Anvil Press

Contemporary Canadian Literature with a Distinctly Urban Twist


newest releases

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Spring 2012

Five Little Bitches
a new novel from Teresa McWhirter

Five Little Bitches chronicles the intertwining lives of five young women, each of whom is plagued by her own unique demons, and all of whom are devoted to music, the punk-rock lifestyle, and an underground code of solidarity. The novel details each of the girls’ personal histories alongside the rise and fall of their band, Wet Leather. As the band progresses, the girls tour Canadian, American and European small towns and big cities, and all the alleys, gutters, back stages, vans, hotel rooms, highways and airways in between.

Valery the Great
stories by Elaine McCluskey

Valery the Great is a crackling, electric collection of dark humour that follows the bizarre and beautiful lives of its protagonists. Sometimes sweet and gentle, sometimes sharply sarcastic, the unique narrative voices in this collection are always powerfully touching. In the title story, a young woman from New Brunswick uses figure skating as a way to fill the void left by her deceased father, and ends up as a Russian circus performer who dances on ice with two skating bears. We also meet an unlikely swim team member, a crude and ineffective search and rescue volunteer, and Sparky, an ancient boxing trainer, who recalls the tumultuous life of his childhood friend, a dwarf named Maurice.

A Dark Boat
poetry by Patrick Friesen

A Dark Boat is heavily inspired by cante jondo (Spanish “deep song”, or flamenco) and fado (Portuguese songs of longing.) Friesen approaches music as a method of weaving his poems with both Spanish and Portuguese aspects of longing, imagistic leaps, and darkness.

You Exist. Details Follow.
poetry by Stuart Ross

Each new volume by Stuart Ross is a more confounding grab bag than the last. In You Exist. Details Follow., his seventh full-length collection of poetry, Stuart Ross veers in opposite directions: narrative confessional poems, and works that might be considered abstract expressionist, and a lot both in between and beyond those boundaries. Still, each poem breathes with the signature weirdness, the sharp wit and gentle awe that Ross is known for.

Mutant Sex Party & Other Plays
by Ed Macdonald

In Mutant Sex Party & Other Plays, Ed Macdonald eviscerates the high and the mighty, the hypocritical, and those who abuse power in late-Capitalism America. He expertly peels back the tattered facade of corporate respectability and reveals the hypocrisy that is brokered and sold under the guise of “doing business” in America. These plays dig deep at the rot that lies at the base of a free-rein, unregulated, capitalist market system.

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Rights available:  World
  • For Vs. is a knock-out
  • Vs. by Kerry Ryan, finalist for the Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry.


  • For The Real Deal
  • “clever, concise writing – no superfluous flowery shit. To the point, bold, matter of fact.”
    —OttawaXpress (on Matthew Firth’s Shag Carpet Action)


  • For The Book As Art Object
  • “From the font to the cover design to the paper grade, it is a stunning object … it’s just like Anvil Press—the press that comes closest to being Canada’s answer to Brooklyn’s Soft Skull fiction line—to care about the book as art object time and again.”
    Globe & Mail (in a review of Animal by Alexandra Leggat)


  • For Social Awareness
  • A Room In the City, the photos of Gabor Gasztonyi, Finalist for The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.


  • For Frenzy Wins!
  • Congratulations to Catherine Owen, Winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry (Alberta Book Awards) for her recent collection, Frenzy.


  • For Finalist for Governor General's Award for Translation
  • David Scott Hamilton, Governor General’s Award Finalist for his translation of Paradis, Clef en main (Exit) the final novel by Quebec author Nelly Arcan.


  • For Burgess Wins!
  • Tony Burgess is the winner of the 2011 ReLit Award (short fiction category) for Ravenna Gets.


  • For Audacious
  • “one of the country’s most enduring venues for audacious writing.”
    —BC BookWorld


  • For Animal a Trillium Finalist
  • June 1, 2010: Congratulations to Alexandra Leggat, Finalist for the Trillium Book Award for her short story collection, Animal.


  • For Afflictions & Departures receives Finalist nomination!
  • Madeline Sonik receives finalist nomination for The 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction for her memoir, Afflictions & Departures. Afflictions & Departures was also nominated for the prestigious BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, one of Canada’s largest literary non-fiction prizes.



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