Freehand Books

07/18/2025

Cover reveal Friday—and season finale of our July reveal series! Today we present THAT’S WHERE YOU WERE, THEN — a collection of interconnected stories by Judith Pond!

Jen begins life as a solitary and somewhat diabolical child growing up in a rural Nova Scotia, who comes up with—at best—unusual ways of dealing with an annoying baby brother, a depressed mother, a disappearing father, and frogs that should be toads. Through the linked stories of this collection, we follow Jen from the dilapidated and overstuffed house of her childhood to her adult life in as an addictions counselor, each story introducing a new dimension of her mystifying, wry, occasionally heartbreaking, and often funny journey through life. In prose rich in characterization and insight, THAT’S WHERE YOU WERE, THEN explores the places we’ve been and the baffling absurdities we encounter along the way.

“A deeply felt rumination on absence and a sensual reflection on life and womanhood . . . Pond imagines a world in which women can surprise and forgive themselves.” — The Literary Review of Canada

Judith Pond has published fiction and poetry in a variety of literary journals. She is the author of four poetry collections, and her debut novel, The Signs of No, was published in 2024. She lives in Calgary.

🎊 Pub date September 9! 🎊

PREORDER today at freehand-books.com or at your favourite local bookstore.

Cover designed by Natalie Olsen

CBC Books 49th Shelf All Lit Up

07/16/2025

Thank you for recommending Damian Tarnopolsky‘s collection, Every Night I Dream I’m a Monk, Every Night I Dream I’m a Monster as part of a wonderfully refreshing recommended (summer) reading list!

Below, a highlighted segment from the piece, “Canadian Literary Tapas: 7 Short Stories and an Essay to Feast on This Summer” curated and written by author .batiz —

“Bed” opens as follows: “I had decided to take to my bed and announced to no one at all that I would no longer be going to my office, I would no longer be visiting friends, I would no longer be making a contribution to what is laughably called civil society, that I was taking to my bed and that being sound of mind my decision was irrevocable and pointed.” What transpires in “Bed” as a result of this decision is as surprising as it is hilarious (and slightly uneasy), and it stayed with me long after I finished reading this fine collection because it’s a unique piece within an already exceptional book. Tarnopolsky’s characters tend to be odd and endearing antiheroes, and the chiaroscuro he achieves alternating them with darker protagonists makes his work a narrative delicacy.”

🙏 💫 📚

Visit link to read Martha’s full list of 🇨🇦 literary “inspiration tapas.” We love her selections and thoughtful words on each one!

https://49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/07/10/7-Canadian-Literary-Tapas-Short-Stories-and-an-Essay-to-Feast-on-This-Summer

07/12/2025

Episode #3 of our July cover reveal series! Today we bring you The Longest Night by Lauren Carter – a taut and uncanny thriller, melding time travel, magic realism, horror, and literary suspense.

One forty-below December night, 18-year-old Ash Hayes finds herself locked out of her home in rural Minnesota. She seeks shelter at the closest house on the road with neighbours she hasn’t yet met. The next morning, everything is off-kilter – the house has no mirrors or modern technology and all the windows are blocked. When Ash tries to call her parents, their numbers are disconnected. One of the strange inhabitants is a doctor, who offers Ash a terrible form of help and won’t take no for an answer. In her efforts to get out of the house, Ash finds herself transported to an even stranger place and time, setting off a chain of events that connects with (and alters) her past and future.

For fans of Mona Awad and Emily St. John Mandel, The Longest Night is a high-stakes, genre-twisting story about searching for stability in a world where reality is ever-changing and can’t be trusted.

Lauren Carter is the author of two novels, a collection of short stories, and two poetry collections. Her award-winning work has appeared in multiple journals and anthologies. She grew up in Blind River, ON, and has lived in the Greater Toronto Area and The Pas, MB. She currently resides in St. Andrews, MB.
https://www.facebook.com/lauren.carter.9237

The Longest Night pub date is September 9!

PREORDER today at freehand-books.com or at your favourite local bookstore.

Cover designed by Natalie Olsen

Books Hollay Ghadery #2025 49th Shelf Wild Ground Writing

07/09/2025

“Freehand Books celebrates 100th release, and they’re no stranger to award nods by now.”
— Prairie Books Now, Spring/Summer 2025, Issue #86

Warmest thanks to for the feature and interview with our amazing Managing Editor, Kelsey Attard — pictured here!

“Our approach has been to not define ourselves as a regional publisher,” Kelsey explains, “instead adopting the attitude that Canadian literature is a national conversation that we’re participating in.”

LINK IN BIO for full article on goals, history, vision and priorities that drive books — highlighting our desire “to publish books that surprise us, challenge us, and delight us.”

07/04/2025

Cover reveal Friday!! Today we bring you How to Breathe Water by Sharon Butala.

In her most intimate work to date, Sharon Butala’s How to Breathe Water is a love letter to the lands and waters of the prairies and a stirring exploration of the places and moments that mark and mold our lives.

After an isolating and demoralizing year during the pandemic, Sharon embarks on a road trip with a friend from Calgary to Winnipeg, keen to revisit some places that have been significant to her life on the prairies. But along the way, the sites they visit—landmarks of Indigenous history, locations where her ancestors struggled to eke out a living—prompt Sharon to unearth her own personal history. She sifts through difficult memories, of traumas deeply buried, of relationships both complicated and gratifying. Taking stock of the people and places she has lost and left behind brings her to the ultimate confrontation—with mortality—which she explores with uncommon wisdom and frankness.

How to Breathe Water pub date September 9!

PREORDER today at freehand-books.com or at your favourite local bookstore. LINK IN BIO.

Sharon Butala is the acclaimed, bestselling author of more than twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, numerous essays and articles, some poetry and five produced plays. She is the recipient of many awards and nominations. Sharon is an Officer of the Order of Canada and currently lives in Saskatchewan.

Cover designed by Natalie Olsen ()

06/27/2025

Cover Reveal Time! 🙌

What better way to celebrate Pride Month than launch our Fall 2025 cover reveal series with Bradley Somer’s incredible forthcoming novel! We Are All of Us Left Behind is a q***r coming-of-age story about a young man’s journey from Canada to Serbia in search of his roots, the power of truth and lies, of what a family really is (how we may find acceptance in the most unexpected people), and the persistence of hope when there’s nothing else left. The Beach meets The Goldfinch in this propulsive, moving, and compelling story.

We Are All of Us Left Behind pub date is September 9! Preorder today at freehand-books.ca or at your favourite local bookstore.

Bradley Somer is an award-winning author of four novels. His work has been published in over twenty countries, translated into several languages, and produced in many print, digital, and audio editions. Some are in development for screen.

Cover designed by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut

06/24/2025

Dawn Promislow has been in studio, recording the audiobook edition of her novel WAN! ✨ The audiobook is available now!

WAN is the story of Jacqueline, a privileged artist in 1970s South Africa. After an anti-apartheid activist comes to hide in her garden house, Jacqueline’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel. Written in gorgeous and spare prose, this exquisite debut novel grapples with questions of complicity and guilt, of privilege, and of the immeasurable value of art and of life.

Thanks to our partners in this audiobook project, the Book Publishers Association Of Alberta and CNIB!

06/20/2025

🌞 Happy Solstice! 🍃

In her book HOMING: A QUEST TO CARE FOR MYSELF AND THE EARTH, Alice Irene Whittaker recounts planting her garden late in the year, late into the night, on the summer solstice:

"On top of an over-accumulation of school drop-offs and Zoom meetings, a conveyer belt of urgent deadlines, and halfway keeping a house tidy, when would a person possibly plant seeds? And lovingly?"

And thanks to the folks at Alberta Views magazine for this lovely review of HOMING (link to review in bio):

"Written in the lyrical manner of Robin Wall Kimmerer, Annie Dillard or even Mary Oliver, Whittaker attends to natural details with adoring precision, aiming to give us a sense of connectivity and thus real dreams of a future beyond scenarios of defeat."

06/20/2025

Some great titles on this list of most borrowed books from Alberta libraries! Including reads from AbuBakr Alrabeeah Winnie Yeung & Benjamin Hertwig.

Looking for some summer reading inspiration? Look no further than the Top May 2025 Library loans! Featuring reads from Freehand Books, Alberta Outdoors, University of Alberta Press, T8N Magazine, University of Calgary Press, Filling Station, Mountain Life - Rocky Mountains, The Tomato food and drink Tyche Books Alberta Craft Council Cowboy Country, and more there's something for every mood and every day of summer! Start your summer reading list now. https://buff.ly/YXQOaIu

06/12/2025

This week’s Small Press Book of the Week is Blue Hours by Alison Acheson from Freehand Books.

Blue Hours is a novel about fatherhood, grief, unanswerable questions, and the small, magical moments that make up life.

Keith has always striven to break rules as he navigates full-time parenting and supports the career of his successful photographer wife. Her unexpected illness and death leaves both him and his son Charlie in bits. When they take a road trip, a journey begins that does not end when they return home.

Keith must deal with revelations that complicate his grief, even as Charlie’s response is unsettling. Together, father and son connect with loved ones, strangers, and each other. Life’s magical and mystical moments emerge. Is it enough to heal, though?

Praise for Blue Hours: “Blue Hours is both exquisitely written and engrossing, a painfully intimate story of a father grieving his partner, and the ways, like photographers crafting images, we both “make” and “take” the people in our closest relationships. With prose that’s both heady and plainspoken, Alison Acheson casts a spell on her readers.” – Kevin Chong, author of The Double Life of Benson Yu

Freehand Books

06/10/2025

🏳️‍🌈 Happy ! 🏳️‍⚧️ Here are some great books to read this month and every month.

06/10/2025

Take a look back at what Alberta readers were picking up in May 2025! The latest Alberta Bestsellers list features titles from Durvile & UpRoute Books, NeWest Press, Freehand Books, University of Calgary Press, The Canadian Rockies, Frontenac House, University of Alberta Press, and Brush Education.

See the full list here: https://buff.ly/23SmxR2 .