A diverse group of seven writers comes together to create seven tender scenes about their hopes for the future.

The Many Mothers Collective came together during the pandemic, hoping to make sense of the world they found themselves in. What evolved was their need to not only focus on the present moment, but on the world they will leave behind for their children and grandchildren and for seven generations to come. In seven scenes for the stage, the members of the collective explore the past, where they come from, and the future, where they are going, with a deep sense of hopefulness rooted in resistance.

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(Translation of this novel by fellow Imaginairist Catherine Leroux.) In an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees.

In an alternate history of Detroit, the Motor City was never surrendered to the US. Its residents deal with pollution, poverty, and the legacy of racism – and strange and magical things are happening: children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves. When Gloria arrives looking for answers and her missing granddaughters, at first, she finds only a hungry mouse in the derelict home where her daughter was murdered. But the neighbours take pity on her and she turns to their resilience and impressive gardens for sustenance.

When a strange intuition sends Gloria into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city’s orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can’t imagine the strength she will find. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love–together.

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(A Translation of the Quebec bestseller based on the life of Michel Jean’s great-grandmother that delivers an empathetic portrait of drastic change in an Innu community.)

Kukum recounts the story of Almanda Siméon, an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle, who falls in love with a young Innu man despite their cultural differences and goes on to share her life with the Pekuakami Innu community. They accept her as one of their own: Almanda learns their language, how to live a nomadic existence, and begins to break down the barriers imposed on Indigenous women. Unfolding over the course of a century, the novel details the end of traditional ways of life for the Innu, as Almanda and her family face the loss of their land and confinement to reserves, and the enduring violence of residential schools.

Kukum intimately expresses the importance of Innu ancestral values and the need for freedom nomadic peoples feel to this day.

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Shelf Life Books | Calgary Public Library

BE CURIOUSER

• Calgarian Best in Translation. –Calgary Herald
• Dancing with Words. –YYScene
• Damselfish review. –Quill & Quire