August.17.09
Jesse Patrick Ferguson’s poem to appear in Tightrope Books’ The Best Canadian Poetry in English: 2009 A.F. Moritz has selected “Little “o” Ode” by Jesse Patrick Ferguson for inclusion in Tightrope Books’ anthology The Best Canadian Poetry in English: 2009. Congratulations Jesse! You can check out more of Jesse’s top-drawer poetry in his forthcoming collection Harmonics.
August.17.09
Buying Cigarettes for the Dog reviewed on The Coast and in The Georgia Straight. Stuart Ross continues to captivate Canada - literally, from coast to coast! Check out reviews of Buying Cigarettes for the Dog on The Coast here, and in The Georgia Straight here.
August.17.09
subUrban Legends by Joan Crate reviewed in Vue Weekly and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. The prairie reviewers are loving subUrban Legends! Check out what Vue Weekly has to say here, and what the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has to say here.
June.22.09
Buying Cigarettes for the Dog - new reviews!
The accolades keep rolling in! Check out these great reviews from The Vancouver Sun, The Toronto Star, Vue Weekly, and The Link.
May.11.09
Freehand Books wins Publisher of the Year at the 2009 Alberta Book Publishing Awards!
On Friday night the Book Publishers Association of Alberta named Freehand Books Publisher of the Year! Founding Editor Melanie Little was also awarded the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence for her work on Good to a Fault. Congrats to all the nominees and thanks to the BPAA for a great night!
May.04.09
Joan Crate and Jesse Patrick Ferguson featured in the National Post's NaPoMo Questionnaire.
Two Freehand poets helped the National Post celebrate National Poetry Month, waxing lyrical about all things poetry. Check out Joan's thoughts here and Jesse's thoughts here.
May.01.09
Jesse Patrick Ferguson shortlisted for the CAA-BookTelevision Emerging Writer Award!
Jesse Patrick Ferguson, who will publish his debut collection of poetry, Harmonics, with Freehand Books this September, has been shortlisted for the CAA-BookTelevision Emerging Writer Award! He's up against James Cummins and James Sandham - the winner will be announced at the MagNet conference in Toronto on June 5. Congratulations to all the finalists!
April.29.09
Freehand Books shortlisted for Small Press Publisher of the Year by the Canadian Booksellers Association!!
Freehand scored a spot on the 2009 CBA Libris Awards shortlist for Small Press Publisher of the Year, along with Cormorant Books and Talonbooks. We're absolutely thrilled by the nomination, and so honoured to be in such esteemed company! The winner will be announced on June 20 at the CBA's annual conference. Read all about the 2009 CBA Libris Awards here.
April.28.09
Buying Cigarettes for the Dog reviewed in Quill & Quire.
"'Three Arms Less' maintains a balance between Ross’s penchant for the imaginatively absurd and absurdity of the kind we encounter on the evening news (such as a child victim in a war zone losing his arms in an explosion). The final result is memorable and affecting in a way that is difficult to pin down." Read the full review here.
April.27.09
Saleema Nawaz rocked Blue Metopolis.
By all accounts, the "Words That Matter: India and Pakistan" panel, featuring Saleema Nawaz, M.G. Vassanji, Tariq Ali and Rana Bose was an awesome event. Read maisonneuve's coverage of it here, and the Montreal Gazette's take here.
April.15.09
Good to a Fault shortlisted for the 2009 Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction!
Marina Endicott's bestselling novel has been shortlisted for yet another gong! The Writers Guild of Alberta has chosen Good to a Fault, along with Chef by Jaspreet Singh (Vehicule), and Sage Island by Samantha Warwick (Brindle & Glass) as this year's finalists for the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced at the Literary Awards Gala in Calgary on May 23. Congrats to all the finalists!
April.14.09
Buying Cigarettes for the Dog reviewed in Eye Weekly
Brian Joseph Daivd writes that Stuart Ross's "voice is perfectly developed." Read the full review here.
April.8.09
Freehand Books shortlisted for "Publisher of the Year" by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta!
Freehand rocked the shortlists for the 2009 Alberta Book Publishing Awards! Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott is a finalist for the Trade Fiction Book Award, Melanie Little is a finalist for the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence for her work on Good to a Fault, and our little press is a contender for Publisher of the Year! The awards will be annouced at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala on May 8 in Edmonton - stay tuned...
April.1.09
Buying Cigarettes for the Dog by Stuart Ross reviewed in Now Magazine and The Walrus
It's official - this book is awesome. Susan Cole writes that "Ross doesn't waste a word, and the impact is often breathtaking," while Mark Medley writes that "the book is full of delightful flourishes." Read Now's review here and The Walrus' review here.
Mar.30.09
Pathologies by Susan Olding and It's Hard Being Queen by Jeanette Lynes reviewed in the Prairie Fire Review of Books
H
eidi Greco writes that she likes Pathologies "enough to have aleady recommended it to several others," while Gillian Harding-Russell enthuses that "
Lynes's verses are clipped and often witty, her images spare and select, and her ear is nearly always accurate." Read the full reviews here and here.
Mar.11.09
Marina Endicott WINS the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award, Canada and the Caribbean!!!
Marina Endicott has been awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award, Canada and the Caribbean, for Good to a Fault. She'll now go head-to-head with three other regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize winners for the overall Commonwealth Best Book Award, which will be anounced at a special ceremony during the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival in New Zealand in May. Congratulations Marina!!! You rock.
Mar.02.09
Mother Superior reviewed in Alberta Views and Filling Station
Albertans are digging Saleema Nawaz's Mother Superior. Alberta Views calls the collection "an absolute pleasure to read" and Filling Station agrees that Saleema is a "truly bold new voice in fiction."
Mar.02.09
Freehand Books profiled in Alberta Venture Magazine
The Freehand crew discuss the publishing industry and gain some serious business cred. [read the full article]
Feb.18.09
Good to a Fault SHORTLISTED for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize!!!
The lady's got more nominations than Batman on Oscar night. Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Canada and the Caribbean). Congratulations Marina!
Feb.18.09
Good to a Fault gets a glowing review in Women's Post
"The only thing I found difficult to do while following Endicott's family of strangers was to hold my applause to the very end. I'd dress up, but I'd stay in for this one. This drama of life holds some of the best theatre I've ever seen in a book.
" [read the full review]
Feb.17.09
Good to a Fault shortlisted for the Evergreen Award
Marina Endicott loves libraries and they love her right back. Marina waxes lyrical about the public library system in the Toronto Star here, and you can read all about her nomination for the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen Award here.
Jan.29.09
Good to a Fault praised in the Times Literary Supplement and El Popular
Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault is a worldwide success! The Times Literary Supplement calls her a writer "bringing intelligence, warmth and wit to bear in tales about ordinary people," and El Popular calls the novel "una obra que muchos años después seguramente podrá seguir leyéndose como un clásico."
Jan.29.09
Susan Olding's Pathologies gets a thumbs-up from the Globe and Mail
"
Wise, too, is Susan Olding's Pathologies, filled with honest reflection on the relationship between a daughter and her father. There is no ether here, just raw - in some instances literal - sinew."
Jan.19.09
Freehand Change of Guard
Melanie Little, organizational wonderwoman and editor extraordinaire, is stepping down to concentrate on her own writing. She will, however, remain on the editorial board as Associate Editor. Everyone at Freehand wishes Melanie the very best of luck with her undoubtedly awesome literary endeavours!
Robyn Read is Freehand's new Acquiring Editor, and Sarah Ivany is Freehand's new Managing Editor. Meet the new doyennes of Canlit here!
Jan.13.09
Mother Superior praised in Desi News
"This is no sari- and-samosas collection... Nawaz heralds the next generation of Desi writers who bring an insight of their subject mattter..." [read the full review]
Jan.5.09
Good to a Fault reviewed in Prairie Fire Review of Books
The reviews just keep rolling in!
"Endicott keeps you turning the pages... You wonder how on earth Endicott can bring everything to a satisfactory conclusion. Suffice it to say: she does. Good to a Fault was deservedly shortlisted for the 2008 Giller Prize." [read the full review]
Jan.5.09
What a year!
The small-press-that-could graced some pretty significant "best of" lists in December. The CBC called the arrival of our "plucky little Calgary imprint" one of their favourtie pop culture mementoes of 2008, Quill & Quire named us "Rookie of the Year," and David Mirvish, in the last Globe and Mail Books section, chose Good to a Fault as one of his favourite reads of '08.
Jan.1.09
Good to a Fault reviewed in The Chronicle Herald
"Behind the easy succinctness of her prose is an intelligent awareness of bigger questions that linger long after the last page is turned. It is easy to understand why Good to a Fault was shortlisted for this year's Giller Prize." read the full review
Dec.28.08
Pathologies reviewed in the UTNE Reader
"Canadian writer Susan Olding sets forth a series of vignettes laced with intricate dictionary definitions that sweep her along as she grapples with her father, infertility and motherhood... Pathologies is a frank anatomization of emotions and 'the way things go wrong.'"
Dec.23.08
Mother Superior praised in The National Post and on The Coast
The National Post spotlighted Mother Superior in the "New and Notable Fiction" section, while Halifax's The Coast describes Saleema's "confident voice" as "reminiscent of a Barbara Gowdy or an updated Alice Munro."
Dec.1.08
Pathologies reviewed in Ascent Magazine
"While admitting in the notes on her essays that “memory, of course, is notoriously fallible and partial,” Susan Olding examines her life and relationships with an almost scientific precision. The Kingston, Ontario–based writer uses stylistic innovations and skilled language to create literary essays so honest and convincing, we don’t even care how fallible and partial memory may be." (Editor's Pick)
Nov.29.08
Good to a Fault named a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2008
Also chosen as a "Best-value book of the year" by The National Post's Philip Marchand and featured in The Ottawa Citizen's holiday gift guide. Congratulations to Marina Endicott!
Good to a Fault reviewed in Alberta Views magazine
Aritha van Herk writes:"Good to a Fault lays bare the dread cloak of poverty, how it clings, leaving a trace as indelible as ink... The incipient tenderness of this novel makes it at times movingly difficult to read, but that tenderness also makes it compelling. In an age of slick and clever writing, substanceless as air, Good to a Fault incites tears. They are tears of pleasure, for a good story and for such good writing." read the full review
Nov.27.08
Freehand Books named "Rookie of the Year" by Quill and Quire!
"Launched by Broadview Press and headed up by editor Melanie Little (an author herself), the new literary imprint Freehand Books debuted this fall with just four titles. And one of them, Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault, has already scored Freehand its first Giller nomination--a bit of recogntion plenty of more-established publishers are still waiting for."
Nov.26.08
Jeanette Lynes' It's Hard Being Queen reviewed in Atlantic Books Today
"There is a toughness in the delivery that is underscored by intimations of the subject's tenderness and vulnerablity, bringing the reader a little bit closer to the living, breathing individual that was Dusty Springfield."
read the full review
Nov.18.08
Saleema Nawaz wins the Writers' Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize!
Here's what no-slouches-themselves judges Lynn Coady, Heather O'Neill, and Neil Smith had to say of her winning story, "My Three Girls"
(which also appears in her book Mother Superior, of course!):This tightly written piece accomplishes the impressive feat of condensing a novel’s worth of sorrows and joys into a few pages. Saleema Nawaz writes with grace and compassion about family dynamics and the ghosts that linger in the wake of tragedy.
Our congratulations and compliments to Prairie Fire, the smart journal which first published "My Three Girls."
Vancouver Sun has high praise for PathologiesKicking off the Sun's coverage of the Vancouver International Writers Festival, M.A.C. Farrant praises Susan Olding's collection of "smartly presented essays" for their "excruciating clarity" and "surgical skill."
Saleema Nawaz's Mother Superior shortlisted for the QWF McAuslan First Book Award!
Vue Weekly: true dat
Vue Weekly: true dat
"Marina Endicott’s newest novel, Good to a Fault, is an independent publisher’s dream come true," writes
Alexis Kienlen at the start of another rave review.
Sept. 12-21.08
A Thanksgiving chorus of praise for Good to a Fault
"Endicott manages to create utterly realistic characters," writes Candace Fertile in The Vancouver Sun. "Like Endicott's first book, Open Arms, and reminiscent of the work of Carol Shields, Good to a Fault is a profoundly humane novel." The Toronto Star's Barbara Carey writes:
"Endicott's prose is plain but purposeful, carrying the story through moments of sorrow and heartbreak as well as joy and comedy.
" And here at home, The Calgary Herald's Claire Harris, whose piece also includes an interview with Marina, praises the book's "clear, beautiful language," finding the story "compelling, funny and meaningful."
Fast Forward Weekly reviews Good to a Fault 
"Endicott and Freehand get the attention they deserve," reads the subhead, and it just gets better from there. We may be biased, but Fast Forward's new Arts and Lifestyle editor Drew Anderson has written a gorgeous piece here, full of insight. And Julie McLaughlin's cover illustration of the novel is a treat in itself.
Sept. 12-21.08
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott SHORTLISTED for the Scotiabank Giller Prize!
Marina was driving herself to the creative writing class she teaches at the Augustana campus of The Unveristy of Alberta when she got the news. Her readers (who will be familiar with her painterly ability to depict vivid car crashes) will be happy to know that she did not go off the road! Congratulations, Marina. You deserve this!
Sept. 12-21.08
Saleema Nawaz a finalist for the Journey Prize!
With the announcement of the Rogers Writers' Trust Awards today comes the great news that Saleema's story "My Three Girls" is one of three finalists for the $10,000 McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. "My Three Girls" is one of the nine stories collected in Mother Superior. Our hearty congratulations, Saleema!
Sept. 12-21.08
More praise for Jeanette Lynes' Dusty
The Winnipeg Free Press's Maurice Mierau finds It's Hard Being Queen "a moving, detailed and also hard-edged account of the pop singer Dusty Springfield." And watch for an excerpted poem from the book in the National Post the weekend of October 12.
Sept. 12-21.08
Ottawa Xpress waxes poetic
Jeremy Mesiano-Crookston finds Pathologies "an elegantly paced collection...deft and firm"; Mother Superior "a satisfying and beautiful collection of stories"; and Good to a Fault filled with "powerful honesty." Read the full review
Sept. 12-21.08
Freehand books storm the Calgary Herald bestseller list!
Only 11 days after publication date, all four Freehand titles make the cut: on the fiction bestseller list, Mother Superior is #2, Good to a Fault #5, and It’s Hard Being Queen: The Dusty Springfield Poems #9 (there isn’t a poetry bestseller list). Pathologies is #1 on the non-fiction bestseller list. Yahoo!
Sept. 12-21.08
Good to a Fault declared "a superior novel" by the Globe and Mail's T.F. Rigelhof
"
Marina Endicott is really funny, a sweet-natured but sharp-eyed and quick-tongued social observer in the Jane Austen-Barbara Pym-Anne Tyler tradition, who can wring love, revulsion and hilarity from readers in a single page .... She's worked as an actor, director and dramaturge, and written three plays, and all of this stage experience pays off in writing that is exceptionally tight and compelling. Good to a Fault has the same kind of relentless, unstoppable expectancy as Barbara Gowdy's Helpless, so it's not surprising that this novel is earning accolades from writers such as Elizabeth Hay, Lyn Coady and Annabel Lyon. What singles out Endicott are the flashes of hard-won wisdom that are like Leonard Cohen's when he's at his most self-deprecating."
Sept. 12-21.08
Quill and Quire makes it four out four
In the October 2008 issue of Quill & Quire, Zachariah Wells finds It's Hard Being Queen: The Dusty Springfield Poems "consistently well-written and engaging....Lynes succeeds admirably in making flesh of Dust." And Christina Decarie writes of Mother Superior::"Nawaz's stories have a huge diversity of voices and perspectives, and are filled with great eloquence and great compassion."
“How does she manage to write pieces with such force, talking about the small essential moments…” Sept. 12-21.08
Good to a Fault longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize!
A very intense year ago to the day, Marina Endicott and Freehand Editor Melanie Little sat down to discuss the idea of Freehand bringing out Good to a Fault. Thank you, Marina, for taking a leap of faith on a new press—and congratulations. Read the official Giller Prize longlist press release
The Montreal Gazette explores what makes Mother Superior stand out
"It's not simply the writing, which is accomplished, or the drama, which is well paced, but the point of view that makes it entirely original." Read the full review
Eye Weekly gives It's Hard Being Queen: The Dusty Springfield Poems two thumbs up
"It’s Hard Being Queen succeeds wonderfully as something both regal and gloriously wrecked," writes
Brian Joseph Davis. Read the full review
Fast Forward Weekly's Mark Hopkins profiles Freehand and Saleema Nawaz
The Calgary Herald 's Nancy Tousley investigates the buzz around Freehand
Yes, editor Melanie Little is as tough as she looks in this photo. We wouldn't mess with her.
Quill & Quire loves Good to a Fault and Pathologies
In the September 2008 issue of Quill & Quire,
Sarah Jessop writes of Pathologies: "...[Susan] Olding's creative blending of straight first-person narrative with unconventional stylistic motifs (lyrical quotations from Keats, symbolic excerpts from medical and other reference sources, temporal shifts, memories) serves to destabilize the traditional definition of the literary essay. Through a series of thoughtful meditations, the reader is left with the singular impression of having witnessed firsthand the creation of a vivid self-portrait."
And Caroline Skelton finds Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault "utterly engaging": "With a theatrical sensibility, Endicott, an established playwright and dramaturge, beautifully illuminates the interior lives and stunted interactions of her cast of struggling strangers...Told in time to the steady, poignant pulse of domestic life, and with sharp observations and characters so vulnerable they're impossible not to care about, this is a novel that gets under the skin."
rob mclennan interviews Freehand's Editor for The Danforth Review
