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Press Release November 2006

Ottawa Sensation Launches Ghettostocracy

On December 15th, 2006, Ottawa spoken word sensation, ONI, launches her first book of poetry, Ghettostocracy, at the National Library. Collecting poems performed across Canada, the United States and in Europe, Ghettostocracy burns with lyrical brilliance and political integrity. Whether she’s taking down popular cultural icons, taking on womanhood or taking a fist to racism, Oni’s poetry delivers mind-blowing, poetic voyages from Ottawa to Haiti to South Central LA, debunking nationalistic clichés and “cultural wannabees” and firmly asserting her Canadianness.

“Ghettostocracy is an unforgettable book by an inimitable, drop-dead gorgeous artiste. Look out! These poems will make your nostrils flare, your pulse quicken, and your brain smarter….”
- George Elliot Clarke, Governor-General’s Award Winner

“For close to two decades Oni has been liberating audiences with her firespitting lyrics. Now with Ghettostocracy she hits you like a tropical hurricane raining wind and fury. Read this collection and come face to face with your own naked, vulnerable, but powerful self.”
- Afua Cooper, 2006 Governor-General’s Award Nominee

About the author - Oni the Haitian Sensation has performed for audiences in Europe, Australia, Canada and the U.S. The first Canadian woman to tour the European Slam Poetry Circuit, she directed Canada's first National Poetry Slam and the Canadian Spoken Wordlympics, and curated the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

Media inquiries: Oni, the Haitian Sensation, mesooni@yahoo.com, 613.858-9285
Review copies: McGilligan Books, mcgilliganbooks@sympatico.ca, 416.538-0945

Press Release November 2006

McGilligan Books launches Emergency Contact

McGilligan Books is pleased to announce the release of Emergency Contact, a sharply wrought collection of poetry by performer and activist Tara-Michelle Ziniuk. Emergency Contact launches November 30th, Toronto Women's Bookstore, 7:00 pm with performances by the author and special guests.

With gritty potency, Ziniuk pens her poetic landscape through emotionally volatile territories of the heart. Reckoning with familial dysfunction, mental illness, poverty, addiction, gender and sexual politics, Ziniuk carves space out of unforgiving places. From truck stops to punk shows, hospital rooms to jail cells, Ziniuk traverses loss and pain, desire and possibility.

What people are saying about Emergency Contact:

"This is the kind of poetry I am grateful for…My heart is pressed up to the page reading this." - Golda Fried, author of Nellcott is My Darling

"These are renegade missives punctuated with urgency and tension, brokenness and letting go, magic in the shadows of the streetlights."
– Mattilda a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore,
editor, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity

Tara-Michelle Ziniuk is a Toronto writer, performer and activist, whose publishing credits include Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws and the Lambda-Award winning Best Lesbian Erotica. Her work has appeared in THIS Magazine, Broken Pencil, Clamor, NOW Magazine, HOUR, $pread, and Herizons. She has staged her work across Ontario and Montreal, including Mayworks Festival of Working People in the Arts, Montreal's Festival of Anarchy and Ladyfest Toronto and Ottawa and has long been involved with CKLN Radio.

All welcome,Thursday November 30th at 7:00 pm at the Toronto Women's Bookstore, 73 Harbord Street, free admission. Partially wheelchair accessible.

For review copies or to request an interview, please contact Zoe Whittall, publicist for McGilligan Books, zoe.whittall@gmail.com, www.mcgilliganbooks.com

Press Release November 2006

McGilligan Books publishes Shirley Bear’s Virgin Bones

McGilligan Books announces the release of Virgin Bones, a life-spanning book of politics, poetry, art and cultural criticism by First Nation Elder and nationally-recognized visual artist, Shirley Bear.

Wise and stunning, Virgin Bones extends over a life, a generation and a nation, documenting Bear’s artistic, political and critical development from the sit-ins of the sixties to the stand-off at Oka. Creator of the much-coveted Shirley Bear Bear, she played a crucial role in First Nation women’s, art and cultural communities. In 1989, she curated Changers: A Spiritual Renaissance, a national show of work by Aboriginal women artists, which toured all major galleries across Canada. Her art is now in collections across the country.

The 2002 recipient of the New Brunswick Arts Board’s Excellence in the Arts Award, Shirley Bear studied art in New Brunswick, New Hampshire, Boston, and Vancouver. She has worked extensively as a lecturer, performer, activist and curator including serving as Cultural Advisor to the British Columbia Institute of Technology, First Nations Education Advisor at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and Resident Elder for First Nations House of Learning at UBC. Born in the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, she is an original member of the Wabnaki language group. After a decade in Vancouver, Shirley Bear recently returned to live at Tobique.

What’s the buzz about Virgin Bones?

“Resonant, meditative, tough, playful, passionate, entrancing, and wise, Bear’s voice gives generously without giving it all away. We have needed such a voice for a long time.” - Roy Miki

“Shirley Bear paints with language and speaks in the hot colours of conviction. Romantic and plain-spoken, argumentative and compassionate, a witness and protagonist, Bear delivers unflinching candour with disarming generosity and an invitation to join the dance and the revolution.” - Susan Crean

First Nations/Art/Poetry
152pp
Trade Paper
Colour reproductions
$22.95
ISBN: 1-894692-16-0

For review copies or to request an interview, contact Zoe Whittall, publicist, at zoe.whittall@gmail.com or Ann Decter at mcgilliganbooks@sympatico.ca.
To order, contact University of Toronto press distribution 1-800-565-9523.

Press Release February 2006

McGilligan Meets Durtygurls

Toronto authors Maggie MacDonald and Debra Anderson join Ottawa literary luminaries Nichole McGill and Sylvie Hill

On February 12th at 7:00 pm, Venus Envy Books in Ottawa hosts a special literary evening celebrating the forbidden – with four often scandalous and definitely innovative Ontario women writers.

McGilligan Meets Durtygurls features:

Maggie MacDonald, author of illustrated novel Kill the Robot. According to THIS magazine, Maggie MacDonald is "Charming, wise…unafraid - of being politically sharp, harshly witty or strikingly sexual.” Maggie MacDonald was recently named Best Arts Revolutionary by Now magazine and plays with bands The Hidden Cameras and The Republic of Safety. EYE weekly called Kill the Robot “...equal parts Kathy Acker and Philip K. Dick… both unforgiving and unforgettable."
Debra Anderson, author of Code White, brings sex to the psych ward with the brazen character of Alex, who wakes up in the hospital with no idea how she got there and details the hilarious and heartbreaking day to day of her incarceration. “Debra Anderson is a sharp, smart and breathtakingly insightful writer…” says Chandra Mayor.
Nichole McGill, author of 13 Cautionary Tales (Gutter Press). She adapted one these stories into a short film, "The Waiting Room", which was an official selection into the 2002 Berlin Film Festival. Her poetry, prose and screenplays have appeared in anthologies and magazines across North America. She is also the founder of Durtygurls, a raucous interdisciplinary literary reading series in Ottawa.
Sylvie Hill, is a columnist with Ottawa's hip weekly, The Ottawa XPress and author of Hoxton Square Circles: Starfucking Tales of Sexless One-Night Stands (2001), which tattle-tales her journey through the sexual landscape of Ottawa. Her irreverent writing and performing style is described as sexy and hilarious. According to Writer's Block Magazine, she's helping "to open the staid gateways of CanLit to literary smuttiness."

McGilligan Meets Durtygurls - February 12th, 7:00 pm Venus Envy Books, 320 Lisgar Street. Wheelchair Accessible. $6 admission.

For review copies or interview requests, contact Zoe Whittall, publicist for McGilligan Books, info@mcgilliganbooks.com 416-538-0945. 1260 Dundas St W, P.O. Box 16024, Toronto, ON M6J 3W2.

Press Release February 2006

Critics Love Kill the Robot

Catch Maggie MacDonald on her tour across Canada this February

Kill the Robot, the illustrated novel by Maggie MacDonald has been given a warm welcome. WORD called it “a deeply relevant and rewarding book.” Eye Weekly said Kill the Robot is “equal parts Kathy Acker and Philip K. Dick. Her language cruises with control and lucidity to an emotional ground zero both unforgiving and unforgettable.” According to THIS magazine, Maggie MacDonald is "Charming, wise…unafraid - of being politically sharp, harshly witty or strikingly sexual…Kill the Robot will not leave you wondering why Canadian writing ‘has been so banal.’” WORD called it a “deeply rewarding and relevant book.”

Kill the Robot, the rebel story of Moore White, beautifully articulates the insecurity of post-human culture. After Reagan is assassinated, school books are sold off and computerized checkpoints installed. Moore hungers for information on the nuclear threat. In the looming shadow of Esoft, the world-dominant tech corporation, sickness abounds. Friends from the anarchist scene are disappearing and her boyfriend is strangely robotic. The only constant is the glow of the Tee-Vee.

Maggie MacDonald was recently named Toronto’s Best Arts Revolutionary by Now Magazine. She is an award-winning playwright, artist and musician who has toured internationally as a member of the bands The Hidden Cameras and The Republic of Safety. She was recently named writer in residence at University of Toronto’s Hart House. Kill the Robot is her first novel.

Maggie MacDonald will be in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal this February.

Illustrated Novel / Science Fiction
124 pp
Trade Paper
$19.95
ISBN: 1-894692-14-4
Available: November 2005

Catch Maggie on her cross-Canada tour this February. Check out our websites for more information. For review copies or interview requests, contact Zoe Whittall, publicist for McGilligan Books, mcgilliganbooks@bellnet.ca, 416-538-0945. 1260 Dundas St W, P.O. Box 16024, Toronto, ON M6J 3W2.

Press Release December 2005

McGilligan Poet Klyde Broox wins City Of Hamilton Arts Award

Author of My Best Friend is White picks up award for literature at Annual Arts Awards

On November 28th, 2005 – The City of Hamilton honoured Klyde Broox in a ceremony at City Hall. Klyde’s first book, My Best Friend is White, was released this fall with McGilligan Books and launched in Toronto at the 2005 International Dub Poetry Festival.

Rooted in daily survival struggles and in celebration of every day life, My Best Friend is White is smart, provocative poetry that blends speech and song, rhythm and rhyme in a distinct, infectious style. Influenced simultaneously by Shakespeare and Louise Bennett - aka Miss Lou - Broox reinvents lyricism to employ poetry as a socio-political instrument.

Klyde Broox is an internationally respected dub poet and a telegenic performer who has been featured on television in Jamaica, England and Germany. He has worked as a teacher, researcher, curriculum developer, community advocate and factory worker. In 2004, Klyde Broox was nominated for the John C. Holland award for community service.

Poetry
136pp
Trade Paper
$15.95
ISBN: 1-894692-13-6
Available: October 2005

To obtain a press copy or more information about My Best Friend is White, contact Zoe Whittall, publicist for McGilligan Books:mcgilligan@bellnet.ca, 416-538-0945 1260 Dundas St W, P.O. Box 16024, Toronto, ON M6J 3W2.

Press Release, October 15, 2004

MCGILLIGAN BOOKS RELEASES THREE HOT NEW TITLES!

McGilligan Books celebrates its tenth anniversary with three hot fall titles. Urban, daring and humorous, all three titles will add snap to any winter reading list.

Performance poet and chapbook superstar Sandra Alland kicks off the season with her first full-length poetry collection. Proof of a Tongue eloquently establishes a new voice in Canadian poetry.

A Girl Like Sugar is the sexy and spirited first novel by award-winning author Emily Pohl-Weary. Michael Turner calls it "an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer directed by John Waters."

Raymond Carver meets David Sedaris in Greg Kearney's cleanly minimalist short fiction. With no subject taboo, delightfully aimless characters inhabit Mommy Daddy Baby dragging along the clumsy sexualities and embarrassing daily details of their lives.

Toronto launches:
Proof of a Tongue – Wednesday, October 27, 8 pm, Clinton's Tavern, 693 Bloor W, with guests d'bi young, bill bissett and Anna Camilleri and host by Zoe Whittall.

A Girl Like Sugar – Sunday, November 14, 7pm, Rancho Relaxo, 300 College Street with free candy and fake-Parisian singing duo Ratsicule.

Mommy Daddy Baby – Wednesday, November 17, 8pm, The Black Eagle, 457 Church Street with guest readers and a karaoke party.

Fall Tours:
Sandra Alland: November 18-19, Montreal, Ottawa Emily Pohl-Weary: November 16-21, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver Greg Kearney: November 18-19, Montreal, Ottawa

For event details check our Events listings.
For a press copy or more info email promotions@mcgilliganbooks.com.

Press Release, December 2004

A Girl Like Sugar is Addictive

"I often found myself taking hits from this book like it was pure caffeine or nicotine." www.popmatters.com

A Girl Like Sugar, the sexy and spirited first novel by author Emily Pohl-Weary released this fall by McGilligan Books, has received a warm welcome. The Globe & Mail, Canada's book review of record, described A Girl Like Sugar as "wonderfully explicit" and "quietly redemptive" and Vancouver's Georgia Straight selected it Book of the Week.

Young People's Press found the characters in A Girl Like Sugar "real, complex and candid" and complemented Pohl-Weary for showing life from "the refreshing and rare perspective of a troubled youth in a fast-paced city." The Gateway at University of Alberta called it "an exciting and shocking break from the mainstream." Winnipeg's The Uniter said "A Girl Like Sugar reads like pages torn from the diary of wild It-Girl after a long bender." Popmatters.com added, " It's an absolutely delightful and devastating account of one young woman's rage against the machine."

A Girl Like Sugar is the story of running-on-empty Sugar Jones, who struggles for the lead role in her own life after the drug overdose of her rock star boyfriend. A Parker Posey devotee, Sugar gradually shakes his ghost and joins a cast of Toronto counterculture disturbers when she picks up a video cam and begins to shoot from her point of view. Pohl-Weary cites influences as diverse as the slackers in Douglas Coupland's Shampoo Planet, the magical teens in Francesca Lia Block's Dangerous Angels, and the underage voyeurs in Michael Turner's The Pornographer's Poem.

Press Release, October 10, 2004

ZOE WHITTALL AT THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL WRITERS FESTIVAL

McGilligan author Zoe Whittall appears at the Vancouver International Writers Festival this month along with a stellar line up of national and international writers. Whittall, author of The Best 10 Minutes of Your Life and editor of last year's freak celebratory anthology Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws, appears Thursday, October 21 in a session curated by Vancouver's Billeh Nickerson.

Whittall is fresh off appearances by her performance troupe – Trash & Ready – in Ottawa and Montreal and the Toronto launch of Breathing Fire, Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier's anthology of Canada's best young poets.

For festival info check out www.writersfest.bc.ca.

Press Release, May 30, 2004

HOW TO TELL YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST WINS HOLOCAUST LITERATURE PRIZE

Poet Ruth Mandel has been awarded the 2004 Isaac Frishwasser Memorial Award for Holocaust Literature by the Canadian Jewish Book Awards Committee for her book of poetry, How to Tell Your Children about the Holocaust. Mandel was be honoured at the 16th Annual Jewish Book Awards Night on May 17, 2004.

The Canadian Jewish Books Awards Committee was "deeply moved" by Mandel's striking and beautiful exploration of her father's childhood in Poland during the Nazi era and of her own desire to understand that experience. The poems are complemented by period and contemporary documents and photographs, which come together to create a compelling narrative.

Presenting the award, Rhoda Frisch described How to Tell Your Children About the Holocaust as "quilting together lists, history, biography, stream of consciousness, letters, poetry, photography, prose, journal, diary and memoir – fusing fact with speculation, insight and sensitivity." Adding that Mandel, also a fabric artist, "not only honours the memories and the past of her family, but illuminates the sensibilities and the important responsibilities required of generations to come."

Holocaust historian Sir Martin Gilbert notes in the introduction to How to Tell Your Children About the Holocaust that "Ruth Mandel's poems seem to me to have particular resonance not only for survivors, but also for those who, like myself, have no personal Holocaust experience or survivor parents or grandparents."

"People of all ages will find this book both enlightening and disturbing," he continues, "It is as much addressed to the adults who feel that they must tell their children about the Holocaust as to those children themselves."

For author interviews or review copies email promotions@mcgilliganbooks.com.

REVIEWS & MEDIA ONLINE

GHETTOSTOCRACY

Ottawa Express December 14, 2006
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=11048

Ottawa Sun June 25, 2007
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Features/2007/06/25/4287817-sun.html

GEEKS, MISFITS AND OUTLAWS

Prudes vs libertines - What binds Billeh's nuts?
Michael Harris
Xtra! West Oct 14 2004
www.xtra.ca/site/toronto2/archvx/body658.shtm

Geek launch
Vincent Tinguely
Montreal Mirror, Feb 19, 2004 www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2004/021904/artsweek.html

In Brief
Unattributed
The Globe & Mail, February 5, 2004
www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/hubs/
20040205/entertainmentBooks.html

GEEK PEEK – RATING "NNNN"
Sarah Liss
NOW magazine, December 11, 2003
www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2003-12-11/books_reviews.php

HOW TO TELL YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

Untitled Review
Gillian McCann, Phd.
Holocaust Education
www3.sympatico.ca/mighty1/reviews/review34.htm

AFSANEH'S MOON

Moon Struck
Susan G. Cole
NOW Magazine, March 20, 2003
www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2003-03-20/books_reviews.php

WHAT THE AUNTYS SAY

Calgary a canvas for local artists
Dawn Walton
Globe Careers, September 20, 2003
globecareers.workopolis.com/servlet/
Content/qprinter/20030920/CALGARY20

COVER ME

Fearless Freak Gets Tongue Wagging
Susan G. Cole
NOW Magazine, January 11, 2001
www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2001-01-11/cover.html

Cover Me
Unattributed
The Ultimate Hallucination
members.rogers.com/breeno/ultimatehallucination_103b5.html