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 and 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
