Spring’s a time of growth and rejuvenation, and that’s reflected in the literary world, too. Books blossom like flowers, often helping their readers blossom as well.

During this season of renewal, CBC Books has you covered with this list of the must-read Canadian nonfiction titles publishing this spring.

From gripping personal stories to insightful guidance from experts in their field, there’s a wide variety of books to dive into, both from authors we already know and trust and those being published for the very first time.

Something to Hold Onto by Kate Robson

Something to Hold Onto by Kate Robson is a self-help book guiding readers through difficult periods of their lives, with warmth and a range of effective practical exercises. Robson draws on her experience as a psychotherapist and family support specialist to create simple strategies for making major life changes.

Something to Hold Onto is out now.

Robson is a Toronto-based psychotherapist and NICU family support specialist. She has a Master’s in Adult Education, a diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation from York University and is a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.

Life After Ambition by Amil Niazi

Life After Ambition by Amil Niazi is a powerful memoir that invites the reader to rethink how they live their lives. Described by its publisher as “an achingly relatable, intensely funny punch to the gut,” Niazi’s book draws on the life experiences that have shaped her as a person in ways that are insightful for the reader’s own relationship to ambition.

Life After Ambition is out now.

Niazi is a freelance writer and CBC contributor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and The Washington Post. She has a monthly parenting column in NY Mag’s The Cut. She was born in London and currently lives in Toronto.

Live to See the Day by Mark Medley

Live to See the Day is a book by Mark Medley, detailing his trip across the world, journeying through jungles, forests and deserts, meeting treasure hunters, photographers and artists. Throughout, Medley is always searching for people in pursuit of great dreams, hunting for the reasons behind their own journeys.

Live to See the Day is out now.

Mark Medley is a Globe and Mail journalist who lives in Toronto.

Black Bear by Trina Moyles

Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival by Trina Moyles is a memoir about life after loss and the tenderness and fragility of the world as a whole. The book tells the story of Moyles’s lifelong relationship with black bears and her rocky relationship with her brother, who works in the oil sands while she works as a forest-fire lookout in a tower above a forest filled with bears.

Black Bear is out now.

Trina Moyles is an author and environmental journalist. She is the author of Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World and Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest. She lives in Whitehorse.

If Only Love by Shelley Saywell

If Only Love by Shelley Saywell is a memoir about the author’s real-life love story, falling in love with a boy at summer camp at 17 only to be separated from him two months later. Thirty years later, she receives an email from him and they reunite, finding that their love remains and marrying. After 15 years together, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and the two struggle through this, embracing every moment left together.

If Only Love is out now.

Shelley Saywell is a documentary filmmaker and an author. She has been involved in the creation of more than 20 documentaries including In the Name of the Family, The War at Home and Martyr Street. Saywell lives in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ont., and has won numerous awards, including a UNESCO Gandhi Medal for the Promotion of Peace and an Emmy for Investigative Journalism.

To Leave a Warrior Behind by Jon Tattrie

To Leave a Warrior Behind by Jon Tattrie offers a rediscovery of Charles R. Saunders and his work in fantasy writing, creating a subgenre known as “Sword and Soul,” which was rooted in African myths and history and featured Black heroes. Tattrie writes a biographical history of Saunders, based on his personal experience working with Saunders for years without any knowledge of his history making work in the fantasy genre.

To Leave a Warrior Behind is out now.

Tattrie is a Halifax-based journalist and author. His books include Peace by Chocolate, The Hermit of Africville and Daniel Paul: Mi’kmaw Elder.

A Love Affair with the Unknown by Gillian Deacon

A Love Affair with the Unknown by Gillian Deacon is a book about Deacon’s struggle with long-COVID and how she dealt with and came through it. As she tries to learn about the illness, she simultaneously builds resilience and learns to thrive in a world of uncertainty.

A Love Affair with the Unknown is out now.

Deacon is a broadcaster and writer. She hosted The Gill Deacon Show on CBC Television, and for more than a decade was the host of CBC Radio’s Here and Now. She now hosts a podcast, A Love Affair with the Unknown.

Sharing the Light by Monique Gray Smith

Sharing the Light by Monique Gray Smith is a self-help book based on the cultural wisdom the author learned in her personal life. It’s structured around five themes: gratitude, love, joy, happiness and hope. In the book, she demonstrates that an uplifting spirit will not only bring joy to the individual, but to the people around them.

Sharing the Light is out now.

Smith is an author and storyteller of Cree, Lakota and Scottish heritage. Her books include Circle of Love, the middle-grade book Speaking Our Truth, the picture book When We Are Kind and the picture book You Hold Me Up, illustrated by Danielle Daniel. Her novel, Tilly and the Crazy Eights was on the 2021 Canada Reads longlist. 

Pillow Talk edited by Angelina Jimenez and Heather Hendrie

Pillow Talk, edited by Angelina Jimenez and Heather Hendrie, is a collection of essays about sex and sexuality that delves into self-discovery, disappointment, joy and humiliation.

Pillow Talk is out now.

Hendrie is a Whistler-based author, clinical counsellor and nature-based therapist.

Jimenez is a California-based author and community activist.

Anon by Caia Hagel

Anon by Caia Hagel is a memoir about Hagel’s experience doing a trial period friendship with an AI app while it was being developed. What began as a lighthearted and interesting friendship evolved into something far more consuming, causing Hagel to question the seemingly inevitable role that AI will soon play in our lives. The companion entirely altered Hagel’s perception of friendship, relationships and reality as a whole.

Anon is out now.

Hagel is the writer and editor behind Girl Positive and the youth culture magazine SOFA. She has written for Vogue, Vice, Rolling Stone, ELLE and numerous other major cultural outlets.

The Casino Shift by Brian Goldman

The Casino Shift by Dr. Brian Goldman is a detailed account of emergency room work today, focusing specifically on a new night shift referred to as “the casino shift” by doctors. The stories told in the book are drawn firsthand from healthcare workers and ER staff dealing with ever intensifying levels of stress and complex health conditions.

The Casino Shift is out now.

Goldman is a Toronto-based doctor. He is the host of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art and The Dose.

Women Among Monuments by Kasia Van Schaik

Women Among Monuments by Kasia Van Schaik is a book of literary criticism and memoir exploring why female writers are so rarely called, or recognized as, geniuses. Alongside biographies of women writers and examinations of their artistic work, Van Schaik writes a memoir about her own life as a woman writing.

Women Among Monuments is out now.

Van Schaik is a writer who teaches creative writing at the University of New Brunswick. She is the author of the short story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as Electric Literature, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Prism International and The Best Canadian Poetry Anthology. In 2021, she was named a CBC/QWF Writer-in-Residence. Van Schaik is a reader for the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

Fire and Silence by Annahid Dashtgard

Fire and Silence by Annahid Dashtgard is a book of guidance for racial minorities serving in positions of power today. It also offers strategies and tools that people can follow to both make an impact and get the recognition they deserve.

Fire and Silence is out now.

Dashtgard is a Toronto-based CEO and author. Her company focuses on advancing equity and racial justice work. She is also the author of the memoir Breaking the Ocean and the essay collection Bones of Belonging.

Blind Visionaries and AI by Dagmar Jamieson and Mark Rawleigh, et al.

Blind Visionaries and AI by Dagmar Jamieson and Mark Rawleigh, et al. is a book of essays by individuals living with vision impairments use technology and artificial intelligence to enhance and experience things in a new way.

Blind Visionaries and AI is out now.

Jamieson is an artist and water-skier who lost her vision because of cone-rod dystrophy. She sees blindness not as an obstacle but as a way to experience things in a very unique and visceral way because the rest of her senses are heightened.

Rawleigh has a BA in psychology and sociology. He has vision loss because of Retinitis Pigmentosa but does not allow it to limit him. Instead, he explores the world, its diverse cultures and its beauty. With a lifelong passion for photography, he uses the art form to capture and represent his experiences.

Staying Power by Zena Sharman

Staying Power by Zena Sharman is a collection of essays about Sharman’s experiences with queerness and collectively raising her children with chosen family members while healing from trauma.

Staying Power is out now.

Sharman is a writer who lives in Duncan, B.C. She has edited a number of essay collections, including The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care, which won a Lambda Award in 2017.

No Place Like Home by Jessica Barrett

No Place Like Home by Jessica Barrett is a mixture of memoir and journalism, digging into the ever escalating housing crisis. As Barrett goes she discovers a wide absence of belonging, connection and stability across Canada, leading her to realize that the solving the housing crisis can only happen after Canadians address another missing piece: home.

No Place Like Home is out now.

Barrett is a Calgary-based freelance journalist who writes about cities, culture and society. Her work has appeared in outlets across the country, including the National Post, CBC News, Vancouver Magazine and Avenue Magazine.

Every Story is a Call to Action by David A. Robertson

Every Story is a Call to Action by David A. Robertson is a book of essays about the role of Indigenous stories to create a new understanding of Canada in the ongoing journey of reconciliation. He emphasizes the need for solidarity and community, encouraging all readers to walk together on the path to reconciliation.

Every Story is a Call to Action is out now.

Robertson is an author and graphic novelist based in Winnipeg. The lauded writer of Swampy Cree heritage has published over 30 books across a variety of genres, including 52 Ways to Reconcile and All The Little Monsters, graphic novels like Will I See? and Sugar Falls, and multiple Governor General’s Literary Award-winning picture books.

Working for Nothing by Louise Toupin

Working for Nothing is an anthology of essays edited by Louise Toupin from the 1970s Wages for Housework movement. It is the first anthology of the movement’s key works, drawing together essays by leading feminist thinkers of the era.

Working for Nothing is out March 10.

Toupin is a Montreal-based political scientist who joined the Quebec Women’s Liberation Front in 1969. She is also the author of Wages for Housework: A History of an International Feminist Movement, 1972-77.

Outspoken by Betty Baxter

Outspoken is a book by Betty Baxter about her rise through ever-intensifying levels of sports with huge success, only to be fired from her job as a volleyball coach in 1982 because rumours came out about her sexuality. She then turned to activism, exposing the shameful reality of dominant structures in the world of competitive sports.

Outspoken is out March 10.

Baxter was an Olympic volleyball athlete and coach who is well known LGBTQ+ community and human rights advocate. She founded Canadian Women & Sport in 1981 and served as a member, advisor, or founder of several other sports councils and organizations. She lives in Roberts Creek, B.C.

Unshaming by Jowita Bydlowska

Unshaming by Jowita Bydlowska is a book about working through the shame she felt after relapsing after her memoir, Drunk Mom, was released to immense acclaim. In it she navigates through complex feelings, knowing that she brought great hope and comfort to readers but ended up being pulled back by addiction herself.

Unshaming is out March 10.

Bydlowska is a writer and journalist based in Toronto. A professor at the Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University, she’s known for Drunk Mom and the novels Guy and Possessed. Bydlowska has written columns on popular culture and mental health for the National Post, the Globe and Mail and CBC.

Nothing At All by Olivia Tapiero, translated by Kit Schluter

Nothing At All by Olivia Tapiero, translated from French by Kit Schluter, is a poetic and gripping rumination on gendered violence, colonialism and suffering experienced throughout the world by human and nonhuman species. Yet, the book does not descend into a black hole but instead presents the potential of renewal and salvation.

Nothing At All is out March 17.

Tapiero is a writer, translator and musician who lives in Montreal and Marseille. Her work includes Les murs, Rien du tout and Phototaxie / Phototaxis. Her work has been a finalist of numerous awards, including the Lambda Literary Awards, Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Schluter is a translator, bookmaker and writer who lives in Mexico City. His writing has appeared in many journals and chapbooks. Schluter holds an MFA in poetry from Brown University.

I Made a Promise I Could Not Keep by David Homel

I Made a Promise I Could Not Keep by David Homel is an essay collection that examines what writers actually do and the morality or immorality behind it. Homel explores the morality behind engaging in deception for the benefit of a story or plot.

I Made a Promise I Could Not Keep is out March 14.

Homel is an author, journalist, documentary filmmaker, creative writing teacher and noted translator. He was born in Chicago and now lives in Montreal. His books include Lunging Into the Underbrush and a translation of The Dissident Club by Taha Siddiqui and Hubert Maury. Homel won the Governor General’s Literary Award in translation in 1995 and 2001.

LISTEN | Homel talks about his memoir, How Did I Get Here? A Writer’s Education:

Lessons From a Lifetime by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington

Lessons From a Lifetime by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington reflects on Suzuki’s life and shares guidance for the next generation of environmental activists. It also features a series of essays by other prominent Canadians, including Justin Trudeau, Margaret Atwood, Neil Young and Elizabeth May.

Lessons From a Lifetime is out March 17.

Suzuki is a world leader in sustainable ecology who hosted CBC’s The Nature of Things for 44 years. He’s received numerous awards including the Kalinga Prize for Science, the United Nations Environment Medal and the Global 500 Roll of Honour. He started the David Suzuki Foundation and has received 12 honorary degrees in Canada, the United States and Australia. He is the author of more than 50 books.

Hanington lives in Vancouver. He was senior editor and writer at the David Suzuki Foundation and co-authored Suzuki’s Science Matters column as well as Everything Under the Sun: Toward a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet and Just Cool It: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do.

Out of the Sky by Matti Friedman

Out of the Sky by Matti Friedman is the story of a group who escaped the Holocaust but make the decision to join a mission parachuting back into Nazi-occupied territory. Friedman uses historical records and documents to explore what is true or false about recorded accounts of the event.

Out of the Sky is out March 24.

Friedman is a Canadian Israeli author whose work includes Pumpkinflowers and Who By Fire. Pumpkinflowers was a finalist for the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize.

Winning Pitch by Murray Mollard

Winning Pitch by Murray Mollard is a story of the Canadian men’s national soccer team leading up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Toronto and Vancouver. It moves beyond memoir and history by exploring the systems behind the scenes that shape the gameplay.

Winning Pitch is out March 24.

Mollard lives in Vancouver and writes for newspapers like the Vancouver Sun and The Province.

Brassy Bit of Aging Crumpet by Mary Walsh

Brassy Bit of Aging Crumpet by Mary Walsh is a humorous collection of essays about her life and all its ups and downs. She writes about heartbreak, aging and Newfoundland’s entry into Canada as well as relationships, connections and learning to accept who she really is as she grew older.

Brassy Bit of Aging Crumpet is out March 31.

Walsh, the creator of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, is a Canadian comedy legend. She is also behind shows and movies like Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching and its feature-length accompaniment A Christmas Fury.

Bloomsbury to Barkerville by Marion McKinnon Crook

Bloomsbury to Barkerville by Marion McKinnon Crook is a biography of Florence Wilson and her 1862 journey to what was then the Colony of British Columbia. Before making the journey, Wilson was a poet who moved in the same circles as people like Charles Dickens. Unlike the other women who made the trip, Wilson did not go to marry a gold miner but to find prosperity of her own. After arriving, she founded a theatre and became the owner of a saloon.

Bloomsbury to Barkerville is out March 31.

Crook is an author who lives in British Columbia. She has written more than 25 books, including Always on Call and Always Pack a Candle, which won the B.C. Historical Federation’s Community History Book Award.

When the Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard

When The Forest Breaths by Suzanne Simard is a book about how the effects of climate change can be reversed by taking certain steps through forest stewardship. Drawn from deep research and first-hand experience, Simard combines rigorous science with practices from Indigenous communities to lay out a plan.

When The Forest Breaths is out March 31.

Simard lives in Nelson, B.C. She is a professor of forest ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry and the author of Finding The Mother Tree. Simard was a Canada Reads panelist in 2022, championing Life in the City of Dirty Water by Clayton Thomas-Müller.

Music of the Earth’s Heartbeat by Jared Tailfeathers

Music of the Earth’s Heartbeat by Jared Tailfeathers explores Blackfoot reclamation. He writes about the Blackfoot Confederacy’s history and connection to nature as well as its legacy, touching specifically on music, art and oral tradition.

Music of the Earth’s Heartbeat is out April 1.

Tailfeathers is an Indigenous artist whose work explores the art, history and future of the Blackfoot and other Treaty 7 Nations. He is also the author of The Art of Making: Rediscovering the Blackfoot Legacy.

Northern Girls by Michelle Willms

Northern Girls by Michelle Willms is a firsthand account of a woman’s traumatic life growing up in northern Ontario. She writes about her traumatic childhood and her firsthand experience facing violence, addiction and the realization that she cannot trust her own family.

Northern Girls is out April 1.

Willms is a writer from Ontario. She has two BAs from McMaster University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. Willms was the associate producer of the 2022 short film QUIET.

Spying on America by Bill Gaston

Spying on America by Bill Gaston is about Gaston’s road trip to Tabor, Iowa, an Underground Railroad hub founded by his great, great, great-grandparents. Though Gaston was born in the United States, he moved to Canada as a teenager and considers himself a Canadian. The trip is his exploration of the United States and quest to understand what makes Americans tick.

Spying on America is out April 7.

Gaston is an author who won the CBC Short Story Prize in 1998 and his previous two short story collections — Gargoyles and Juliet Was a Surprise — were finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. His other books include A Mariner’s Guide to Self Sabotage, Mount Appetite and The Good Body.

Do It Wrong by Derek Beaulieu

Do It Wrong by Derek Beaulieu is a book of essays with advice about becoming a poet in the present moment. The book advises poets to think outside the box and get playful, to build and foster strong writing communities.

Do It Wrong is out April 7.

Beaulieu is the Montreal-born, Alberta-based author and editor of more than 25 collections of poetry, prose and criticism. His books include Surface Tension, A Novel and The Unbearable Contract with Poets. Beaulieu is the director of literary arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, which CBC Books partners with for the CBC Literary Prizes, and has been poet laureate in both Calgary and Banff.

Divided We Fall by Max Cameron

Divided We Fall by Max Cameron is a book about the political divisions and distrust that seem to be growing in Canadian society today. The book examines internal and external threats to Canadian unity.

Divided We Fall is out April 7.

Cameron is a Vancouver-based Professor with the University of British Columbia’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. In 2022, he received the Guillermo O’Donnell Democracy Award and Lectureship by the Latin American Studies Association.

The Astonishing Lives of Older Women by Moira Welsh

The Astonishing Lives of Older Women by Moira Welsh is a book about women finding stability and security as they grow older, celebrating what they have given to the world and highlighting the challenges and struggles they face.

The Astonishing Lives of Older Women is out April 7.

Welsh is a Toronto-based reporter at the Toronto Star who covers environmental and social justice issues and advocates for changes in the way older adults live. She is also the author of Happily Ever Older.

It’s Only Forever by Jes Battis

It’s Only Forever by Jes Battis is a book about Jim Henson’s infamous, cult classic 1980s fantasy movie Labyrinth, starring David Bowie. The book presents the film as an almost revolutionary battle cry, celebrating queerness and challenging the dominant conservative Reaganism of the day.

It’s Only Forever is out April 7.

Battis is a queer autistic writer and teacher at the University of Regina, splitting their time between the prairies and the west coast. They wrote the Occult Special Investigator series and Parallel Parks series. Battis’ first novel, Night Child, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award. They are also the author of The Winter Knight.

Return to Paueru Gai by Emiko Morita

Return to Paueru Gai by Emiko Morita is a book about Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, its history and Japanese Canadian identity. The Powell Street neighbourhood is a place where early Japanese Canadians settled, and were later forcefully removed during the Second World War.

Return to Paueru Gai is out April 7.

Morita is a Japanese Canadian who served as executive director of the Powell Street Festival from 2015 to 2024. She worked at Raincoast Books from 2000 to 2006 and was Douglas & McIntyre’s marketing director from 2006 to 2013.

Dreamer’s Daughter by Lori Thicke

Dreamer’s Daughter by Lori Thicke is a memoir about Thicke’s childhood. After being abandoned by her mother, she was left with her father, a dreamer who was always chasing success but never quite making it. When they lose everything in a house fire, her father sees it as the start of a new adventure and decides to take the family on a road trip. All of this leads to her eventual realization that family is everything.

Dreamer’s Daughter is out April 7.

Thicke is a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She was born in Toronto and currently lives in Paris.

Tell Others by Kim Echlin

Tell Others by Kim Echlin is a book of literary criticism about the power of literature to bring light and truth to the world in tumultuous times.

Tell Others is out April 14.

Echlin is a Toronto-based writer whose work includes Speak, Silence, Under The Visible Life and The Disappeared, which won the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers award. Echlin won the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2005.

Exhumations by Joanne Leow

Exhumations by Joanne Leow is a political science book examining the much-admired city-state Singapore, digging into the sleek presentation it makes on the world stage and its authoritarian government and oil-heavy underbelly.

Exhumations is out April 14.

Leow is a Vancouver-based writer and associate professor in the English department at Simon Frasier University. Her work has appeared in The Goose, Brick, Isle, The Kindling and numerous other outlets.

Go-Between Girl by Andrea Gunraj

Go-Between Girl by Andrea Gunraj is an essay collection about the impact of indentured servitude on people across the world, including the author’s own family. Memoir, history and cultural criticism mesh and intersect in this examination of ongoing colonial acts.

Go-Between Girl is out April 14.

Gunraj is a Toronto-based author. Her books include The Lost Sister and The Sudden Disappearance of Seetha. She was longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2020.

Winning Prizes by David Adams Richards

Winning Prizes by David Adams Richards is an essay collection touching on key topics like faith, poverty, morality and love. Throughout, Richards writes about his literary career and Canada’s literary world.

Winning Prizes is out April 15.

Richards if the author of more than 40 books who also served as a senator until 2025. His fiction books include Nights Below Station Street, Mercy Among the Children, Crimes Against My Brother and Mary Cyr. Among other awards, he won the Giller Prize in 2000, the Canada-Australia Literary Prize, the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in the Arts, the 2011 Matt Cohen Award for a distinguished lifetime of contribution to Canadian literature and the regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize award.

LISTEN | David Adams Richards talks about his novel Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul:

Interregnum by Jordan Himelfarb

Interregnum by Jordan Himelfarb is a book about elite chess of the current era, which is being turned inside out by young prodigies playing the game online at an extremely high level.

Interregnum is out April 21.

Himelfarb is a Toronto-based editor at the Toronto Star. He was awarded a National Newspaper Award in 2024.

Reading with My Grandmother by Lindsay Diehl

Reading with My Grandmother by Lindsay Diehl is a book of literary criticism exploring both Chinese Canadian literature and the author’s family history. It invites and encourages readers to question their perceptions of Canadian history to see what might be hidden or left out entirely.

Reading with My Grandmother is out April 28.

Diehl lives in Winnipeg and is an English professor at the University of Manitoba focusing on Asian Canadian studies and Canadian literature. She has published work in outlets such as English Studies in Canada and Canadian Literature. She is a CBC 2026 Nonfiction Prize Reader.

The First Lady Next Door by Eliza Reid

The First Lady Next Door by Eliza Reid is a memoir about her life as the First Lady of Iceland, when her husband ran for, and won, the presidency and she was suddenly thrust into the international spotlight.

The First Lady Next Door is out April 28.

Reid is a Canadian born writer and the former First Lady of Iceland. In 2014, she co-founded the Icelandic Writers’ Retreat. Her debut novel Death on the Island was released in 2025. She lives in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Jelly, Baby by Therese Estacion

Jelly, Baby by Therese Estacion is a collection of essays about Estacion’s experience living with disabilities. The book explores how she struggled deeply, dealing with rage and grief, before managing to come to terms with her life.

Jelly, Baby is out April 28.

Estacion is a Filipinx author and psychotherapist who lives in Toronto. She teaches poetry at the University of Toronto and was a guest editor for ARC Poetry Magazine. Her collection Phantompains was a finalist for the 2021 Foreword INDIES Award for Poetry.

Beyond Ken Dryden by Oren Safdie

Beyond Ken Dryden by Oren Safdie is a book about how Ken Dryden was one thing that remained steadfast in Safdie’s life at a time when nothing else really seemed to. Rising independence movements in Quebec and counter-cultural revolutions around the world caused Safdie to lose confidence and stability in the world. However, throughout everything, Dryden and his accomplishments on the rink lifted Safdie’s spirits and gave him hope.

Beyond Ken Dryden is out May 1.

Safdie is a writer based in both Montreal and Los Angeles. He is primarily a playwright and five of his plays have been New York Times Critic’s Picks. Beyond Ken Dryden has been produced as a play in both Montreal and Toronto.

Rainbow Wisdom by Mischa Oak

Rainbow Wisdom by Mischa Oak is a book drawn from the lived experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ people, highlighting how these lessons can help everyone, regardless of their sexual or gender identity, to walk proudly and live a more fulfilling life.

Rainbow Wisdom is out May 5.

Oak is a Vancouver-based 2SLGBTQ+ advocate who gives keynote talks around the world about the importance and benefits of embracing the 2SLGBTQ+ community. He has a degree in commerce from Queen’s University and an MEd in Social Justice Curriculum, Teaching and Learning.

Pizza Before We Die by Hassan Kanafani with Yasuko Thanh

Pizza Before We Die is a book by Hassan Kanafani with Yasuko Thanh, which began as a compilation of Reddit posts Kanafani made about his daily experiences in Gaza. After three activists came across the posts and began to make copies, the posts came to the attention of Thanh, who reached out to Kanafani with the idea of putting them together for a book.

Pizza Before We Die is out May 5.

Kanafani is a pseudonymous author from Gaza. He has a degree from the faculty of Engineering at Al-Azhar University.

Yasuko Thanh is an novelist and short story writer from Vancouver Island. Se is the author of the novels Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2016, and To the Bridge.

Stories From Nikkei Canadians by Masako Fukawa

Stories From Nikkei Canadians by Masako Fukawa is a book of photos and stories giving accounts of the firsthand experiences of Japanese Canadians who moved to B.C from Japan in the 19th century and were then sent to internment camps during the Second World War. Fukawa starts with the story of her grandfather and his family and works through personal stories put together with historical records, memoirs and government documents.

Stories From Nikkei Canadians is out May 5.

Masako Fukawa is a Burnaby-based historian and author. Her books include Nikkei Fishermen on the BC Coast: Their Biographies and Photographs and The Spirit of the Nikkei Fleet: BC’s Japanese Canadian Fishermen, which was nominated for the 2010 Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award.

Thin Blue Rage by Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan

Thin Blue Rage by Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan is a researched book about the “thin blue line” idea, where police serve as the thin layer of protection that keeps society intact. The book argues that this is a misrepresentation of policing in Canada, which has used violence towards unhoused people, protestors of police brutality and Indigenous land defenders.

Thin Blue Rage is out May 5.

Crosby is an Ottawa-based postdoctoral researcher. His books include Resisting Eviction: Domicide and the Financialization of Rental Housing, which won the 2024 Canadian Sociology Book Award, and Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State, which was also co-authored by Managhan.

Monaghan is an Ottawa-based associate professor of criminology and sociology at Carleton University. His books include Security Aid, Protests in the Information Age and Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State.

Free To Be More by Syrus Marcus Ware and Ra’anaa Yaminah Ekundayo with d’bi.young antiafrika

Free To Be More by Syrus Marcus Ware and Ra’anaa Yaminah Ekundayo with d’bi.young antiafrika is a book about how Black creative activism in arts and culture serves as a source of hope in a time of great oppression.

Free To Be More is out May 12.

Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. As an artist, Syrus uses drawing, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and Black activist culture.

Ekundayo is a Montreal-based activist and scholar currently completing a PhD in art history at Concordia University.

anitafrika is an artist, playwright, performer and dub-poet. She is the 2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize laureate and has written 12 plays, four poetry collections and has released seven albums.

Dead Bees Still Sing by Susan Cormier

Dead Bees Still Sing by Susan Cormier is a beekeeper’s memoir about living on a small farm with fruit trees, honeybees and blackberry vines in British Columbia as urban development stretches ever-closer, constantly threatening animal existence in the area.

Dead Bees Still Sing is out May 19.

Susan Cormier is a Langley-based filmmaker and spoken word artist. In 2022, her essay Advice to a New Beekeeper won the CBC Nonfiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in publications such as West Coast Line, Blood and Aphorisms and SubTerrain.

Notes From a Wayward Son by Adrian De Leon

Notes From a Wayward Son by Adrian De Leon is a memoir about De Leon’s relationship with his father, an archbishop, martial artist and former captain in the Philippines military, who emigrated to Scarborough and opened a dojo after struggling to find work. The dojo then became a community hub but also a place where the father and son bond.

Notes From a Wayward Son is out May 19.

De Leon is a writer and educator who lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Rouge and co-editor of FEEL WAYS: A Scarborough Anthology. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in The Puritan, Joyland Magazine and Catapult.

Meanwhile Back in Nokomis by Will Ferguson

Meanwhile Back in Nokomis by Will Ferguson is a humorous collection of essays based on Ferguson’s career as a travel writer. The essays collected in the book take readers to the haunted shores of Sable Island, across the Confederation Bridge and into deep, culturally rich Montreal neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile Back in Nokomis is out May 26.

Ferguson is a Calgary-based travel writer and novelist. His work has been published in over 20 languages and includes the Giller Prize-winning novel 419.

LISTEN | Will Ferguson talks about his Giller Prize winning novel, 419 :

Ways of Listening by Rollie Pemberton

Ways of Listening is a book by Rollie Pemberton about how the internet entirely transformed the music industry, both making it more accessible and democratic, while also changing the way listeners take music in, making it less intentional and engaged.

Ways of Listening is out May 26.

Pemberton is best known by his stage name, Cadence Weapon. The Hamilton rapper won the 2021 Polaris Prize for his album Parallel World. Pemberton is also an activist, the former poet laureate of his hometown and a writer, whose work has appeared in Pitchfork, the Guardian and Hazlitt. He is the author of Bedroom Rapper and a poetry collection Magnetic Days.

See-me Street by DerRic Starlight

See-Me Street by DerRic Starlight is an autobiography about his life shifting entirely from being a successful comedian and puppeteer to living on the streets with a drinking problem. The book is drawn from three years of homelessness, dealing with fighting, drinking and great kinship with the people around him.

See-Me Street is out June 1.

Starlight is a member of the Tsuut’ina Nation and has lived in many different cities across Canada, including Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. He has worked, at various times, as a comedian, puppeteer, wrestling promoter and screenwriter. In 2010, he was awarded a Gemini Award for voice acting.

Instructions for the End of the World by Maggie Helwig

Instructions for the End of the World by Maggie Helwig, who is an Anglican priest, is a Christian book focused on the social justice frameworks behind the bible. The essays are drawn from homilies presented to her congregation, addressing the rise of fascism and the climate crisis.

Instructions for the End of the World is out June 9.

Maggie Helwig is a writer, priest and social justice advocate from Toronto. She is the author of 15 books, including Encampment, which won the 2025 Toronto Book Award for nonfiction, and the novel Girls Fall Down.

A Nation of Tinkerers by Michael Rancic

A Nation of Tinkerers by Michael Rancic is a book charting the rise of electronic music in Canada and the Canadian contribution to the genre, demonstrating what paved the way for the electronic music underlying the songs of Drake, Justin Bieber and some of the other world famous Canadian artists.

A Nation of Tinkerers is out June 16.

Rancic is a Toronto-based freelance journalist who focuses on arts and culture. He co-founded New Feeling, a collectively owned music journalist co-operative in Canada. He has written for CBC Music, Maisonneuve, The Walrus and a number of other outlets.