Banff Centre Literary Arts Reading List

Our Director of Literary Arts, Derek Beaulieu, recommends these titles by Banff Centre faculty and friends.

Literary Arts Reading List

Dr. Derek Beaulieu is the author/editor of over twenty-five collections of poetry, prose, and criticism. Beaulieu has received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for this dedication to Albertan literature. He is the only graduate from the University of Calgary’s Department of English to receive the Faculty of Arts ‘Celebrated Alumni Award’ and the only graduate in creative writing to receive Roehampton University’s Chancellor’s Alumni Award. Beaulieu has served as poet laureate of both Calgary and Banff and is the Director of Literary Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

“I hope everyone can take some time to dive into these exceptional titles. Each one can be ordered from your local bookstore or online. I believe this list will surprise and entangle as you embrace new literary adevntures!” – Derek Beaulieu

2024 Reading List

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram - A Black Story May Contain Sensitive Content cover

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram | A Black Story May Contain Sensitive Content

Feeding ChatGPT3 the prompt “Tell me a Black story”, Bertram crafts poems upon the corpus of material written by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Sheila Heti - Alphabetical Diaries cover

Sheila Heti | Alphabetical Diaries

A book like a shopping mart, all the selections. A book that only does one thing, one thing at a time.

Gregory Betts - BardCode cover

Gregory Betts | BardCode

BARDCODE translates all of Shakespeare’s sonnets into breathtaking array of stained-glass windows.

Roberta Hawkings and Leslie Kern - Higher Expectations How to Survive Academia, Make it Better for Others, and Transform the University cover

Roberta Hawkings and Leslie Kern | Higher Expectations How to Survive Academia, Make it Better for Others, and Transform the University

In a series of short chapters, suggestions and imaginings, Hawkings and Kern craft a workflow for difference.

Jakuta Alikavazovic (translated by Daniel Levin Becker) - Like a Sky Inside cover

Jakuta Alikavazovic (translated by Daniel Levin Becker) | Like a Sky Inside

This short novel relates the story of a young woman who spends the night locked inside the Louvre with the intention of stealing the Mona Lisa

Brian Baker - An Invention cover

Brian Baker | An Invention

Baker crafts, through image and the few words on each page left uncovered, a new novel on the trauma of World War One.

2022 Reading List

Cover of The Lascaux Notebooks

Jean-Luc Champerret, edited/translated by Philip Terry | THE LASCAUX NOTEBOOKS

The Lascaux Notebooks delves into WWII transcriptions and translation of the Magdalenian-age visuals of the caves of Lascaux.

Cover of OPTIC SUBWOOF

Douglas Kearney | OPTIC SUBWOOF

Optic Subwoof is a collection of talks that poet and National Book Award finalist Douglas Kearney presented for the Bagley Wright Lecture Series in 2020/2021

A book cover for Boat by Lisa Robertson

Lisa Robertson | Boat

The poems in Boat bring fresh vehemence to Robertson’s ongoing examination of the changing shape of feminism, the male-dominated philosophical tradition, the da

Cover of the book of grief and hamburgers

Stuart Ross | THE BOOK OF GRIEF AND HAMBURGERS

Walking a quiet tread between sorrow and humour, The Book of Grief and Hamburgers is emotionally bare, honest, humane.

Cover of Rooms, Women, Writing, Woolf

Sina Queyras | ROOMS: WOMEN, WRITING, WOOLF

Rooms offers a peek into the defining spaces of a young queer writer.

Cover of THE VERY LAST INTERVIEW

David Shields | THE VERY LAST INTERVIEW

David Shields decided to gather every interview he’s ever given, going back nearly forty years. If it was on the radio or TV or a podcast, he transcribed it.

Cover of LEVIATHAN

Jason Shiga | LEVIATHAN

Make choices to defeat a mysterious sea monster in the first of a new series of innovative, interactive graphic novels from award-winning creator of Meanwhile.

Cover of TWO SIDES

Kevin Stebner | TWO SIDES

This slim volume consists of fantastical video-game landscapes and geometric forms, all created on a Remington Performer.

Cover of HERBARIUM

Danni Storm | HERBARIUM

Danni Storm’s Herbarium kaleidoscopes antique images of leaves and flowers, buds and branches into an Albert Hoffman-like funhouse.

Copy of PARTICULATES

Greg Thomas | PARTICULATES

Danni Storm’s Herbarium kaleidoscopes antique images of leaves and flowers, buds and branches into an Albert Hoffman-like funhouse.

Cover of RUHUMAN

Edited by Barrie Tullett and Tom Gill | RUHUMAN: THE TYPEWRITER ART OF KEITH ARMSTRONG

A fabulous, lush, overview of Keith Armstrong’s work; his typewritten concrete poetry, his small press publishing and his community activism.

A book cover for The Break by Katherena Vermette

Katherena Vermette | THE BREAK

The Break is a stunning and heartbreaking debut novel about a multigenerational Métis–Anishnaabe family dealing with the fallout of a shocking crime in Winnipeg

A book cover for SKY WRI TEI NGS by Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain | SKY WRI TEI NGS

In a dazzling aeronautic feat of constraint-based writing, SKY WRI TEI NGS explores the relationship between language and place in a global context.

A book cover for Bruised by Tanya Boteju

Julia Botegu | BRUISED

Bruised vibrant coming-of-age story about a teen girl navigating first love, identity, and grief as she immerses herself in the colorful, brutal, beautiful worl

2021 Reading List

Book Cover for Women In Concrete By Mónica de la Torre

Mónica de la Torre | Women In Concrete: 1959 - 1979

Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 is an expansive anthology focused on concrete poetry written by women in the ground-breaking movement’s early history.

Book Cover of: "How to Pronounce Knife" By: Souvankham Thommavongsa

Souvankham Thommavongsa | How to Pronounce Knife

Told with compassion and wry humour, these stories honour characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary “grunt work

Book Cover of "Seven" by: Farzana Doctor

Farzana Doctor | Seven

A rich, soulfully written novel about inheritance and resistance that tests the balance between modern and traditional customs.

Book Cover of "Five Little Indians" by: Michelle Good

Michelle Good | Five Little Indians

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of c

Book Cover of "Sodom Road Exit" by: Amber Dawn

Amber Dawn | Sodom Road Exit

It's the summer of 1990, and Crystal Beach in Ontario has lost its beloved, long-running amusement park, leaving the lakeside village a virtual ghost town.

Book Cover of The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena Vermette

Katherena Vermette | The Girl and the Wolf

This picture book for young children is an empowering Indigenous twist on a classic wolf narrative.

Book Cover of LETTERRS by Orlando White

Orlando White | LETTERRS

LETTERRS is a book of poems that examines and interrogates language to its core, the shapes and sounds.

Book Cover of Night of Power by Anar Ali

Anar Ali | Night of Power

A portrait of a Muslim family—from the heady days in Uganda to hard times in a new country, and the tragic accident that forces them to confront the ghosts of t

Book Cover of Throaty Wipes by Susan Holbrook

Susan Holbrook | Throaty Wipes

In 1934, Gertrude Stein asked 'What is poetry and if you know what poetry is what is prose. 'Throaty Wipes' answers this question and many more!

Book cover of Render by Sachiko Murakami

Sachiko Murakami | Render

Journey through dreamscapes in Sachiko Murakami's intimate and unflinching poetic memoir as she travels the non-linear path of addiction to recovery, how it shi

Book Cover of my ty mama by Mercedes Eng

Mercedes Eng | my ty mama

In the follow-up to her BC Book Prize-winning book of poetry, Prison Industrial Complex Explodes, Mercedes Eng continues her poetic investigation of racism and

2020 Reading List

Book cover for Gary Barwin's Yiddish for Pirates

Gary Barwin | Yiddish for Pirates

Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and nominated for the Governor-General's Award for Literature, a hilarious, swashbuckling yet powerful tale of pirat

Cover Page for the book Bina by Anakana Schofield

Anakana Schofield | Bina

The extraordinary bestselling novel from the acclaimed writer whose previous book, Martin John, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and whose debut, Malarky,

Cover for the Novel The Best Kind of People By Zoe Whittall

Zoe Whittall | The Best Kind of People

A local schoolteacher is arrested, leaving his family to wrestle with the possibility of his guilt, in this exquisite novel about loyalty, truth, and happiness.

Book cover for Lucas Crawford's novel The High Line Scavenger Hunt

Lucas Crawford | The High Line Scavenger Hunt

Lucas Crawford leans in to the tensions between the revitalized High Line Park and the queer histories of the High Line neighborhood, braiding transgender histo

Book Cover for the novel NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, from author Billy-Ray Belcourt

Billy-Ray Belcourt | NDN Coping Mechanisms

In NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, the Billy-Ray Belcourt takes on the political demands of queerness, mainstream portrayals of Indigenous life, lo

Book cover for the novel Prison Industrial Complex Explodes By author Mercedes Eng

Mercedes Eng | Prison Industrial Complex Explodes

Combining text from government questionnaires and reports, lyric poetry, and photography, Prison Industrial Complex Explodes examines the possibility of a priva

Book Cover for the novel The Caiplie Caves, from author Karen Solies

Karen Solie | The Caiplie Caves

Karen Solie’s fifth book of poetry, The Caiplie Caves, attends to transition in times of crisis.

Kazim Ali, The Voice of Sheila Chandra

Kazim Ali | The Voice of Sheila Chandra

Titled for the influential singer left almost voiceless by a terrible syndrome, the poems bring sweet melodies and rhythms as the voices blend and become multit

Caroline Adderson, A Russian Sister

Caroline Adderson | The Russian Sister

In this witty and colourfully peopled novel, Caroline Adderson effortlessly plunges the reader into a nineteenth-century Russian tragicomedy.

Shyam Selvadurai, The Hungry Ghosts

Shyam Selvadurai | The Hungry Ghosts

The Hungry Ghosts is an unconventional exploration of the immigrant experience; a tale of family ties and the long reach of the past; and a heartwrenching look

Iam Williams,World Problems

Ian Williams | Word Problems

Frustrated by how tough the issues of our time are to solve – racial inequality, our pernicious depression, the troubled relationships we have with other people

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We recognize, with deep respect and gratitude, our home on the side of Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain. In the spirit of respect and truth, we honour and acknowledge the Banff area, known as “Minihrpa” (translated in Stoney Nakoda as “the waterfalls”) and the Treaty 7 territory and oral practices of the Îyârhe Nakoda (Stoney Nakoda) – comprised of the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Goodstoney Nations – as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy comprised of the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Shuswap Nations, Ktunaxa Nations, and Metis Nation of Alberta, Rockyview District 4. We acknowledge all Nations who live, work, and play here, help us steward this land, and honour and celebrate this place.