Page 58 - 05_June-2025

Essays
BOOKED
AND
BUZZED
Coffee and books:
two essential rituals,
best enjoyed together.
Our guide Conor Kerr
leads you through
Edmonton’s finest
places to sip and read
photography
BUFFY GOODMAN
WHENEVER I HOST VISITORS IN EDMONTON, I love
showcasing the city’s bookstores and coffee shops. After all,
nothing stimulates conversation quite like a steady drip of
caffeine and a stack of new books you swear you’ll finish some-
day. We also happen to live in a literary city — not just because
many great writers call Edmonton home, but because we’ve
added even more indie bookstores to the map in recent years.
So, come along, dear reader, on my highly prestigious and
much-anticipated (according to my friends, who were cornered
into hearing about it) coffee-and-bookshop tour of Edmonton.
The first stop is Transcend Coffee and Roastery in Ritchie.
Since I can’t drink milk — a fault I blame on my Métis grand-
mother — I settle in for a drip coffee and reflect on how a city
like Edmonton comes alive when a deep freeze ends, and people,
like our coyote cousins, emerge from our burrows to roam
around our beautiful city. The coffee hits hard. Venezuelan,
I believe. I tend to prefer darker roasts, but Transcend has
perfected the roast of the medium bean, and it’s exactly what
I need to kick-start a caffeine-fuelled bookstore frenzy.
I take my coffee and walk across the street to Magpie
Books, where one of the co-owners Julie King-Yerex is kicking
around. We chat about Good Girl by Aria Aber, a new arrival
that Julie highly recommends.
Magpie has a distinct point of view, and it shows. In a
publishing world that often prioritizes a narrow range of voices,
Magpie goes the other way — championing authors from
Black, Indigenous, trans and other marginalized communities.
You won’t find many of Heather’s Picks here. Instead, you find
names like jaye simpson, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Emily Austin and
plenty more that might never land front and centre in a big box
store — but should.
The curation feels intentional, political and deeply literary.
Browse the staff picks or talk to any of the well-read team
members, and they direct you to a book that challenges how
you see the world — which is exactly what good literature
should do.
Magpie also serves as a true community hub. On any given
night, you might walk into a naloxone training, a political
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