Happy 20th Anniversary to my publisher Book*hug Press!
I share what it means to be part of the Book*hug author family, highlight a title by Book*hug author Jacob Wren that has left a lasting impression on me, and reflect on independent publishing.
Book*hug Press who published my debut story collection Anecdotes is celebrating 20 years of publishing!
and Hazel Millar are not only my publishers but also friends whose books I’ve been buying and supporting long before I became one of their authors.They invited me to do an interview where I reflect on my publishing experience with them and my love for independent (aka small press) publishing.
One thing I try to do on Send My Love to Anyone is support independent/small presses and their authors including Book*hug!
Our 20th-anniversary celebrations continue with another Author Spotlight interview. Today, we’re shining a light on Kathryn Mockler. Last year we had the pleasure of publishing Kathryn’s brilliant hybrid collection Anecdotes. It has been so lovely developing a friendship with Kathryn while witnessing the well-deserved acclaim her book has garnered from prizes like the Trillium and Betsy Warland Awards.
In our Q&A with Kathryn, she shares what it means to be part of the Book*hug author family, highlights a title by fellow Book*hug author Jacob Wren that has left a lasting impression on her, and reflects on independent publishing vs publishing conglomerates. Happy reading!
What does being part of the Book*hug author family mean to you? Feel free to share an anecdote, reflection, or backstory about your publishing experience.
I love the writing that Book*hug publishes, and I respect their willingness to select work that takes creative risks—particularly translations, hybrid works, and political writing. I’m thinking of Céline Huyghebaert’s hybrid book Remnants (translated into English by Aleshia Jensen); Catherine Fatima’s raw and edgy novel Sludge Utopia; and Shani Mootoo’s innovative approaches to poetic style and form in Oh Witness Day!
Visit Book*hug Press to read more about my experience with them and see all the amazing books they publish.
Although Jacob Wren’s book Rich and Poor was written in 2016, the subject matter is incredibly timely:
Rich and Poor is a novel of a man who washes dishes for a living and decides to kill a billionaire as a political act. It is literature as political theory and theory as pure literary pleasure—a spiralling, fast-paced parable of joyous, overly self-aware, mischievous class warfare.
As his plan proceeds and becomes more feasible, the story cuts back and forth between his and the billionaire’s perspectives, gradually revealing how easily the poisons of ambition, wealth and revolutionary violence can become entangled. A fable of not knowing how to change the world and perhaps learning how to do so in the process.
Anecdotes by Kathryn Mockler
Winner of the 2024 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize
Finalist for the 2024 VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award
Finalist for the 2024 Fred Kerner Book Award
Finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award
Finalist for the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award
With dreamlike stories and dark humour, Anecdotes is a hybrid collection in four parts examining the pressing realities of sexual violence, abuse, and environmental collapse.
Absurdist flash fictions in “The Boy is Dead” depict characters such as a park that hates hippies, squirrels, and unhappy parents; a woman lamenting a stolen laptop the day the world ends; and birds slamming into glass buildings.
“We’re Not Here to Talk About Aliens” gathers autofictions that follow a young protagonist from childhood to early 20s, through the murky undercurrent of potential violence amidst sexual awakening, from first periods to flashers, sticker books to maxi pad art, acid trips to blackouts, and creepy professors to close calls.
“This Isn’t a Conversation” shares one-liners from overheard conversations, found texts, diary entries, and random thoughts: many are responses to the absurdity and pain of the current political and environmental climate.
In “My Dream House,” the past and the future are personified as various incarnations in relationships to one another (lovers, a parent and child, siblings, friends), all engaged in ongoing conflict.
These varied, immersive works bristle with truth in the face of unprecedented change. They are playful forms for serious times.
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