Billy-Ray Belcourt
Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem exposes the ways in which something as seemingly innocuous as a season is bound up in the discursive web of ideas that is colonialism. Luckily, Pico is also a jokester and an anthropologist of the Internet, weaving issues of indigeneity, queerness, intimacy, racialization, popular culture and ethics into something that is greater than the sum of their parts.
Bill-Ray Becourt is a PhD student in the Dept. of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. His debut book of poems, This Wound is a World, was named the best Canadian poetry collection of 2017 by CBC Books. It was a finalist for the 2018 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and winner of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Michelle Schultz
Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick tells the story of a failed filmmaker obsessed with a man named Dick, and the relationship between Dick, Chris and her husband, Sylvre. A cult-classic memoir told largely told through the letters Chris and Sylvre write to Dick, the novel was first published in 1997 and has recently been adapted into an Amazon show. It is a book that is searingly honest and a perfect summer read.
Michelle Shultz is Director of dc3 Art Projects (gallery and bookshop) and sits on the Board of Directors at Latitude 53 and the Edmonton Arts Council Public Art Committee.
Tina Thomas
Anything by Liane Moriarty! All her novels are addictive with wonderful Australian female protagonists in bizarre circumstances. My favourite is probably What Alice Forgot, a close second is The Last Anniversary, about a young woman who inherits a house on a small tourist island next to Sydney, where her ex-boyfriend and his extended family live. This is perfect for your summer reading because the audiobook is exceptionally read (Aussie accent to boot). Listen in your car. At the lake. While gardening. Added bonus, you can get it for free. Right now, with your Edmonton Public Library card.
Tina Thomas is Executive Director, Strategy and Innovation, for the Edmonton Public Library; Top 40 Under 40 alumna.