In this crackling debut, Ashley Little creates a new anti-hero — one whose audacity is matched by his vulnerability.

PRICK is narrate by twenty-one year old Anthony “Ant” Young: an artist, an asshole, and an anti-hero. After fleeing a violent home life in Calgary, Ant moves to Victoria, BC, where he earns his tattooing apprenticeship under Hank the Tank, a founding member of the powerful Lucifer’s Choice motorcycle gang. Under Hank’s guidance, Ant learns the craft and business of tattoo, but he is also exposed to a vicious and frightening criminal underworld.

Written in intense, rapid-fire bursts, PRICK explores themes of addiction, desire, and remorse. As Ant’s life stumbles out of control, he struggles to hold on to the one thing he really cares about.

Ashley Little follows in the footsteps of Bret Easton Ellis and Heather O’Neill in this unforgettable, disturbing and darkly funny tale.

About the Author

Ashley Little received a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria. She won the 2008 Okanagan Short Story Contest. Her work has appeared in Broken Pencil, The Danforth Review, Room and the anthology Writing Without Direction: Ten and a Half Stories by Canadian Authors Under Thirty (Clark-Nova, 2010). She lives in Ucluelet, BC.

Praise for Prick: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist

“Fearless, the straight stuff! An arresting look at the world of tattoo; graphic as a freshly embroidered skull on virgin skin. Via the morally ambiguous point of view of an eager young apprentice, PRICK is an entree to a world not often seen and even less understoof. With wistful shades of Willie Vlautin and al the grit of Charles Bukowski, Ashley Little lushly demonstrates that hers in an important new voice in unflinchingly real storytelling.”  – Dennis E. Bolen, author of Kaspoit!

Figure skater turned roller derby girl Neddy will bowl you over in Heather Wood’s uplifting book about growing up and deciding for yourself.

Neddy rejects the sacrifices necessary to succeed as a figure skater—early mornings, a diet of apples and celery, and the pressure to perform—in favour of the rough and tumble adventures and fiesty camaraderie of the roller derby community.

Her father is out of the country while she embarks on her first year of university, so Neddy is free to consider her guilt about not following in her mother’s footsteps, navigate a new love, and discover who she really is and what she really wants.

Praise for Roll With It:

“Readers will roll and spin and root for Neddy. I certainly did!” —Sheree Fitch, author of Pluto’s Ghost

“A fun, painful, yet joyful celebration of one athlete’s coming of age, readers will find Neddy’s story of smashing it up on the derby floor irresistibly engaging—this book is for anyone who has ever seized a challenge, put on a pair of skates, or believed in the long shot.” —Ibi Kaslik, author of Skinny and The Angel Riots

“Neddy’s my kind of young woman: fearless, opinionated, and not afraid to wipeout on the derby track. Any girl who identifies with tough, in- your-face heroes, rather than perfect princesses, should read this book immediately. Then go out and buy some roller skates and a helmet!” —Emily Pohl-Weary, author of A Girl Like Sugar and Strange Times at Western High

About the Author

Heather J. Wood was born and raised in Montreal. She now lives and writes in Toronto. Tightrope Books published her first novel, Fortune Cookie, in 2009.

From critically acclaimed poet and novelist Jim Nason comes a collection of vivid and affecting stories about the brief moments that change lives.

The characters in these eleven stories live in a world upside down. From the young professional who leaves her high-powered job to explore street life as a graffiti artist, to the gay man who falls in love with a woman, to the spin class fanatic who learns that there’s a fine line between fitness and addiction, these excessive and radical characters create pandemonium wherever they go.

Inspired by everyday people riding the TTC, Jim Nason has crafted a collection of gender- and expectation-bending stories that reveal the extraordinary and often heartbreaking truths behind ordinary life.

Poignant and uplifting, The Girl on the Escalator is a fresh look at the world right outside our door.

Praise for The Girl on the Escalator:

“With an unflinching eye—and evoking ‘lapsed’ territories of Raymond Carver and Norman Levine—Jim Nason guides us artfully, and with cutting-edge wit, through a marginalized world whose quiet, devastating terror is that it may be our own . . . Tough, acutely observed, and tender, the stories in this collection bear the hallmark of a prodigious downtown seer whose unforgettable voice is distinctly his own. A gem of a work.”
—Royston Tester, author of Summat Else

“Nason’s well-drawn characters push themselves to the limit, whatever the limit, and keep going. One excellent story after another, original and very polished. His descriptions and dialogue are right on target—Nason is a terrifically good writer.”
—Elisavietta Ritchie, author of In Haste I Write You This Note: Stories and Half-Stories

Praise for The Housekeeping Journals:

“Nason offers readers a glimpse into characters who are bitter and wise, funny and dignified . . . gorgeously and with grace, glimpses into the beautifully fought lives and deaths of his characters.”
—Mary Horodyski, Prairie Fire

About the Author

Jim Nason’s award-winning poems and stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies across the United States and Canada, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 & 2010. He has published two books of poetry: If Lips Were as Red (Palmerston Press) and The Fist of Remembering (Wolsak and Wynn); a third collection, Narcissus Unfolding, is forthcoming from Frontenac House. His debut novel, The Housekeeping Journals, was released to critical acclaim by Turnstone Press in 2007. He lives in Toronto.

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.

Praise for Got No Secrets

“Intensely original and fantastically written.”
-Lydia, The Literary Lollipop

Click here to read an excerpt from Got No Secrets.

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.

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.

Click to read an excerpt from Confessions of a Reluctant Cougar.

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

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?

Click to read an excerpt from Etcetera and Otherwise.

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’s Own.

“From its opening statement, ‘This Book Is a Rhizome,’ to Adebe D.A.’s ‘Poemagogy,’ to John Unrau’s ‘New Age Muskie Considers a Change of Lifestyle,’ Gulch privileges the rhetoric of (and itself exists as an example of) that ever-regenerative genre, the manifesto.”
– Andrew Dubois, University of Toronto Quarterly 80.2

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

“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 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.

Featuring work from Adebe D.A., Stephen Cain, Ewan Whyte, Spencer Gordon, Chris Felling, Matthew Hall, Daniel Tysdal, Chris Eaton & Virtual Collaborators, Amanda Lee, JJ Steinfeld, Emma Healy, Wally Keeler, Jon Eskedjian, Vincent De Freitas, Craig Alexander, Heather Babcock, Richard Rosenbaum, Jerry Levy, Alex Consiglio, Sarah Beaudin, Ursula Pflug, Kathleen Brown, Matthew Moliterni, Darryl Salach, Shannon Robinson, Miles Henry, Shannon Webb Campbell, John Unrau, Nathaniel G Moore, Zack Kotzer, Firdaus Bilimoria, Jimmy McInnes, Steph Tracey, James Arthur, Melanie Janisse, Corrigan Hammond, N Dana Jerabek, Shannon Maguire, Ryan Tannenbaum, Karen Correia Da Silva, James Papoutsis, Christopher Olsen, Alyksandra Ackerman, Curran Folkers, James Hatch, John C Goodman, Andrew McEwan, John Nyman, Mark Reble, Jamie Ross, Devon Wong, N Alexander Armstrong.

Click to read an excerpt from GULCH.

Steel Bananas is a not-for-profit art collective and culture zine. They publish a rag-bag of contemporary Canadian writers and art-bums on the 15th of each month, aiming to critically and playfully explore contemporary cultural theory and the varying facets of contemporary urban culture. They’re proud to augment all virtual content with print media or in-the-flesh art happenings around Toronto, and to support independent, alternative, and marginal art in Canada.

http://www.steelbananas.com

Fall in love with Julia, an adolescent guerrilla; witness Robin wax philosophic with Batman on regret and loss.

Paul Hong unloads animals, superheros, Korean children, and a Native elder into a big city that rhymes with Doronto. Any reader is like the detective that weaves through this collection of short stories to uncover everyday mysteries. Hong’s stories are a blend of hearsay, folklore and opaque traditions leading us to the simple treasures buried beneath our feet.

Click to read an excerpt from Your Love is Murder.

Toronto writer Paul Hong‘s short fiction, inspired by everything from religious parables to pulp fiction, has appeared in Blood and Aphorisms, Broken Pencil, Mix Magazine, Kiss Machine and in the anthology Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws edited by Zoe Whittall. Hes also the advice columnist, formerly known as Mr. Well-Hung, for Kiss Machine magazine since 2001.

“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.  It was shortlisted for the 2010 ReLit Award for Best Novel.

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.

Click to read an excerpt from Wrong Bar.

Praise for Wrong Bar

“Prepare to be hurled at breakneck speed through the brilliantly imaginative mind of one of this country’s small-press marvels.” – Edward Brown, The Globe & Mail

“It’s as if cut-up technician William S. Burroughs joined MySpace.” – Mark Medley, The National Post

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

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 Aaron’s 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.

Click to read an excerpt from Tell Your Sister.

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.