Congrats Quinn! (And Ben!)

you’re doing important work

Wolf parade are clearly montreal despite their members’ best efforts

Stars are a split decision

best albums of 2026 so far, just fyi:

Les Louanges - Alouette!
Charlotte Cornfield - Hurts Like Hell
Dream Sitch - III
Maria Arnal - AMA
Station Model Violence - st
Charli XCX - Wuthering Heights
Asher White - Jessica Pratt
runners'-up: jose gonzalez, makthaverskan, prism shores

those are great picks, though I am also so fond of power of three

just 1 book (the middle one, weirdly)

There are likely other lawsuits coming that you might be eligible for—for example, against Apple, Meta/Facebook, OpenAI, etc.

Then again, there might not be. The courts may rule in favour of the companies.

Then they weren't pirated by Anthropic. (The Atlantic list related to Books3, a bundle of pirated ebooks that was used by Facebook's AI; this is Anthropic.) I don't know whether you should be happy or sad!

so YES you should sign up for the Anthropic claim, because you will get paid something; but NO it doesn't have any effect on the legality of training AIs on copyrighted material.

The company isn't "still" using your books; it trained an AI on your books, as in a computer read them and then remembered its own original impressions of what was inside. This was not necessarily illegal. HOWEVER they also illegally downloaded + stored pirated ebooks. That IS unquestionably illegal

So happy to be helping celebrate the launch of @theghostpine.bsky.social's first novel when he swings through Montreal! Zine legend turned literary it-boy—May 18 at De Stiil.

Find a home for your musings in Parchment. The only literary journal devoted to contemporary Canadian Jewish writing.

To be considered for our Fall 2026 issue please send in your best writing by March 20.

To find more information on our guidelines visit parchmentmag.ca.

#literary#submissions

That, or a team-up by book review outlets into a larger Voltron: one subscription that provides access to several outlets with separate editorial vision/subject expertise/geographic focus.

The government here has a program that props up (ie pays journalists for) local news @ newspapers:

www.canada.ca/en/canadian-...

I'd like to see a fund (government, private, whatever) that media outlets can draw from to pay writers for certain kinds of book coverage.

Canadian book reviews are in crisis though, definitely worse-off than the US was, pre-Post layoffs. Most literary novels published by the top indie presses receive ~ zero reviews.

I've tried to agitate through the 🇨🇦 Writers' Union but most seem to think "BookTok" can pick up the slack.

no reviews though, so i guess irrelevant here!

PRH Canada runs @hazlitt.bsky.social , interestingly, and has maintained it for years (albeit on a shoestring):
hazlitt.net

thursday!

check out Armlock, my favourite contemporary scratchers of pinbacklike itch

nooo!!!

Every so often I do this thing called Writers' Room, where writers of Montreal are invited to get together in one room. The next one is on February 5. Friends and mutuals, it would be great to see you.

Live to See the Day by Mark Medley: 9780771062261 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books An imaginative study of human nature, Live to See the Day is a globe-trotting exploration of what drives certain people to pursue a dream beyond all logic, reason, or reward.      Why do...

My book Live to See the Day is out today. I hope you read it. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645965...

not just american

"There is no really close relative to it in all our prose literature." - anthony burgess

really?! it's the name of a trilogy; really i think the first one, Titus Groan, is the best. bizarre postwar gothic that blends surreal strangeness with character drama and overall a sense of a VAST ENDLESS EDIFICE—with great language and char names, too. the synopsis of Brothel reminded me of it!

crazy and beautiful-sounding—is it Anakana's gormenghast??? only time will tell!

thank you!

this is not behavior becoming of a FIFA Peace Prize recipient.

thank you! enjoy!