A startling and original new voice that owes as much to Black Flag and Bikini Kill as it does to J.D. Salinger and Heather O’Neill.

A South African copywriter is transplanted to the urban jungle of Manhattan. A recovering rape victim tries to resume a normal life. A Toronto nurse cuts herself to fill her emptiness. In Got No Secrets, Danila Botha takes us into the private lives of twelve different women, with only one question in mind: What if these women were you? From addiction to abuse, from childhood to suicide, from Hillbrow, Johannesburg, to downtown Toronto, Botha’s prose is compassionate, provocative, often funny, and always fearless.

Danila Botha was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She volunteered with Na-me-res, an organization benefiting the homeless, which inspired many of the stories in Got No Secrets. Her writing has appeared in 24 Hours, Yoink! Magazine, and NOW. She lives in Halifax.

ISBN-13: 978-1-926639-08-6
ISBN-10: 1-926639-08-1
$18.95

Sex is casual, but conversation is a serious matter in the outrageous adventures of this contemporary cougar.

In Myna Wallin’s second book, a reluctant cougar tells all. She feasts on young men of all kinds, in a world where sex isn’t dirty but love is coated in grime. In these raucous short stories, she runs the gauntlet of men, including a Harley-riding bikini salesman, a semiotics professor, a foot fetishist, a jaded brand consultant, a homeless man, and a bisexual mime. Written with Wallin’s signature wit, this semiotics of dating is given a postmodern twist.

Myna Wallin is an author and editor born and living in Toronto. She is also an organizer and host of the Art Bar Reading Series. Myna’s first full-length poetry collection, A Thousand Profane Pieces, was published in 2006 by Tightrope Books. Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Algonquin Square Table Anthology, Contemporary Verse 2, Existere, Eye Weekly, Kiss Machine, In the Dark: Stories from the Supernatural, the Literary Review of Canada, Matrix, Nod, and Rampike. She recently received an Honourable Mention from Contemporary Verse 2 for their 2009 2-Day Poem Contest. Myna also hosts “In Other Words” on CKLN, where she has been interviewing authors since 2004. After receiving her MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, Myna taught Effective Writing at George Brown College for several years. For Tightrope she has edited Sandra Kasturi’s The Animal Bridegroom, Phoebe Tsang’s Contents of a Mermaid’s Purse, and co-edited I.V. Lounge Nights with Alex Boyd.

Praise for A Thousand Profane Pieces:

“Wallin’s book is exhilarating: a dollop of sugar-coated acid. Its subtitle should be, Love and the Older, Single Woman: The persona has been hurt, has snapped back, but vows her vulnerability … The tone? Ms. Sylvia Plath Atwood: Satire and Cynicism for the Discriminating Reader. Wallin’s wit exudes wisdom and wrath. Perfect.”
—George Elliott Clarke

ISBN-13: 978-1-926639-11-6
ISBN-10: 1-926639-11-1
$18.95

Bookstore owner Otherwise meets the beautiful Etcetera one afternoon when she comes into his store. They begin a fantastical erotic road trip that will last twenty-eight days. While travelling they meet characters such as The Marketer, a man who markets the most remarkable goods, and the waitress that falls into the fat fryer and is eaten by the Fat Friar. As Otherwise falls deeply in love, the mystery of Etcetera grows, until at the end of twenty-eight days, his questions are answered, including the most important of all, do you love me?

Sean Stanley grew up in the woods of Northern Ontario.

Kristi-Ly Green (Illustrator) lives in Christie-Ossington. Her book of short stories, Nits (Exile, 2000), was short-listed for the 2001 ReLit Awards. Her work has appeared in Exile, the Scrivener, Fireweed, the New Quarterly, and Room of One

ISBN – 10:0978335163
ISBN – 13:9780978335168

$18.95 CAD

DOWN WITH ARBOREAL THOUGHT! // A Steel Bananas Project

“…the reliability of GULCH is the space it provides for new visions, new styles and new writers.”
- Rabble Magazine

“Refreshing, bursting with energy, and well worth a look”
- Stephen Cain

“Gulch plays with the idea of collaboration and does it well, with a buffet of new and exciting work from today’s up and coming talent.”
- Broken Pencil Magazine

Inspired by the contemporary theories of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, GULCH: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose is a rhizomatic exploration of the modern Canadian literary community. Drawing on the postmodern themes of detachment and disjuncture, GULCH seeks to create an optimistic snapshot of the pluralities and complexities that constitute the post-pomo literary landscape. Focusing on the theme of fragmentation, Steel Bananas members Sarah Beaudin, Karen Correia Da Silva and Curran Folkers have collected pieces from community artists, Professors, lit students, burgeoning young talent as well as established writers in order to compile a collection that resists the notion of wholeness, privileging instead the multiplicity and diversity found in contemporary globalized culture. This assemblage of poetry and prose bares the innovation and cultural critique of post-millennium Canadian writers, and seeks to expose the beauty of discontinuity.

Steel Bananas is a collective of artists and writers documenting and exploring the arts and contemporary theory from critical Canadian perspectives. Established in 2008, the online arts and culture zine is dedicated to publishing young, creative, diverse, sincere and analytical perspectives on contemporary art and Canadian urban culture, as well as showcasing the work of bourgeoning young members of the Canadian artistic and academic communities.

http://www.steelbananas.com

ISBN – 10:1926639073
ISBN – 13:9781926639079

18.95 CAD

“Few writers can take their own finger poppin’ rhythm and make it sound exactly like life. Nathaniel G. Moore’s filthy and pretty little dust devil made me feel slutty and happy and free. Terrific book.”
-Tony Burgess, author of Pontypool Changes Everything

Nathaniel G. Moore describes his third book as what would happen if he had written Brighton Rock now, in the age of twitter.

When Maudlin City writer Charles Haas wakes up in a make-shift grave complete with windowpane roof, he realized two things: firstly, it’s a scene from one of his abandoned manuscripts, and secondly, he must stop showing his writing to strangers.

While still fresh in the dirt, Charles becomes obsessed with the city’s enfants terrible who are in the midst of plotting a demonic dance party hoax, led by the evil eighteen-year-old Shawn Michaels. Consumed by the throngs of hate-toting teens, Charles is convinced that they are  hacking themselves into a post-avatar oblivion, and that they will definitely leave him for dead. Wrong Bar is a novel that  refuses to celebrate the wild child within, instead seeking the greater emotional truth behind the teen-aged psychodramatic passions of a deranged generation thriving in the post-sacred era.

Nathaniel G. Moore is the author of Bowlbrawl, Let’s Pretend We Never Met, Pastels Are Pretty Much The Polar Opposite of Chalk, and co-editor of Toronto Noir.

http://www.nathanielgmoore.net

ISBN – 10:1926639022
ISBN – 13:9781926639024

18.95 CAD

In their final year of high school, fate deals friends Aaron Fenn and Dean Higham two very different hands. Years later an adult Dean, now a successful Toronto condo salesman, wonders how to remake the past after a chance encounter with Aarons sister. Unflinching and mordantly funny, this novel about blind loyalty, first girlfriends, bowling alleys, big hair bands, petty crime and betrayal is an evocative, unforgettable kind of love story.

Andrew Daley is the editor of Taddle Creek Magazine in Toronto. His work has appeared in several magazines including Kiss Machine. This is his first novel.

ISBN – 10:0973864575
ISBN – 13:9780973864571

18.95 CAD

Featuring twenty-eight works by Canadian authors that encompass everything from madmen and ghosts to poltergeists and spooks, In the Dark offers something for everyone. Beginning with the introduction right through to the very last piece, the contributors grapple with ghosts and all the other denizens of the unknown in unexpected ways, pinning them to the page with words. With In the Dark, editors Myna Wallin and Halli Villegas bring together a collection of stories that are by turns witty, eerie and frightening. Every story is as unique as the dark shadows of each writer s imagination, the place where all supernatural stories begin.

Halli Villegas has published two books of poetry, Red Promises (Poetry, Guernica Editions, 2001) and In the Silence Absence Makes (Poetry, Guernica Editions, 2004). Her chapbook, The Human Cannonball, appeared in fall 2005 with Believe Your Own Press. She contributed the piece, Bond, Jane Bond to the anthology Girls Who Bite Back, (Sumach Press, 2004) edited by Emily Pohl-Weary. She received 2006 OAC funding for a collection of stories that includes Hair Wreath.

Myna Wallin is an author and editor in Toronto. She is also an organizer and host of the Art Bar Poetry Series. Her first poetry collection was A Thousand Profane Pieces (Tightrope Books, 2006), and her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Algonquin Square Table Anthology, Contemporary Verse 2, Existere, Eye Weekly, Kiss Machine, Literary Review of Canada, Matrix, Misunderstandings Magazine, Nod, Surface and Symbol, Taddle Creek, and Word: Canada’s Magazine for Readers and Writers.

www.mynawallin.com

ISBN – 10:0973864559
ISBN – 13:9780973864557

21.95 CAD

The best of the past five years of readers from across Canada at the renowned IV Lounge Reading Series in Toronto.Grab your martini, the I.V. Lounge is Torontos coziest place to kick back and listen to fiction or poetry. For ten years, every other Friday night, thats exactly what has happened at the I.V. Lounge reading series, as fiction writers read alongside poets, emerging talent next to established talent, and local writers with those passing through town. I.V. Lounge Nights gathers twenty-nine talented writers together to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series, and relaxing with literature on a Friday night.

Myna Wallin is an author and editor in Toronto. She is also an organizer and host of the Art Bar Poetry Series. Her first poetry collection was A Thousand Profane Pieces (Tightrope Books, 2006), and her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Algonquin Square Table Anthology, Contemporary Verse 2, Existere, Eye Weekly, Kiss Machine, Literary Review of Canada, Matrix, Misunderstandings Magazine, Nod, Surface and Symbol, Taddle Creek, and Word: Canada’s Magazine for Readers and Writers.

Alex Boyd was born in Toronto. He writes poems, fiction, reviews and essays, and has had work published in magazines and newspapers such as Taddle Creek, dig, Books in Canada, The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire and on various websites such as The Danforth Review. His personal site is alexboyd.com. He is co-editor of Northern Poetry Review, a site for poetry reviews, essays, and articles. His first full-length book of poems, Making Bones Walk, is new from Luna Publications.

ISBN – 10:0978335147
ISBN – 13:9780978335144

21.95 CAD

A refreshing take on a young woman’s journey, one that does not rely on sexual escapades to catalyze its heroine’s coming of age.

Fortune Cookie is a diary-style novella set in Montreal during the turbulent year of 1989. The book follows Robin through her growing disenchantment with the aimless life of a twenty-something who hasn’t yet found herself in a world that is changing as fast as she is. This subversively feminist work, aimed at young women, is told in first-person vignettes – written in the informal and often humourous voice of 24-year-old Robin. Robin’s vignettes are at times intercut with news headlines, highlighting the political and social events of the year – including Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Montreal Massacre.

Montreal-born Heather J. Wood is a freelance copywriter and creative prose writer. Her work has appeared in Kiss Machine, Artistry of Life, and Litbits, as well as in two Tightrope Books anthologies: In the Dark: Stories from the Supernatural, and IV Lounge Nights. Heather’s chapbook, Barbies, Breasts and Bathing Suits, was published by Press On! in 2007. She lives in Toronto with her husband Kurt and two cats.

ISBN – 10:1926639014
ISBN – 13:9781926639017

16.95 CAD