Fancy hotels: I honestly do not understand what happened to these last four weeks because it was just ten minutes ago I was sitting on a train bound to Ottawa composing my May Enthusiasms newsletter for your pleasure, and now here we are again? Make it make sense. Thankfully, however, my trip to Ottawa provided plenty to enthuse about, most notably my whirlwind stopover at the Chateau Laurier (the Ottawa Writers Festival pulls out all the stops) with a room that made me feel like a character in a 1920s’ detective novel, although not in a seedy sense, and nobody had to die. In the morning, I woke up early for a lane swim in their amazing very Gatsby sans the body art deco pool (such a conspicuous lack of murder in all this!), and basically was living in a dream, especially since the swim was followed by the most delectable room service breakfast eggs Benedict ever. Always, always, order room service when you’re staying in a fancy hotel by yourself, is the most essential of wisdoms I’ve come up with so far in this lifetime (and save the receipt, obviously, because this is a business expense).

Chive blossom season: I regret that my enthusing becomes less fancy from here on in, but I want to sing the praises of chives, the very first and more reliable perennial in my container garden year after year. A herb that’s kind of under the radar until they show up with their extremely show-offy Horton Hears a Hoo-esque puffball blossoms. Which I never appreciated more than during the lunch I had two weeks ago when there were approximately five things in my larder and they happened to be exactly the contents of this 2013 Catherine Newman rice salad, and you know, there is only ever the briefest window when a recipe calls for chive blossoms and you just happen to have them growing outside your kitchen door, but that day fell within that period. Stars and chives aligned. The salad was so good.

CMAT: If you’ve been here for a while, you already know that I religiously only like music released in the years 1988 or 1999 unless it’s by Phil Collins, and then I’m very open-minded, all of which culminates in me not being the most fun person in the world to make summer road trip mix-tapes with unless you too agree that “Follow You Follow Me,” by Genesis, is the best song ever written, which nobody in my family does, much to my chagrin. And so I do my best to remedy that, to find new music that will be to everyone’s taste and that we can all belt out while driving down the highway, and while I am sorry that it took CMAT being fat-shamed by the British media for her to come to my attention (it was her quote “it is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly i am treated because of my body,” that really did it for me), I’ve got no regrets, because she’s so good, like if Stevie Nicks got together with Linda Ronstadt, but even better, because she’s her own self. Even Olivia Rodrigo thinks so. Listen to “Take a Sexy Picture of Me.”

“Podcasts in Uganda and Ghana are reclaiming sex and sexuality”: On a recent episode of CBC Ideas, Nana aba Duncan talks to Ghanaian and Ugandan podcast hosts and producers whose conversations about queerness and queer culture are making small steps toward big change in countries that have some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world. Listen here.

CBD topicals: The other fundamental thing about me, beyond my terrible taste in music, is that I’ve spent ever summer for the past 40 years (and especially in the last 10, thank you perimenopause and my kooky autoimmune responses) beset with rashes and itches from allergies to lake water, sunshine, grass, peaches, and sometimes nothing at all. I’ve false-alarmed solutions to my skin problems before (magical thinking is one hell of a drug, maybe I regret the time I spent bathing in apple cider vinegar) but I may have stumbled onto something actually wondrous with CBD cream. It’s only been two weeks, but it seems to be doing what the steroids do?? Fingers crossed. Will report back.

My new waffle maker: And finally, I want to sing the praises of waffles, which have been a consistent part of my life since our family’s 2019 New Year’s Resolution to get a waffle maker, which we did, for $7.00 at Value Village. It’s had a good life, our waffle maker, but it was a pretty chintzy machine, and that time I dropped it on the floor did not help, and now the electric cord is disintegrating, so it’s a fire risk, so we needed a replacement, but Value Village was yielding nothing. I don’t know what’s happened to the secondhand waffle maker market, but it’s dried up entirely. (“You could just buy a new one, you know,” said my exasperated teen, as if it’s that simple, but for some reason it isn’t.) And so I went on my neighbourhood Facebook group, and simply asked if someone wanted to give me one, and I was feeling pretty positive about this approach, because last month it had delivered me an entire patio set, and lo and behold, the gods delivered. Someone a few streets over had found a like-new waffle iron on the side of the road but never used it, and left it on her porch for me to pick up, and it is actually worth $120 retail, has removable plates, makes double the waffles our previous maker did, and it’s totally going to revolutionize my Sunday mornings because all the waffles in half the time.

Definitely Thriving in Conversation

I’m grateful to CBC Books and Antonio Michael Downing for having me back on The Next Chapter to talk about Definitely Thriving, its ties to Bridget Jones’s Diary, and read-alikes Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym, and Early Morning Riser, by Katherine Heiny, and what a thing to share an episode with Ann Patchett and Monique Grey Smith!! Such illustrious company! You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

And my conversation with Zibby Owens on the Totally Booked Podcast from our live-taping in April in New York City is finally ready for your ears, and you can listen here!

Engaging With the Discourse

What did I think about the most buzzed-about book of the season? Find out here.

The Great Good Places

I was late to Margaret Drabble, unsurprisingly, since she started publishing novels almost twenty years before I was born, and it was only when I was living in Japan in my 20s that I fell under their spell, battered copies of her Penguin paperbacks with their faded orange spines readily available at Wantage Book in Kobe. (Read the rest)

On Suffering Sheila

Selections from one-star Goodreads reviews of Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great:

• The kids really wanted another Fudge book, so I picked this one up because it was listed as the next book in the Fudge “series.” Waste of time – Fudge is not in this book at all, and Sheila is not a main character I could root for. (Read the rest)

“For the Love of Toronto”

When I received the opportunity to be part of the For the Love of Toronto/Toronto Confessions event from the Museum of Toronto, I said yes without thinking. And then I did think, and panicked, and sent a note to Emma, my publicist at House of Anansi Press: “OMG, just checking, this is real, right? It occurs to me that if the AI scammers wanted to get to me, this would be the way to go!!” (Read the rest)

Recommended Reads:

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Not long ago, I was part of a presentation for emerging writers, most of whom were women in their 20s. And nearly all of us presenting were women too, talking about finding our way through the creative wilderness, the lessons of persistence, rallying through rejection, how our bills get paid, ways we connected with agents, all our unlikely paths from there to here.1

I was the oldest of the group presenting, and had the most publishing experience, with four books behind me, my fifth on the horizon. And it was a novel sensation, actually, to be in possession of authority, to feel like I knew what I was talking about, which had not often happened during my first 45 years—although it’s happening more lately. And it was happening that day, instilling me with the courage to finally say what I said, touching on a part of the life of a writer that no one in our discussion had brought up yet.

What I said was that becoming a mother had made me a writer. That before my children were born I hadn’t known what the stakes were, writing flimsy fictional universes that didn’t hold up, because I hadn’t yet properly understood what it was to exist in the world.

I emphasized that many writers are able to access that understanding in other ways, that having a baby is not essential to the process of becoming a writer, an artist (because that is a ridiculous notion, that there is only one way to become anything), but also that it had been essential for me.

And I explained that I was laying this bare because when I’d been a aspiring writer in my 20s wondering what was possible, motherhood was part of my consideration. The English department TA who rode her bike with a baby seat around campus, my creative writing professor in graduate school whose toddler was a gorgeous chaos goblin, these examples of women who’d managed to meld motherhood with a life of the mind—this was data I craved in a world that kept telling me otherwise, that writing and motherhood were an impossible dichotomy.

“I’m telling you that if you want it, you can have it. That motherhood can complement your art instead of subtracting from it.”

And at this, a man (the only man!) who was presenting alongside me piped up.

“So yeah, guys,” he said, trying to gloss over whatever discomfort my comments had provoked in him, his voice dripping with disdain. “Let’s all go out and have kids.” The look on his face making clear that I’d just revealed myself to be a person of profound unseriousness.

That man had only appeared on my Instagram that afternoon, but he’d unfollowed me by morning.2

Kasia Van Schaik’s new book, Women Among Monuments begins with a question: “Where were the women?” Inspired by the tiresomely predictable debate surrounding the possible inclusion of a single woman into a collection of statues of historical men in Padua, Van Schaik begins walking through Montreal, noticing that this city too is filled with statues of European men:

Of the many remarkable things about this remarkable book, chief about them is that it never engages with the mother/art dichotomy. And that Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius blends memoir with its scholarship means it’s relevant that Van Schaik, a fiction writer and academic, doesn’t seem to be a parent herself, and yet mothers appear most inconspicuously among the artists in her text—Toni Morrison, Leslie Marmon Silko, Alice Munro (with necessary caveats), Bernadette Mayer, and others.

In her treatment of genius and artists in Paris (Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Hemingway, Rilke), Van Schaik considers “the art monster,” that term popularized by Jenny Offill in Dept. of Speculation, a novel about a woman who laments that motherhood keeps her from devoting her life to her craft in the way she’d always dreamed of doing.3

Van Schaik, however, doesn’t romanticize the figure of the art monster; she claims she’s become skeptical of “the project of genius-making.”

She asks, “Is there instead a way to live as a hybrid creature, part artist, part decent human being?”

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• Elizabeth Thompson Advises: JoEllen Brydon’s mother, Jean Armstrong Brydon, writing under the pen name Elizabeth Thompson, was the Globe and Mail’s advice columnist from 1966-1978, and in this new exhibit at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Brydon-the-younger, a painter. pairs her mother’s columns with gorgeous and evocative paintings in a whimsical folk art style, colourful and rich. The painting photographed above accompanies a letter written by a teenage girl complaining about her mother’s slovenly housekeeping (the mother is curled up in an armchair in the lower left corner amidst a pile of magazines) and Elizabeth Thompson’s response, as always, was measured, progressive, and fair. See more images and learn about the exhibit at the Art Gallery of Peterborough website. It’s a small show, but so worth a visit. (And when we were there, the power was out, which meant we had to explore by flashlight, which was actually a little bit enchanting, and explains the spotlight effect in my photo!)

• 2026 Census soundtrack: While the deadline to fill out your Canadian census was yesterday, the official Spotify playlists for the 2026 Cenus soundtrack (it’s a thing) are evergreen. Listen here. CW: “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy” does come up.

• “It was once for royalty. Now it’s in your pantry. How this staple tells the story of how the world feeds itself ”: Turns out a story about basmati rice is a story about EVERYTHING. Sadiya Ansari’s piece in the Toronto Star is one of the most fascinating things I’ve read lately, touching on history, geography, climate change, rivers, economics, foodways, and more. Gift link here.

• Lunar rhubarb cake: I found my first rhubarb of the season as the astronauts on the Artemis II were returning to earth, and so it seemed like a sign to make a lunar rhubarb cake (so called because the surface resembles the surface of the moon). It’s one of my favourite spring bakes, and also an iconic Canadian recipe. Julie Van Ronsendaal shares it here so you can make it too!

Immortality is Perhaps Unreasonable

I’m writing this message on a train, somewhere between Belleville and Kingston, en-route to the first of two sold-out events this week which will cap off my spring of abundant book promotion (which started here). Which is the way I’m choosing to frame things, even though I’m relatively sure that my presence is not the reason why these events have proven popular, but I’m pleased to be hitched to success however I can manage it; one mustn’t quibble. And I’ve had a very good time this spring, almost all of my events well-attended (or well-enough), every one of them fun and inspiring, opportunities to connect, a good use of my time.

And I’ve been thinking a lot about publishing a book and what it means, and what we can expect expect from the experience, concluding that immortality is perhaps unreasonable. If it sounds like I’m being facetious, I’m not.

In his most recent book, Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman wrote about reading and rivers in a way that shifted so many things for me, about holding on, and letting go, about relinquishing control, and being free. And what he wrote was that we must think of our to-be-read piles as a river of reading rolling by that we can dip into, instead of a more imposing project that requires completion. There is no completion, there is no arrival. We’ll never do it all, and so accepting that—and that this singular moment in time is what actually matters, what you’re doing now instead of what you’ve done or what you still need to do—is to release the weight of the world from our shoulders.

I’ve been thinking about the books I’ve written in a similar way, accepting the transience of it all. Which came about when I was perusing my blog archives from 20 years ago and found reviews of books I loved and had thought deeply about at the time and which I can no longer remember having read or even knowing about at all. And accepting the same about my own books—that many people will never ever read them, and that even those who do and love them might not hold my books forever—is actually fine, and I don’t have to beat myself up for my books’ ephemerality, because all books are ephemeral (all THINGS are ephemeral), even the SERIOUS LITERARY BOOKS written by the pen of men, or the runaway bestsellers that years later turn up as boxes upon boxes at library book sales.

And maybe this is an easier fact to accept when it’s accompanied by a feeling that my novel has had a warm welcome into the world, that it’s found its way into the hands of readers through avenues outside my control, that I don’t necessarily need to orchestrate everything, that when I say I’m willing to let it go, I actually realize that this isn’t synonymous with “let it disappear.”

I used to celebrate my book birthdays. I used to bake a chocolate pie in honour of my first novel. And at a certain point this ritual stopped being meaningful to me, and I realized that it was me trying to cling to some intangible thing, and eventually I stopped clinging.

Community Classifieds

Cool feature: paid subscribers share what they’re making and doing. They get to spread the word about their projects, you get to learn about them, and I look vicariously cool by having the most interesting paid subscribers ever! (If you’d like to join them, tap the button up above!)

It’s in the world: my 6th book! Like a River Divides the Earth. Five stories. Every story is different, as stories are, but each gets at things that unsettle and divide us. There’s grief, and also a quest for wholeness and the joy of being alive. B.C. Review calls these stories “amazing”. My name is Dora Dueck and I’d be thrilled to have you as a reader. Published by Freehand Books, Like a River Divides the Earth is available wherever you get your books. More info at www.doradueck.com .

For sale May 12: Not another book about Glenn Gould. Friends did refer to my second novel as a book about him for a while, but The Instrument Must Not Matter (Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn) isn’t that. It IS a coming-of-age novel about a fictional pianist, Lila Rys, who must leave all she knows in 2018 Toronto to study in NYC and become the musician she’s meant to be. Dissident literature uncovered by her brother reveals a family secret that makes Lila question everything she knows about music, her family, and the silencing of her musician grandmother in 1968 Prague.

Come to the place said to have inspired the book/film Chocolat! maison de la fontaine is a self-catering vacation rental home, located in a quiet cul-de-sac, featuring all modern conveniences, comfortably sleeping 6 people. Enjoy breakfast or an apéro on the charming patio. Visit the Tuesday summer night market or one of the region’s largest Saturday markets. The historic town of Nérac, in Southwest France, is halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse and a short drive to Spain - the perfect base from which to explore the surrounding wine regions. Nérac features extensive walking and bike paths too! Pickle Me This readers are offered a 10% discount on 1-week rentals and 15% on two weeks or more. Interested? Email us: houseinnerac@gmail.com

Mind the Gap, my new book of short fiction, is out! In these stories the characters travel to Mexico, Tunisia, Morocco, Europe, Texas, north-eastern Quebec. Claudia who hopes to uncover the mystery of her adoption; Vance who has been asked to scatter his ex’s ashes; Nessa whose boyfriend never returned from Morocco. What do they find? How does it change them? Mind the Gap is available in bookstores or here! There will be a fabulous joint book launch with Christine Fischer Guy and her new book, The Instrument Must Not Matter, in Toronto on May 25. RSVP!

36 Hours in NYC

One day on my own in New York City to do whatever I want to do: what a gift…

Read all about it here.

Last week the internet went crazy

Last week, the internet went crazy. And I was so interested in the way that the internet went crazy, because instead of being in the crazy fray (where I use to hang out all the time!), I was looking on from the sidelines, in more than one sense. (Read the rest.)

When it Isn’t Easy

I’m writing a novel right now, and I’m having a hard time. When I’m writing first drafts, I’m usually firmly wedded to forward momentum, just get to the end already, but things have gone off the rails a bit where I’m at, 52 000 words. Or maybe I’m still on those rails but the rails aren’t properly fastened to any foundation, and the narrative is all over the place, and/or no place at once. There’s not a proper focus, a proper through-line, I don’t know my secondary characters well enough, the narrative has disparate elements that need to be pulled together. There are some fundamental mysteries that I need to solve before I’m ready for this story to get where it’s going, and so I’ve gone back to the start for rewriting and reweaving—and I’m really just overwhelmed. (Read the rest.)

Cool New Reviews

“Definitely Thriving looks at what can happen if we step outside our comfort zone — whether purposefully or not — and begin anew. It’s a funny, lighthearted read that isn’t trying too hard to be anything else. Clare’s characters are ridiculous but endearing for all their quirks, and Clemence herself, a lovable hot mess, still manages to inspire.” —Lindsay McKnight, Winnipeg Free Press

“Clemence’s story is utterly charming, funny, and surprising at every turn. Definitely Thriving is a great read that I won’t call women’s fiction (IYKYK). I highly recommend it.” —Pamela Sinclair, The Seaboard Review of Books

“There were mishaps, kooky characters and crazy situations that were not expected but relatable and they all made this story a delightful and addictive read. With love affairs, raunchy moments and memorable closet moments, Clemence teaches us all that starting again can be all that is needed.” —Sarah Butland, The Miramichi Reader

Recommended Reads

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My superpower—or toxic trait, if you happen to be a zipper—is my ability to challenge the capacity of any piece of luggage, big or small. Handbag or beach-bag, backpack or suitcase, tote bag or duffle, you name it, and I have overstuffed it. Among the many women I’m never going to be is the one with a well-packed carry-on, a capsule wardrobe for travel, devoid of burdens. Nope, I like my burdens, and why carry one tote bag when I can be carrying three? Because where else am I am supposed to pack my book, and my other book, not to mention all the books I’m going to buy when I get there?

On my recent visit to New York, I brought a backpack. Hardly stylish—it was a grubby hand-me-down from my teenage daughter, and I hadn’t even walked half a block before some weird lady had pointed at me on the sidewalk and declared, “Huh! You’re a tourist just like I am!” But it was the backpack I had, practical for a trip where I’d be walking a lot, carrying everything I’d brought with me. Which wouldn’t be so much, I supposed—I’d only be away for 36 hours—but before I’d finished packing, my bag was already full.

As was my itinerary, packed as densely as my bag. I had one day in New York City all by myself to spend however I desired, which seemed like unfathomable splendour, the kind of thing that happens to me never. Where to start? The library, of course, and the bookstores, and all the places to eat.

And the thing about New York, unlike my backpack, was that the city can hold it all, and then some, not even straining at the seams. In fact, from where I stood, from everywhere I stood that day, I couldn’t even see any seams, horizons stretching on into infinity, which is the last thing I expected from a city on an island. Such limitless extravagance.

Everything felt a little Mrs. Dalloway-buying-the-flowers-herself.

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• My new fuchsia Docs: I went to the mall to buy something lightweight and subtle, and ended up with fuchsia Doc Martens that were in my size and on sale for $85. I’ve only ever had one other pair of Docs before, when I was 15, a pair of blue Mary Janes that I also bought on clearance, but that pair wasn’t in my size, and I wore them anyway, and ended up disfiguring my too-long second toes. And so this pair, which fits, seems much more practical, until it occurs to me that this is the footwear equivalent of getting funky specs, and it’s true that older women with giant glasses do keep stopping me in the street to compliment my shoes. It also occurs to me, albeit fleetingly, that maybe the real narrative is not that I’m so lucky to find the last pair of fuchsia shoes in my size on clearance, but instead that I have a sartorial penchant for items that normal people wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. I don’t know. I did have to go back and buy that lightweight and subtle pair of shoes that I was after in the first place (I got these), but otherwise, I’m completely happy with my fuchsia shoes, not least because when I wear them, I’m once again taller than my teenage daughter (nature is healing!) and also because now I finally know how to spell fuchsia. For now.

• Edna Taçon at the AGO: On a recent visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario, the exhibit Edna Taçon: Verve and Decorum was a highlight. Her muted pallet is still so bright and vibrant, and the music in her paintings sings from the canvas. Don’t the shapes also give a little Henry Moore? On until the end of August.

  

• Canadian Independent Bookstore Day: While I want to tell you that on Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, I’m going to Flying Books on College Street in Toronto for 11am, and then will be at Blue Heron Books in Uxbridge at 2pm, it is more important to me that you come up with your own CIBD plan! What indie bookstore will you be supporting in your own neck of the woods? A reminder that bookstores really do make the best destinations. And if you happen to reside in farflungdom where indie booksellers are hard to come by, you can now shop online at https://www.booksellers.ca/

  

• Driving in England: I just got back from England and I love being in England and did I always not so secretly desire to marry somebody from England so that I’d have occasion to keep on going to England? Perhaps. More than anything else, however, I really love driving in England, those wild winding roads, zipping over moors like it’s the top of the world, two-lane roads that are scarcely wide enough for one car, inevitable stops for livestock, all these roads that were never designed for cars at all, but it works somehow. With petrol prices being what they are, I was very much besotted with my super fuel-efficient rental, a Ford Puma hybrid, even though I did drive into the gas station from the wrong side (apparently it’s a one way system—who knew?), forcing the car at the adjacent pump to have to BACK OUT OF THE STATION LOT. When I went inside to pay, the woman at the counter told me in abject disgust that I was “causing chaos out there” and I was more than a little delighted that the bar was so low for that.

  

• Bonus Enthusiasm: this magnet I bought at the art gallery from the Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm exhibit of a pimply George by the pool smoking a cigarette. Has anyone else ever been this cool? No.

Definitely Thriving is a Bestseller!

On April 1, the day we arrived in England, I learned that Definitely Thriving had made the indie bestseller’s list for Canadian fiction for the week of March 21, certainly thanks to record sales via my events that week at Blue Heron Books and Take Cover Books, as well as to every other copy sold that week at a Canadian indie bookstore. I’ve made this list in the past, but it never felt as significant as it did this time, not least because I’d made peace with making no list at all the week my book came out, because it’s hard to get on any list these days unless your name is Rachel Reid, and also because I’ve figured out the trap of never-enoughness in publishing, and I’m just not playing that game. So I was overjoyed, and so pleased to be celebrating this milestone, and even doubly pleased to be celebrating the milestone while I was on vacation, so it didn’t even feel like this wonderful success was the best thing in my life. I’m so pleased with this little book that can, and grateful for the opportunities it’s bringing me as its author.

Beyond “Women’s Fiction” in LIT HUB

I was first drawn to Barbara Pym for her idiosyncrasies, fancying the idea of reading about jumble sales, pale curates, and squabbles over floral arrangements on church altars. The incongruity of her fictional world with my own was charming, and I also appreciated how its crises tended to be the kind at least partly mitigated by somebody putting on the kettle. (According to the protagonist of No Fond Return of Love, “Life’s problems are often eased by hot milky drinks.”)…

I was so grateful for the opportunity to write about Barbara Pym’s influence on Definitely Thriving for LitHub. Read the whole piece here!

A Week Away

We were in the north of England last week for a trip to visit family, and between the hours on a plane, lazy mornings, and bookshop visits, I read so many books! Read all about them.

The Republic of Love

“…The last two books I read before I finally picked up this one were abandoned within their first hundred pages. Possibly the problem was me, and I just wasn’t in the proper head space to appreciate them, but it was a problem regardless, and I required a sure thing. And so I picked up Carol Shields’ novel The Republic of Love, a novel I’ve read several times, but an edition that I’ve never read before, a first edition hardcover I bought at Bay Used Books in Sudbury when I was in town years ago for the Wordstock Literary Festival, the very same edition that my main character Clemence picks up on her first visit to Crampton’s Used Bookshop in one of the early chapters of Definitely Thriving.” (Read the rest!)

Cool Book Things

• A Q&A with the infinitely cool Susan Sanford Blades (who has a new book on the horizon that I can’t wait for!). Susan’s newsletter Girls to the Front is not to be missed—sign up here. She also sent me the painting she made of my book cover, and it’s my favourite thing.

• Hear my interview on the CBC Here & Now Tuesday afternoon Book Club with Farrah Merali.

• Listen to my conversation with the inimitable Bianca Marais on a bonus episode of The Shit Nobody Tells You About Writing

• On the House of Anansi blog, I had the pleasure of interviewing my protagonist, Clemence Lathbury, which turned out to be quite fun!

• Video: Kerry Clare’s 3 Offbeat Romantic Comedy Films that complement DEFINITELY THRIVING!

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, April 18 in Hamilton, ON: Definitely Thriving: Loss, Love, and Beginning Again at GritLit. Tickets on sale here.

Tuesday, April 28 in Waterloo, ON: An Evening with Kerry Clare in partnership with Words Worth Books at the Waterloo Public Library, Eastside Branch. Register here.

Wednesday, April 29 in Toronto, ON: A Flying Books Author Social with Kerry Clare at 371 Queen St. RSVP here.

Saturday, May 2 in Port Hope, ON: Author Event featuring Kerry Clare at Mary J. Benson Branch of the Port Hope Public Library. Find out more here.

Sunday, May 3 in Toronto, ON: Junction Reads at Type Books Junction with Kerry Clare, Liz Johnston and Alice Fitzpatrick. In person or live-streamed. More here.

Wednesday, May 13 in Ottawa, ON: Festival Book Club Featuring Literary Agent Carly Watters, and authors Mai Nguyen and Kerry Clare. Tickets on sale here.

Thursday, May 14 in Toronto, ON: Museum of Toronto’s “For the Love of Toronto” storytelling series live at Second City. Tickets on sale here.

Recommended Reads

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I could write forever about the things I didn’t know twelve years ago when I published my first book—an essay anthology which I’d edited and contributed to—and when I published my first novel three years later, and even the two books after that. In an ever-changing media environment, we’re all starting from scratch every time we launch and promote a book, and so I’m not going to pretend that I’ve got a handle on anything, however: there are several things that I’ve changed up with my fifth release—not with the goal of selling books (hot tip: nobody actually knows how to do this, and everybody is always surprised when it happens) but with the intention of protecting my heart and not absolutely wrecking my mental health.

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• First sighting of the book in the wild: Official pub date is today, but copies of Definitely Thriving have been arriving in stores since the beginning of the month. Thanks to Alyssa for sending me this photo of Definitely Thriving on the shelf at Munro’s Books in Victoria.

• One of Zoomer’s 10 Must Reads for March: ‘As Clemence starts from scratch, renting an apartment in west-end Toronto and living alone for the first time, this witty and whimsical story embroils her in church-basement politics, neighbourhood gossip and the fabric of her community through a local secondhand bookstore.’ (Read the list here!)

  

• Karen Brochu’s nails: House of Anansi Publisher Karen Brochu had a Definitely Thriving manicure for our trip to the ABA Winter Institute in Pittsburgh last month. How amazing are these? You can see more photos here.

• Chatelaine’s “Our Favourite Books Of Spring 2026”: ‘This cozy read has some hilarious lines (“...you’re talking about a family, not a flash mob,” says Clemence when her always pregnant sister admits she’s not sure she wants another kid) and an almost too-happy ending, but it’s impossible not to root for Clemence as she slowly finds herself.’ Read the whole list here.

• CBC Books’ 38 Canadian fiction books we’re excited about coming out from January to March: Read the whole list here.

• A Kobo Best in Romance Pick for March: I’m thrilled to see Definitely Thriving as one of Kobo’s romance picks for March. Explore all the books on the list here!

So this is how a woman builds a life…

Watch our mini book-trailer, created by my excellent husband.

Be Here Now

If you’ve been reading here for some time—I began this newsletter in the midst of creative doldrums—you will already know that it means a great deal to me that my new novel is arriving into the world with some fanfare, that it’s being received by readers with generosity and enthusiasm, that our official launch was in a packed movie theatre, the most spectacular venue. You’ll know that I’m taking none of this for granted, even though once upon a time I might have, and you maybe even know that I now realize such things indicate precisely nothing about what’s to come for my book in terms of sales or for my career in general, that such fanfare offers no real indicators of actual success, but is just something to be enjoyed for itself, for the warmth and kindness inherent in the book’s reception by readers and booksellers. I am so grateful, and grateful to the people at House of Anansi Press too who’ve done a really beautiful job situating Definitely Thriving so that light can shine upon it in the very best way. I wrote a story, and the people who’ve made it into a book have given it all the support. What else can an author ask for?

Every time I’ve launched a book, I’ve believed myself to be really happy and excited with how things were going, but maybe this time I mean it in a way I never have before? And I could very well be wrong—let’s do a postmortem in six months, okay?—but I’ve gone through a lot of processing in the three years since I last launched a novel and it’s left me in a more grounded, balanced space where my expectations are tempered in a realistic manner and I can be a whole lot kinder to myself.

And of course there are ups and downs, but I’m trying to manage these better, trying to find something in between “OMG, this novel is going to blow up, you are the next Judy Blume” and “You are pathetic, and everybody knows how much you suck.” Whenever I find myself veering toward either of these extremes, I try to find a way back to the space in between, which is where reality lies—and I think I like it here.

If you’d like to come out to an event this spring, check out tour dates here. More to come soon, including a stop in Ottawa!

In Conversation:

• “When You’re Not Inclined To Fit the Mould,” by Ingrid Haring-Mendes, who calls Definitely Thriving “the perfect how-to for building an authentic life.”

• “A Conversation with Kerry Clare” at The Needle and the Knife, by Kate Jenks Landry, who writes, “I have loved all of Kerry’s novels, but I have to say that her brand new book, Definitely Thriving, is my favourite so far.”

• “Interview—Kerry Clare and Definitely Thriving” with Tara Patey at the Canada Reads American Style podcast.

Launching Definitely Thriving

I started writing DEFINITELY THRIVING in 2021 because I wanted to write a book that would make me happy, to find a way out of such a dark and scary time, and that we all gathered last night at Paradise Theatre, the very place I was dreaming of as I was writing, only underlines how we never knew how the story might unfold, that sometimes things work out rather beautifully in the end…. (Read the whole thing here.)

Books in Definitely Thriving

You might already know that DEFINITELY THRIVING is a bookish book, but did you know that a major plot point involves the whereabouts of a copy of Cathy Park Hong’s essay collection MINOR FEELINGS? (Follow me for more hot tips for writing scintillating narratives…) (Read the rest here)

Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Want to know more about my whirlwind trip to the American Booksellers’ Association Winter Institute in Pittsburgh, which was truly one of the highlights of my author life? Read all about it here.

Standing on the Edge

“And this is what I’m resisting, what I’ve been working on shrugging off since my last book came out three years ago and it almost wrecked me. All these things are wonderful, but they also mean nothing. This is my moment to shine, but also nobody cares, and neither point necessarily cancels the other, and being able to hold all of this at the very same time might very well be the key to not losing my mind.” (Read the whole thing here.)

Recommended Reads:

Thank you for tolerating the full-on self-promotion of this ENTHUSIASMS email. Regular service will resume next month, but right now I’d love for you to buy my book, and/or put a copy on hold at your local library!

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About Definitely Thriving:

The heartening and hilarious story of a woman who doesn’t have it all figured out just yet.

After accidentally-on-purpose exploding her listless marriage by being discovered in bed with the next-door neighbours, Clemence Lathbury returns to her hometown resolved to build a life for herself that is good and substantial, to become the kind of sensible woman who won’t be distracted by frippery and romance. It’s supposed to be Eat, Pray, Love, without the love part. But no woman is an island, and soon Clemence finds herself embroiled in neighbourhood drama; beginning a crusade at the local bookshop; becoming adopted by a well-groomed, one-eyed cat; and being forced to admit her attraction to two very different men—each a romantic lead in his own right. But how to choose? And never mind the complications of her quirky family …

A novel about friendship, community, and church jumble sales, Definitely Thriving is a celebration of people who are perfectly imperfect, and all the love and support that’s required for one woman to make it on her own.

Out Now! Order DEFINITELY THRIVING today!

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I was young when Bridget Jones’s Diary appeared in theatres 25 years ago this spring, although I didn’t know it. Lovelorn, romantic yearnings unrequited, I identified with Renee Zellweger’s character in the film based on Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel, despite being a decade her junior, unaware of the world of experience between one’s 20s and 30s. I even bought the CD movie soundtrack so I could be dramatic and stare out the window while listening to “Out of Reach,” by Gabrielle, sad rain dripping down the panes.

I liked the book, but the movie version of Bridget Jones really won my heart: her London flat, Hugh Grant as the handsome cad, the aforementioned soundtrack (post-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell’s cover of “It’s Raining Men”!). And especially Colin Firth-as-Mark Darcy delivering the memorable line (which doesn’t appear in the novel) with such stirring calm: “I like you very much—just as you are.”

That line was a revelation, a shock to suppose it was possible. That a woman might be flawed, frazzled, and not even thin, and a handsome somebody could like her. That a woman as flawed, frazzled and not thin as I was (actually not that not thin, although neither was Renee Zellweger) could have a destiny other than dying alone and being eaten by an Alsatian, as Bridget herself had feared.

As I got older, however, I started to be embarrassed that my self-esteem had been so bolstered by a movie line. Many of us became reflective about the toxicity and misogyny in “post-feminist” 1990s/2000s popular culture, analysis underlining recent works like Sophie Gilbert’s Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves. It seemed sad and small to have been astonished by the possibility of being worthy of love. Could I really have valued myself so little as that?

I still have my high school diaries from the mid-1990s whose entries included lists of things to do, among them:

• Lose as much weight as possible

• Wear more feminine clothes and makeup

• Get a boyfriend

• Don’t talk so much

And while these priorities were expressed in earnest, there was a performative aspect too, as though self-loathing and effacement were obligatory parts of womanhood, right up there with shaving my legs and plucking my eyebrows. I never questioned that a woman’s life was a project of self-improvement, that most of us would always be too much and never enough, and that escape from the trap was impossible.

Bridget’s diary entries in the novel begin with metrics reflecting similar priorities: her weight, alcohol units consumed, cigarettes smoked, calories in. Bridget Jones was funny because it was true, but therein lies the tragedy. Which is why—along with the apparent paltriness of Mark Darcy’s declaration—I eventually put my fondness for Bridget away in the mental compartment where I keep memories of American Apparel magazine ads, Girls Gone Wild infomercials and Courteney Cox in a fat suit.

Clemence Lathbury, the protagonist of my new novel, Definitely Thriving, actively resists a Bridget Jones narrative arc. After Clemence blows up her marriage (by sleeping with the next-door neighbours), her best friend helps her move into a new apartment, and tells her, “It is a cozy flat, you know. A bit like Bridget Jones’s. The kind of place where you’d end up running outside to kiss Mark Darcy in your underwear. You better watch out for that.”

“God forbid, “ Clemence responds, insisting that her Bridget Jones years are behind her:

There would be no such humiliations here in her new life, no snogging in the street. Her intention is to begin a very different kind of story, one that doesn’t end with a wedding. She desires to become… [a] woman of substance, of character, who isn’t defined by her relationship to a man.

But then I re-watched Bridget Jones’s Diary for the first time in more than 20 years, and realized that this was who Bridget had always been.

When Bridget’s dashing boyfriend, played by Grant, reveals that he’s cheating, she’s devastated, but she’s also finished with him. When he wants her back, she’s having none of it. She desires a boyfriend, but mainly for company on mini-breaks, and so married friends will stop harassing her about her love life, and not enough to be with someone who treats her badly.

Bridget picks herself up after mistakes, humiliations, and disappointments, supported by friends who also like her just as she is, friends who were always going to save her from being a hungry dog’s lunch. In the novel, Bridget’s friend Tom notes, referring to their friend group, “I know we’re all psychotic, single and completely dysfunctional, and it’s all done over the phone…but it’s a bit like a family, isn’t it?”

I’d been remembering Bridget Jones wrong all these years, my sense of it tainted by its wider culture. It doesn’t hurt either that the movie omits the accounting of weight, food, and cigarettes that bogs down the novel in the minutiae of self-deprecation. And while it opens with Bridget drinking red wine in her pyjamas lip-syncing to “All By Myself,” such self-parody doesn’t set the tone, and the viewer sees beyond Bridget’s interior monologue to discover how her remarkable sense of her own value is central to her character and the plot.

Upon re-watching, I realized how Bridget Jones’s Diary had opened my mind to the various narrative possibilities for women’s experience, possibilities I’ve explored in all my novels, but especially in Definitely Thriving, which is all about how a person builds a life from scratch.

I realized too that I hadn’t been foolish to be so moved by Mark Darcy’s declaration—I’d just been putting the emphasis in the wrong place. Just as you are. A kind of permission to be, sweet relief, and a gift to my younger self. It wasn’t about being worthy of love, but about being worthy full stop.

Just one week until the launch of Definitely Thriving at Paradise Theatre (1006 Bloor Street West). Tickets are on sale now!

Definitely Thriving on Tour!

Tuesday March 3 in Stratford

Tuesday Night Book Release Party at the Bruce Hotel

• Free to attend, RSVP required

Thursday March 5 in Toronto

Bridget Jones’s Diary at the Paradise Theatre, and a conversation with Marissa Stapley

• Buy your tickets today!

Wednesday March 18 in Etobicoke

Meet and Greet at A Novel Spot Books (Thorncrest Plaza, 1500 Islington Ave., Unit 4)

• Free event, details to come!

Sunday March 22 in Uxbridge

Book Drunkard Festival Brunch with Kerry Clare and Bianca Marais, Wooden Sticks Golf Club, 11-1pm

• Buy your tickets today

Thursday March 26 in Peterborough

In conversation with Megan Murphy at Take Cover Books, 59 Hunter Street East

• Free event, details to come!

Saturday March 28 in East Gwillimbury

Event with the East Gwillimbury Public Library

• Details to come!

Thursday April 16 in New York City

Humor, Self-Discovery, & Love - A Totally Booked: Live! Event at the Whitby Hotel (18 West 56th Street)

• Buy your tickets today!

April 17/18 in Hamilton

Part of the 2026 gritLIT: Hamilton Readers and Writers Festival

• Details to Come!

Saturday April 25 in Uxbridge

Canadian Independent Bookstore Day at Book Heron Books

• Details to come!

Wednesday April 28 in Waterloo

Waterloo Public Library Event in Partnership with Words Worth Books, Eastside Branch (2001 University Avenue East), 7-8pm

• Free event. Registration opens April 7

Thursday April 29 in Toronto

Flying Books Author Social at 371 Queen Street West, in conversation with Julia Zarankin

• Details to come!

Sunday May 3 in Toronto

Junction Reads in-person with Liz Johnston and Alice Fitzpatrick. TYPE Books Junction, 2887 Dundas Street West. 6:30pm ET.

• Register here to watch the live-stream

Coming soon! Pre-order DEFINITELY THRIVING today!

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And oh, does Mootoo ever succeed at this. I read Starry Starry Night months ago, but I still have such a visceral sense of what it is to be her protagonist, Anju, to feel what she feels, to see what she sees as she grows up in 1960s’ Trinidad. Mootoo explains that this is the novel she has been training to write for her entire career, the one that she wasn’t ready to write or to share with the world until now.

From celebrated writer Shani Mootoo comes an innovative and revelatory work of autofiction about family secrets, trauma, race, class, and loss.

In Starry Starry Night, Mootoo gives us the singular voice of Anju Ghoshal, a young girl living in 1960s Trinidad. Through Anju’s innocent and clear-eyed observations, the reader becomes both a witness to and a participant in her negotiations of an unexpectedly new and complex life, spanning from the ages of four to twelve.

Set against the backdrop of a politically exciting time in Trinidad’s history, just before and after it gained independence, we meet Anju’s beloved Ma and Pa and her socially advancing family. While preoccupied with their own dramas, the adults around her often fail to recognize the needs of the children who depend on them.

Beautifully crafted and rich with sumptuous detail, this unique narrative coalesces into a portrait of a child who, despite her privileged appearance, must ultimately fend for herself because her safety depends on it.

SHANI MOOTOO is the author of six novels, three collections of poetry, and one short story collection. She is a four-time Giller Prize nominee, and her work has been long and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Lambda Literary Prize, and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has been awarded the Doctor of Letters honoris causa degree from Western University, is a recipient of Lambda Literary's James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, the Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award, and Library and Archives Canada Scholar Award. Mootoo was born in Ireland, raised in Trinidad, and lives in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Coming soon! Pre-order DEFINITELY THRIVING today!

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Belliveau tells me about Mary Borden’s book The Forbidden Zone, a collection of poetry and short fiction inspired by Borden’s own experiences as a war nurse, a collection that wasn’t published until 1929, when the reading public finally was ready for work that took on more realistic and complicated narratives of war experiences.

In the aftermath of the First World War, two souls struggle to find their place in a world they no longer recognize.

Rose, a nurse who tended to the wounded near the frontlines, has returned to her quiet life in Toronto to find that her family home no longer offers any comfort. Only a few years earlier, she reached France brimming with eagerness to contribute, but as she found herself healing soldiers only to send them back to the trenches, the senseless brutality of war became clear—especially once her nephew Leo enlisted.

Meanwhile, Frederick is trying to reclaim the thread of his life interrupted by war. On the verge of completing his PhD when Germany declared him an enemy alien, he spent the next four years languishing in an internment camp where thousands of men from the British Empire crowded into unheated horse stables. But now he wonders if his anger at his unjust treatment was misdirected.

Their paths cross as each is trying to bridge the chasm between who they once were and who they have become. As Rose and Frederick navigate the fragile promises of a new world, their shared sense of disillusionment becomes a language of its own. Might they find solace in each other?

Past and present intertwine in A Sense of Things Beyond, revealing how each shapes the other. It is a gorgeously written examination of what comes after war, and how we hold remembrance.

Renée Belliveau is the author of the novels A Sense of Things Beyond and The Sound of Fire, which was named a Quill and Quire book of the year and shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Novel Award, as well as the memoir Les étoiles à l’aube.

She draws inspiration from her work as an archivist, where she spends her days surrounded by records of the past. In addition to her books, she has written several articles exploring lesser-known aspects of Canadian and regional history.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Allison University, a Master of Arts from the University of Waterloo, and a Master of Information from the University of Toronto. A proud acadienne originally from Shediac, NB, Renée now lives in Dartmouth, NS, with her husband.

Coming soon! Pre-order DEFINITELY THRIVING today!

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• Water slides: Once again, it's invincible summer, this time at our now annual mid-winter tradition of a getaway to Fallsview Waterpark in Niagara Falls. Hours in wet bathing suits, a night at a downmarket hotel, flinging our bodies down steep precipices, and chicken fingers to boot? I also really dig the aesthetic. We didn’t even bring home a single virus or fungus (that we know of). Sometimes life is sweet. (My favourite water slide at Fallsview is the Canyon Drop, and you can take the plunge too via this video!)

  

• Fix the News: I just renewed my paid subscription to Fix the News, which is also known as “The reason I did not completely lose my mind in the tumult that was 2025.” Fix the News is great, not just because it brings me stories of progress and change that keep my mental health in balance, but because it shares stories from all over the planet and I’ve learned so much from its focus on places that are not only America. If you are too caught up in the news, get caught up in this news (which is just as much “the news”) and you’ll be glad you did.

• Holding Liat: If you’re looking for a movie about Gaza and Israel that asks essential questions without promising easy answers, this is it. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Holding Liat is the story of Liat Atzili’s family in the weeks and months after she and her husband were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and about her American-Israeli father’s desperation that her story not be used to justify war and death in Gaza. “I know my daughter,” he says at one point while on a trip to Washington, DC, to urge US officials to act to free the hostages, an experiences where he sometimes seems out of his depth, but the end of the film proves that he really does know his daughter after all, and her perspective is so courageous and extraordinary. It’s playing at Toronto’s Hot Docs cinema again on February 28 at 4pm

  

• These mysterious tulips that somebody left on my doorstep last Friday: Honestly, what a thing to live in a world where a thing like that just happens. Like, what a freaking miracle.

Community Classifieds:

So this brave new feature turned out to be the best thing ever: paid subscribers share what they’re making and doing. They get to spread the word about their projects, you get to learn about them, and I look vicariously cool by having the most interesting paid subscribers ever! If you’re also a paid subscriber and want submit a free ad for next month, email your 150 word post to klclare(@)gmail(.)com.

• For sale: The old story, an older man and a young inexperienced woman, but restored, updated, given a new look for the 21st century. If you are interested in art history, relationship dynamics, an analysis of the male gaze and how it can be understood, reclaimed, and redirected, then follow the link to read about this memoir: https://thornapplepress.ca/books/the-art-of-looking-back/ Reasonable offers considered. Early birds encouraged.

• Songbirds is a welcoming space for women of all ages to sing joyfully and meaningfully together. We learn beautiful melodies and harmonies in the oral tradition by simple call and response. No need to be a “good singer” or to read music. After we sing, we chat, drink tea and eat home baked snacks - all provided, no need to bring anything but a mug, slippers and yourself, however you may be. Babies welcome! We have a blanket and toys in the centre of the circle. The magic of our group is in our diversity of women - of all ages and experiences - coming together to sing, connect and replenish ourselves every week. Thursdays at 10:00 am at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre at Bloor & Spadina and Tuesdays at 10:00 am at George Chuvalo Centre in The Junction. (Formerly Singing Mamas) For more info go to: www.singingmamastoronto.ca.

• Our em-dash. Despite being a professional and lifelong writer, I’ve recently found myself hesitating to use my favourite punctuation mark. The ghastly truth is: em-dashes are on the hot-seat, getting AI side-eye. Big, hard, no. (ICYMI the em dash is under scrutiny as a so-called ‘AI indicator’—raising all hackles of all writers—because ChatGPT is spitting them out like shrapnel. Yick.) I’ve officially channeled my indignation (and digital-strategy prowess) into WordNerds. Yup, I’m slinging a collection of quality, soft, ethical em-dash tees pronouncing love for this versatile punctuation mark. Yup, I’m deeply invested in starting and hosting conversations around what it means to be a writer and creator in this dawning age of AI. But for now, want to join our sassy collective with an em-dash tee? Use exclusive 1-time code PICKLEMETHIS for 20% off your full order at wordnerds.net. Here’s to staying human (and nerdy), Erin Steele. Em-Dasher

Staying Humble

I went to a bookshop a couple of weeks ago, and brought along an advance copy of Definitely Thriving to pass to the bookseller behind the counter, which might not be the done thing, but why not, I thought? And so after buying a stack of books, I handed her mine, and said, “I’m an author. You’ve stocked my books in the past, and I wanted to let you know about my latest.” She visibly recoiled, and shouted, “NO!” “I mean, you don’t have to take it,” I said. “I just thought somebody here might like to read it.” This back and forth went on for what felt like 500 years, and then she seemed to realize that it was an advanced copy, and consented to accept it. “I can’t sell this in the shop though,” she said, and I replied, “Well, I kind of hope that you wouldn’t?”

“Wow, that was rough,” said my kids, once we were out of the shop and back in the car. “Are you okay?” my husband asked, but I’ve been an author long enough to know that being brought down to size on a regular basis is part of the job description. Authors are not special. Authors are a dime a dozen. Authors are basically an infestation, and booksellers have to contend with our demented desperate egos on the regular. That bookseller didn’t care about my ARC, and I know where she was coming from.

If you’ve ever had authorial dreams, I would advise you to not have these be the foundation of your self-esteem—and believe me, I’m speaking from experience.

I launched this newsletter just over two years ago during a disappointing season following the lacklustre reception of my third novel, and ever since I’ve been trying to figure out to be a creative person who will never be so tripped up and shattered by such an experience again. Initially I thought the key was to have zero hopes or expectations thereby bypassing the possibility of disappointment altogether, and then my therapist and I had to have yet another conversation about there in fact being no shortcut around having feelings, even tough ones. And then I started thinking about how important it was to want things, including success, and how to hold this balance (and not have said success be the foundation of my self-esteem). Another layer was trying to avoid the trick of convincing myself that by not hitching myself to meteoric dreams of success, such a thing would finally happen.

Most importantly, I am working hard to accept the forces that are within my control versus those which fall outside it—for example, I can indeed try to sell as many tickets as possible for my March 5 book launch, but making my novel a bestseller, say, in a way that requires buy-in by the nation’s big box bookseller entirely is outside of my purview and no amount of rearranging my books at those bookstores so the covers are facing out is going to change that. (If it could, I would have become a national bestseller a long time ago…)

It has helped that lots of lovely things are happening around the launch of Definitely Thriving, things that definitely assuage the humiliation of that bookstore accepting my ARC as though it were a used tampon. I have a packed couple of months ahead of me, and I’m grateful and excited. I’m so glad that my publisher and marketing/publicity team have worked so hard to push the book and support it. There is exciting buzz and possibility, and while I know that none of that is necessarily indicative of anything except the loveliness that it is, I have also been around enough to no that such buzz and possibility is never inevitable, it’s actually so hard to come by, and that I’m incredibly lucky to be where I am right now. (The me who was launching my previous book would have been aching with envy.)

Pema Chödrön writes about the challenge of “being big and small at the same time.” Is she a big deal? Is she small potatoes? “This was a painful experience because I was always being insulted and humiliated by my own expectations. As soon as I was sure how it should be, so I could feel secure, I would get a message that it should be the other way. Finally I said to [her teacher], “This is really hurting. I just don’t know who I’m supposed to be,” and he said, “Well, you have to learn to be big and small at the same time.”

But how does one do that exactly? Pema Chödrön has no answer, although it’s a process that all of us are ever undertaking in our own ways. As my personal fave Courtney R. Martin writes, “‘Big and small at the same time’ is a constant human condition, not an exceptional paradox.”

Countdown to Definitely Thriving

• I got to sign copies at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference on January 29, and it was amazing!

• Grateful to Quill & Quire for including Definitely Thriving on their 2026 Spring Preview

• I try to tell myself that purpose of a publisher is not to massage an author’s ego, but it’s sure great when it happens. Can we talk about this adorable kit that House of Anansi created for media and influencers? The design touches are CHEF’S KISS. I could not have imagined anything so lovely.

• I’m THRILLED to be on the Publishers Weekly list of Winter Institute Authors to Meet at the American Booksellers Association gathering in Pittsburgh later this month.

• Are you coming to Books & Brunch on March 22 in Uxbridge, Ontario as part of the Book Drunkard Festival? Tickets are on sale right now!

• Enter giveaways for Definitely Thriving at Goodreads and Storygraph

• Tickets are also on sale for the Totally Booked: Live Lunch and Learn live podcast recording with Zibby Owens at the Whitby Hotel in actual NEW YORK CITY on April 16, a regular bookish extravaganza. I am so excited! If you’re in town, you should come!

• Save the date for events to come in Peterborough (March 28), Hamilton (April 18/19), April 28 (Waterloo), Flying Books in Toronto (April 29), Junction Reads in Toronto (May 3), and more!

• And finally, our Toronto launch is happening March 5 at Paradise Theatre with a special 25-anniversary showing of Bridget Jones’s Diary, followed by a conversation with New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Stapley, and it’s going to be so much fun. Get your tickets before the show is sold out! It’s going to be GREAT.

The Snow Arrived…

The snow arrived, and made everything new. It cancelled plans, turned our houses into caves, the cars parked on the road became marshmallows, and everywhere was quiet… (Read the rest! It’s not just about snow, but also about ICE and Minneapolis and exceptional human courage.)

BOOKSPO Continues!

Get caught up here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Recommended Reads:

One more thing:

I bought one of the shirts advertised in Community Classifieds! (With that discount code, how could I resist?) HOW COOL IS THIS?? Fully endorse it. How fun, Erin Steele! Check them out here.

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In our conversation, Butler talks about how she’s inspired by her particular geography, about driving with a windshield full of mountain, and how she had a real sense of her reader with her second novel, writing it with a view of leading them through her literary terrain, almost like guiding a perfect hike. She talks about how her reading tastes have been shaped by her experience as a Little Free Library steward, which has connected her with genres she wouldn’t have necessarily gravitated toward otherwise. And she tells me more about The God of Small Things, and about how she was inspired by Arundhati Roy’s boldness.

In Rufous and Calliope, Sarah Louise Butler takes readers deep into the rugged British Columbia Interior, where the mysteries of nature collide with the fragile threads of memory.

Rufous Flanagan, a modern-day cartographer, embarks on a solo trek through an ancient mountain pass in search of the summer hideaway he once shared with his siblings as child runaways. With every step, the vast, untamed wilderness presents both physical and emotional challenges, forcing Rufous to confront not only the treacherous terrain but also the unravelling of his own mind.

His memories—sometimes vivid, sometimes slipping away—become a map guiding him through towering forests, dry creek beds and smoke-filled skies. In this landscape, not everything is as it seems: echoes of the past lead Rufous on a journey that blurs the line between dream and reality. As the elements close in, this novel offers a suspenseful tale of survival, memory and family bonds.

Sarah Louise Butler is a novelist based in the West Kootenay region of the BC Interior. With a background in physical geography and environmental studies, her stories seek to portray natural landscapes and their non-human inhabitants as characters in their own right. Her debut novel,The Wild Heavens, was a 49th Shelf Book of the Year, and a favourite of book clubs and libraries across the country, including being chosen as a Vancouver Public Library Top 20 Favourite Books of 2020. It was recently translated and released in France. Her second novel,Rufous and Calliope, is a “geographical fiction” that features runaway children, treehouse hideaways, early-onset dementia and the persistence of hope amidst ecological grief. Butler was named a CBC Writer to Watch in 2020. Follow her on Instagram: @sarahlouise.butler

Coming soon! Pre-order DEFINITELY THRIVING today!

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In our conversation, we talked about Katherine Dunn’s cult classic Geek Love, how differently Ragbar reads the underlying message of that novel as opposed to when she encountered it first, and how it helped pave the way for her to write The Pugilist and the Sailor, which is similarly about characters whose bodies mark them as other. We also talked about mother in Ragbar’s novel, and how she became a more important character after Ragbar herself became a parent, the character allowing her to grapple with the awesome responsibility of parenthood, and the impossibility of ever getting that job completely right.

The Pugilist and the Sailor follows conjoined twins, Bruce and Dougie. Dougie is an ambitious amateur boxer, having dragged his brother into the ring since childhood. Bruce is a bookkeeper who has become smitten with Anka. Unaware of the facts of the twins' physicality an epistolary relationship unfolds between Anka and Bruce, as he wrestles with broaching the topic of separation with Dougie. Dougie's sole focus is the Heavyweight Amateur Boxing title as one half of "The Reuben Beast," though he is trying to ignore his mysterious blackouts and severe headaches. Anka is, specifically, navigating through her grief over her parents' deaths, but also, generally, reconciling her understanding of being a first-generation Canadian without her Guyanese parents as an anchor.

A character-driven story with an ensemble cast, told across multiple points of view and time periods, examines the unique relationships between conjoined brothers, parents, crushes, and unexpected mentors. A story about the intertwined nature of longing and belonging, compromise and connection, this is ultimately a consideration of family and finding your unique place in it, and in the world.

Nadia Ragbar lives in Toronto with her partner and son. Her short fiction has appeared in Broken Pencil and This Magazine, among other outlets. Her flash fiction appeared in The Unpublished City, an anthology curated by Dionne Brand, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Toronto Book Award. The Pugilist and the Sailor is her first novel.

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I was wrong about a lot of things during that fever dream of a decade in which I lived on Twitter, an experience that broke my brain, and I was misled most of all by the idea that, if I just stuck to the script, I could get everything right. I was misled by the idea that there was a script to follow at all, but oh, how I wanted to be good, an impulse that underlies so many misdeeds. And the effect of social media, even in all its chaos, had been to make that seem simple, offering an illusion that the line between good and evil was firm, and that there might exist a single righteous way to be.

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In our conversation, Carter and I discuss the cubicle job where this strange story begin, how she wove many different pop culture references into the story, and how she was inspired by Thea Lim’s An Ocean of Minutes, another impossible love story set across different dimensions, the kind of reader that leaves the reader absolutely spellbound.

About The Longest Night:

A taut and uncanny thriller about one girl’s search for home, 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 family home in rural Minnesota. She seeks shelter from the freezing cold and certain death at the closest house on the road, with neighbours she hasn’t yet met.

The next morning, everything is off-kilter – the neighbours’ house has no mirrors or modern technology, and all the windows blocked. When Ash tries to call her parents, their numbers are disconnected. One of the strange inhabitants there 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 and back to her regular life, though, Ash finds herself transported to an even stranger place and time, setting off a chain of events that connect with (and alter) her past and her future.

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

Lauren Carter is the author of six books including her latest novel, The Longest Night, which has been described as “mind-bending, psychologically disturbing, and utterly captivating.” Her second novel, This Has Nothing To Do With You, won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction from the Manitoba Books Awards while her short story collection Places Like These was a finalist for the 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Award. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and brings her passion for writing, adventure, and community to events organized through her business Wild Ground Writing Retreats.

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We began our conversation by talking about how GOOD GUYS is part of a group of excellent fiction by Asian-Canadian writers who are confronting the realities of international aid and NGOS, and how Bala found her way into writing fiction set in this space. But the book she ultimately chooses as her BOOKSPO pick is something very different indeed, and she tells me about her different experiences reading George Eliot’s MIDDLEMARCH throughout her life, how that book has changed over time, and how what it shares with GOOD GUYS is a sense that no one is only a hero, no one is only a villain, that everybody is a complicated and flawed character with no idea of what the limits of their perspective truly are.

About GOOD GUYS: From the bestselling author of The Boat People comes a page-turning moral drama about money, the dark side of philanthropy, and what happens when you try to change the world for all the wrong reasons.

“The easiest choices are the ones you make for other people.”

Claire Talbot is the publicist at Children of the World, an international aid charity. Morally burnt out after decades working in reputation management, Claire is relieved to finally use her PR skills for good. Too bad the organization is on the verge of bankruptcy. In a last-ditch effort to keep them afloat, Claire arranges for an A-list actress to volunteer at one of their overseas orphanages. When the actress decides to adopt a baby and promises a massive donation, it seems as if Claire has single-handedly saved the day. But after a journalist digs into their operations and reveals a shocking crime, Claire and her colleagues must reckon with their complicity and all the ways their work abroad has harmed the very people they set out to save.

Moving between Children of the World’s headquarters in Toronto and their compound in Central America, Good Guys charts the charity’s rise and fall. Scathing yet compassionate, the novel is a thought-provoking exploration of power, philanthropy, and the lengths we go to for redemption. Emotionally engrossing, tightly paced, and sharply observed, it ultimately asks: Is it possible to do good in an imperfect world?

SHARON BALA’s bestselling debut novel, The Boat People, won the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and the 2020 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for Canada Reads 2018, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and was longlisted for the 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award. In 2017, Sharon won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for her short story “Butter Tea at Starbucks.” She lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she is currently the Creative Non-Fiction Editor at Riddle Fence.

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Allen Gardens: In the midst of winter, I found there was, on Carlton Street, an invincible summer, in the form of the Allen Gardens greenhouses, which are free and open to the public 365 days a year. I’d not visited for a long time, due first to the pandemic, and then the palm house was closed for renovations, but it’s reopened, and beautiful, and yes, the turtles are still there, they’re doing fine, and so was I, after stepping into the warmth and green of that space.

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Moon Clock: One of the best things I got for Christmas was my moon clock, and not just because it was made from recycled parts by my neighbours across the street (a very local gift!). But also because (re)connecting myself to the natural cycles of the world, including the lunar, has been a vital part of restoring my mental health and resilience during the last few years. And having a clock that tracks the stages of the moon is a reminder of that, the world goes on turning even no matter what. (The clock moves so much faster than I expected it to!) If you want a moon clock too, you can order it here. I also recommend Asha Frost’s book You Are the Medicine: 13 Moons of Indigenous Wisdom, Ancestral Connection, and Animal Spirit Guidance, which is where my moon love began.

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Wake Up, Dead Man: I loved the new “Knives Out” movie, which was worth the price of signing up for one month of Netflix (and then we cancelled). There is nothing subtle about this movie, except perhaps for its acknowledgement of the possibility for faith to still be a powerful force for good], and while it’s totally ludicrous at moments, there is nothing silly about the message at its heart, which is a repudiation of the current US government and the dangers of fascism. Plus the dreamy dude from Bad Sisters is in it, and he’s so dreamy that I periodically forgot that he’s supposed to be unlikeable.

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“How the Invention of the Book Shaped Humanity” on CBC Ideas: This program, which originally aired in 2024, is a conversation with writer Irene Vallejo about her book Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World, and showed me a fascinating history of my favourite thing (books!) that I’d previous had no idea about. Like when books first began (in a very different form than we know them today) they were always read aloud, and reading quietly was regarded as dangerous, like permitting another soul to enter one’s head. Listen to the show here.

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Wookey Hole Cheddar: And in response to the normalization of the completely bonkers world of weight loss drugs and weight loss drug ads whose corporations seem to the only companies left in the world with advertising budgets (including the fucked-up billboard by my child’s high school), I have made it my new years resolution for 2026 to eat a lot of Wookey Hole cheddar, which is a kind of cheddar I randomly bought because I saw that it was cave-aged, which reminded me of the Midsomer Murders where Martina McCutcheon gets murdered with a cheese wheel, and then Wookey Hole cheddar turned out to be the best cheese I’ve ever eaten in my life, and eating it often, I think, will be the key to a satisfying year.

New Year/Same Us Special!

The weather is cold, but this sale is HOT. I’m also celebrating two years writing my newsletter on Substack. Let’s get through January with a 30% off special on Paid Subscriptions! You’ll receive access to my monthly essays, and more! Sign up today.

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The BOOKSPO Podcast is Back!

Season 4 of the BOOKSPO podcast has begun, and it’s especially exciting because my podcast currently has 9.9 thousand downloads. Any minute now, the dial will be turning to 10,000, and I’m incredibly excited. Thank you to all the listeners who’ve helped Bookspo to arrive at such a milestone. If you’re not listening YET, you can do so on all podcast platforms, or just go right here!

Community Classifieds

• A new feature for Pickle Me This paid subscribers in which your ad for your own creative project or business GOES HERE

• If you’re reading this, you’re living proof that people will be reading COMMUNITY CLASSIFIEDS.

• To post your ad in the next ENTHUSIASMS newsletter, email me at klclare AT gmail DOT com with your 150 word ad by January 31 (and make sure that you’re a paid subscriber, which also gives you access to my monthly essays)

DEFINITELY THRIVING Countdown!

There are just TWO MONTHS left before my novel DEFINITELY THRIVING is published (and one of those months is VERY SHORT!).

• Save the date for my super special Toronto book launch at Paradise Theatre on Thursday March 5. More to come!

• Reviews are coming in! Booklist calls Definitely Thriving “Funny, touching, and ultimately hopeful.” Library Journal calls it “A bravado blend of Barbara Pym and Bridget Jones.”

• And don’t miss the exclusive cover reveal and excerpt in People.com.

• Have you pre-ordered your copy yet? (If you do, let me know, and I will send you STICKERS!)

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Big News: We Bought a Couch

Have I stopped measuring my life in chesterfields?

What I Read On My Winter Vacation

Holiday break! This year I only read books by British lady writers whose pub dates span most of the 20th century. It was a pleasure! Read all about it….

Recommended Reads:

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We talked about her novel’s debt to Agatha Christie and Murder on the Orient Expression, and also about what Jurcyk herself has learned about the writer’s craft from Christie, plus how her work as a librarian has influenced her as a reader and a writer. And then we turn to Gillian Flynn’s runaway bestseller, a book whose greatness and ingenuity is easy to forget in light of all the hype that came to surround it. Finally, Jurczyk continues to hold the line on her take that Blundstones are wholly inappropriate for Canadian winters.

This was so much fun, and I hope you like it too!

About 6:40 TO MONTREAL:

From international bestselling author Eva Jurczyk, 6:40 TO MONTREAL is a claustrophobic, deceivingly bloody thriller that follows Agatha as she uses one day on the famous six-hour morning train from Toronto to Montreal as a mini writing retreat to finish her novel. No WiFi, no distractions. And no way out...

Agatha’s husband has bought her a first-class ticket on the scenic six-hour train from Toronto to Montreal as a gift - a one-day writing retreat so she can get some serious work done on her new book, a highly-anticipated follow-up to Agatha’s runaway bestseller debut novel. The first-class car is the perfect place to be productive, with only a handful of other passengers, plenty of snacks and drinks, and beautiful views flying by outside the window.

But Agatha has other plans for her day out. . . plans that are unexpectedly derailed when the train breaks down in the middle of the frigid Canadian woods and one of Agatha’s fellow passengers dies quietly in his seat. Soon, a pleasant morning in transit turns into a fight for survival against an unknown and unseen enemy. Will Agatha--or any of the passengers--make it out alive?

Eva Jurczyk was born in a mining town in Poland and wound up halfway around the world in a Canadian city that often masquerades as New York in the movies. As her day job, she buys books, building library collections for the University of Toronto Libraries. She travels to Paris whenever the wind is good but currently lives with her husband, son, and collections of books in Toronto, Canada.

Pre-order my new novel, Definitely Thriving, coming March 17 from House of Anansi Press

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SALE! 20% off paid subs this month!

Talking to Kate was just as much as a pleasure as the novel is. We talked about writing poetry, plays, and fiction, and how each one exercises different muscles in one body. We talked about rats, landlords, home ownership, and neighbours, and all the tensions therein. About writing a novel set over 24 hours, which leads to MRS DALLOWAY, Kate’s BOOKSPO pick. About rereading MRS DALLOWAY through the years, and all the ways it changes. About Alice Munro, and stories where the line between good and evil is ambiguous or nonexistent, and how confusing this can be for a young leader—but how finally grasping that ambiguity and its power is a kind of literary coming of age. We talked about the webs that connect us all, whether we realize it or not, and the uncomfortable burden of how our children are always, always watching.

About PROPERTY:

A spring day in a gentrifying neighbourhood begins unremarkably enough; by evening someone has died.

Nat, a middle-aged queer mother of two, feigns normalcy as she worries about her taciturn, loner son locked in his room. Her friend Maddy, a failed actress and fellow parent, frets over her missed opportunities and considers leaving her marriage. Next door, Ilya, a young construction worker, struggles to renovate a fixer-upper, but a buried stream threatens to flood the basement. An old woman eyes the street through the gap in her curtains. A lonely man wanders.

As the troubled residents stumble through their errands, navigating the thorniness of class and privilege, of queer respectability and friendship in an overstretched city, each seemingly inconsequential exchange tightens in around the neighbourhood, until finally tragedy strikes, leaving it forever changed.

About Kate Cayley:

Kate Cayley has previously published two short story collections and three collections of poetry, and her plays have been performed in Canada, the US, and the UK. She has won the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, among other awards. Her writing has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry, Best Canadian Stories, Brick, Electric Literature, Joyland, and The New Quarterly. She lives in Toronto.

Pre-order my new novel, Definitely Thriving, coming March 17 from House of Anansi Press

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