Each month, Librairie Drawn & Quarterly invites a local author or artist to curate a shelf in the store. This month, we bring you recommendations from Kama La Mackerel.

Kama La Mackerel is an award-winning Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, writer, curator and literary translator who has exhibited, performed and lectured internationally. Their body of work includes photography, video, installation, performance, textile and literature.

La danse du figuier de Emné Nesereddine est une traversée poétique qui lie et honore trois générations de femmes libanaises: Téta, la grand-mère, Fadwa, la mère, et Emné qui s’écrit et écrit les lignées auxquelles elle appartient. Percutants, bouleversants et doux, ces vers coulent comme un baume sur les territoires brisés de guerres, de deuils et d’exils. 

Quand il fait triste Bertha chante de Rodney Saint-Éloi est un livre qui est grand. Dans ce récit sur le deuil, l’immigration, l’espoir et la mémoire se trouve une des plus belles lettres d’amour jamais écrite. Rodney Saint-Éloi a une plume qui est exceptionnelle, qui est forte, qui est poétique, mais il a surtout une sensibilité humaine pour comprendre et communiquer les émotions les plus complexes.

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plant is a remarkable and quirky novel: written as a series of encyclopedia entries (in alphabetical order) about a fictional TV show about an island called Little Blue, the narrative delves into the grief of a trans woman who recently lost another trans woman whom she loved. A beautiful portrait of trans women’s relationships, the writing is deeply intimate while also being packed with pop culture references. 

My Arts Is Killing Me and Other Poems by Amber Dawn is an honest and courageous collection that is concerned with speaking one’s truth. A reflection on her own trajectory in being an artist working within institutions steeped in structural oppression, Amber Dawn weaves a full-bodied poetic rendition that dissects what it means to make artistic work with integrity.

This Little Art by Kate Briggs is a genre-bending essay that offers an insightful reflection on what it means to do the work of literary translation. At once personal, theoretical, scholarly and informative, This Little Art brings us into the subjectivity of the literary translator, and demands that we ask ourselves questions pertaining to language, writing, literary expression and the role of the writer, reader and translator.

Wendy, Master of Art by Walter Scott is a witty and humorous graphic novel that delves into MFA culture and the general culture of art-making. As we get attached to Wendy as a character trying to find herself both as an artist and a human being, we are also engaged in a social commentary about the world of art, its adjacent communities and their entanglement in contemporary political issues.

Les Enragé·es de Valérie Bah est un recueil exceptionnel, courageux, honnête et très fort qui décortique les questions de la race, du genre, de la sexualité, du langage, de la classe sociale et du fait d’être Noir·e dans un contexte contemporain Québécois. Écrits dans une voix littéraire distincte, ces récits sont à la fois remplis d’humour et de pathos, de justice poétique et d’inconfort.