Latest from Alicia Elliott
Shelfies
A mother's love is supposed to be unconditional. What happens when it's not?
Ainslie Hogarth's novel Motherthing makes a horror story out of maternal wounds and intergenerational cycles. And for writer Alicia Elliott, reading it hit close to home.
Shelfies
Does art about abuse need to make us comfortable?
Liz Harmer's novel Strange Loops calls to mind another recent work whose depiction of abuse was misunderstood by some audiences: Todd Field's 2022 film Tár.
Shelfies
This novel asks us to confront the darkest parts of ourselves — and to forgive
A story of forbidden love between two queer Syrian refugees, Danny Ramadan's The Foghorn Echoes asks what it means to truly hold ourselves accountable and find healing.
Shelfies
Who does power truly belong to? This book digs into the layers of an abusive relationship to find out
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, Noor Naga's Giller Prize-nominated novel, asks the reader to confront their ideas of morality and control.
Point of View
The monsters they made us: How the horror genre positions young female desire
In Interview with the Vampire and Ginger Snaps, men destroy the innocence of teenage girls — and then let them take the blame for the bloodshed that follows.
Shelfies
Why the Griffin Poetry Prize combining its awards is bad news for Canadian poets
The move takes away a rare opportunity for visibility and economic stability that was once guaranteed to Canadian poets, argues writer Alicia Elliott.
Shelfies
Black and Indigenous liberation are forever linked. It's time to build a new world
Alicia Elliott traces the shared struggle from its roots in the Doctrine of Discovery through to Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Robyn Maynard's book Rehearsals for Living.
Shelfies
If memories are just stories we tell ourselves, how can we write our lives?
Fawn Parker's new novel What We Both Know shows why it's so hard to write the truth while trying to work through past traumas.
Shelfies
This new book vividly captures the time distortion and grief we've all been feeling
Sheila Heti's Pure Colour steps out of the five stages of grief and into what's been called the sixth: meaning.
Shelfies
The case FOR the trauma plot? How writers can use it with purpose and care
It's been criticized for being used as a "shortcut," but it can actually offer something essential to its audience.