IT CAN BE ARGUED THAT THE LITERary forces driving mainstream trends begin within the bold and fearless alliances between authors and small literary presses. With this dynamic in mind, one especially good way to load up your summer reading list is check out the following books and collections included here — all vital reads that may be driving the next generation of trends in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
You can support these alliances by purchasing your books through Small Press Distribution (SPD). Each title within this guide is available through SPD. Their mission? To bring “readers independently published literature, emphasizing small press values — equity, experimentation, and access. We connect underrepresented literary communities to the marketplace and to each other via book distribution, events, and public advocacy. Prioritizing artistic and activist visions, SPD’s nearly 400 presses publish a full diversity of writers who rely on us to reach readers nationwide.” Visit spdbooks.org.
FICTION
ANANGOKAA
By Cameron Alam
Upper Canada, 1804, on the edge of Chippewa territory. Flora MacCallum wakes from a malarial coma and witnesses the staggering loss her siblings have endured during their first days on the mosquito-infested banks of the Chenail Écarté. Lured by Lord Selkirk’s promise of fertile grazing land and freedom far from the Highland clearances, Flora’s father staked his life to bring his family across the Atlantic, alongside a motley assortment of Scottish islanders, to settle this deeply forested and foreboding land.
During the settlement’s first bleak North American winter, Flora discovers hope through an unlikely friendship. The eldest son of a Chippewa chief offers Flora the gift of his mother tongue. It is a gift which shifts Flora’s relationship with the land and the truth of her own spirit. As their furtive fellowship attracts attention, conflict arises in Baldoon. And among Flora’s own family.
Set amid the privation of a struggling frontier settlement, the seduction of the natural world, and an intimate Chippewa forest camp, Anangokaa is the evocative coming-of-age story of a young woman who must determine what sacrifices she is willing to make for the life she longs to live.
PUBLISHED BY BLACKWATER PRESS. AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT SPDBOOKS.ORG.
Cameron Alam was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. When she isn’t writing, you may find her barefoot in the vegetable patch, swimming with her kids in the river, reading from the stack of books by her bedside, cooking savory foods, traveling with her family, or laughing in the company of friends. She lives in eastern Ontario along the St. Lawrence Seaway with her soldier husband, two children, playful dog,
