was their singular purpose. Kyeren Regehr's debut poetry collection CULT LIFE follows three years in the life of the poet as a twenty-something single mother whose spiritual devotion stood in juxtaposition to her search for worldly love. All the marvellous peculiarities of coterie life are laid bare through the voices of strange characters and the poet-narrator’s own unflinching honesty. Cult Life is a crucible where philanthropists and sociopaths, artists and misfits, dare to seek the mystical, transcendent, something that calls from the realm of the soul.

Kyeren Regehr reads from CULT LIFE (Pedlar Press, 2020)

"The spirits of Lear and Belloc are channelled in Barbara Nichol’s arousingly illogical book of light verse, The Lady from Kent, about, well, a lady who says she’s from Kent. But as we quickly learn the Lady says a lot of things, few of which relate to a recognizable reality. They sure are entertaining, though." — Emily Donaldson, Quill & Quire

Nominated for the 2019 Chocolate Lily Award, celebrating the best of BC children's literature.

Publisher Beth Follett reads Barbara Nichol's The Lady From Kent (Pedlar Press, 2018)

Feast your ears on a performance from two Pedlarians, poets laureate both, on May 15, 2019: Agnes Walsh (ODERIN; Pedlar Press, 2018)of St. John's, NL and Kim Fahner(THESE WINGS, Pedlar Press, 2019)of Sudbury, ON. Hosted by Angela Antle at Broken Books.

Agnes Walsh & Kim Fahner Read At Broken Books May 15 2019

Stan Dragland is an advocate of wholehearted reading. A poet, novelist and scholar, Dragland looks for those places where words riot on the page and sits with them, bringing a lifetime of dedicated reading and thinking to engage with their performance. He also sings. Hear both in his reading here, from THE DIFFICULT(Pedlar Press 2019).

Stan Dragland reading from The Difficult (Pedlar Press 2019)

It's been nearly a year now since we published THE CAUSES by Cathy Stonehouse (Pedlar Press, 2019), and while the book is primarily concerned with the Falkland Islands/Malvinas War, the issues she explores are universal and timeless: violence, trauma, who gets to speak, who is heard, nationhood. Here is the author reading from THE CAUSES.

Cathy Stonehouse reads again!

Publishing innovative, contemporary Canadian literature since 1996. Gutsy and Gorgeous. www.pedlarpress.com

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