Most Anticipated Spring 2017 fiction ...

... from the 49th Shelf includes not one but TWO books coming out of the Sampsenblum homestead. Yep: both RR's novel, So Much Love, and my novel, The Slip, made the list, along with a slew of other cool names, including Pasha Malla, Terri Favro, Andrew Kaufman and list-maker extraordinaire herself, Kerry Clare, whose debut novel, Mitzi Bytes, is on our own must-read list. Looks like a solid season for Canadian fiction all around.

Publication: The Humber Literary Review

One of the great things about being away on vacation is coming home to discover that a bumper crop of good mail has built up during one's absence. For me this year, that meant returning from the holidays on PEI and finding my contributor's copies of The Humber Literary Review  (Issue 3, Volume 2), which contains my poem, "Dysthymia," waiting for me.

This special issue of the journal is dedicated to the theme of mental health, and it includes work by a raft of literary luminaries, including Jowita Bydlowska, Stevie Howell, Anakana Schofield, Matt Cahill and Angie Abdou. Thanks again to the editors for selecting my poem to be included with them.

M.

Interview in Open Book Ontario

Well, I'm starting 2017 with a bang. The year kicked off with the very gracious Koom Kankesan conducting this interview with me as part of his stint as Open Book Ontario's writer in residence. We discuss a number of interesting topics here, including my new novel, The Slip, president-elect Donald Trump, and what it's like for me being married to the brilliant Rebecca Rosenblum.

Koom is a good friend, and this role with Open Book is in support of his own new novel, The Tamil Dream. You may recall that I reviewed his two previous works, The Panic Button and The Rajapaksa Stories, last year. The latter was one of my favourite reads of 2016 and a book that both RR and I feel deserves much more attention.

Anyway, thanks to Koom for this interview, which marks the first bit of promotion for The Slip ahead of its May 20th release. I'll be sure to update you all on others, if and when they come.

M.