Ben Zalkind

The Personal is Political and The Political is Personal! Activism and Advocacy Through Fiction Join Ben Zalkind (facilitator), Kirti Bhadresa, Ann Cavlovic and Amanda Leduc as they offer a primer on fiction as an incubator of political imagination. To make the invisible vibrantly visible is a political as well as an aesthetic act. Stories offer a glimpse into the lives of the forgotten. They provide the raw material for the creation of brand new universes and histories. Through narratives of struggle and triumph, writers and readers alike can see not just what is, but also what could be. This panel will excavate fiction’s rich political terrain, where ideas take shape, the stories of the unseen come into clear view, and we are reminded of what it means to be a human being in a world that leaves its personalized impression on all of us. So bring your fire and curiosity! This rousing talk promises to offer an empowering and hopeful message to writers and readers everywhere. The world needs bold, passionate, and humane writers now more than ever. Registration for When Words Collide 2026 is open now at whenwordscollide.org #whenwordscollide #alexandrawriters #yycwriters

“Imagine getting lost in the woods and asking a tree or a rock for directions. Digitized geography is right around the corner and it’s coming fast. Why, it’s enough to keep a conspiracy theorist up at night. In Calgary-based author Ben Zalkind’s imaginative, big tech cautionary tale set in the not-to-distant-future (think Huxley on Red Bull), the world has become a place impossible to hide from (unless the enemy is arranging your “disappearance”) and bravery is a commodity best sold on the internet. Against these odds, a quartet of unlikely insurrectionists take on uber-monopolist Moses Honeydew and his three ring conglomerate circus — an out of this world mash-up hurtling through space, selling lies, and digging underground to the rallying cry, ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ Sound familiar? It’s Scooby Doo versus Elon Musk, only the magical mystery van has been replaced by an HVAC repair van and the villain just might win. In his rollicking and pointed satire, Zalkind tackles corporate greed with a slingshot of big ideas. For fans of dystopian fiction, his accomplished debut novel is a comic, insightful revolution on how to ‘fix’ our broken and gullible world, or at least laugh while trying.” Heck, you might even bump into Orwell selling street meat. —Rod Carley, award-winning author of RUFF, reviews Honeydew by Ben Zalkind, published by Radiant Press, 2025. You can bring home Honeydew from wherever books are bought or borrowed. 🩵 @benzalkind @radiantpress @rdcarley #bookstagram #speculativefiction #ireadcanadian #bookreview #canlit

Thanks to @danilabotha for the heads-up about this fantastic gift guide from @alllitupcanada : https://alllitup.ca/gift-their-next/. What a privilege to be included alongside @danilabotha , @seanminogue.writer , @shani_mootoo , @sneilsonwwh , @britgriffin_author , @jeanmarcahsen , @pattykrawec , and many, many more outstanding folks doing amazing creative work. You get 10% off + free Canada-wide shipping with code GIFTNEXT10 until November 30. Check it out!

Ben Zalkind reads Thursday, March 12th, 7 pm @pagesbooks Discussion to follow. @benzalkind @radiantpress Ben Zalkind lives and works in Calgary, Canada. A Salt Lake City native and naturalized Western Canadian, Ben is happiest outdoors, where he can cycle, drink coffee, and adventure with his wife and fellow traveller. Honeydew is his debut novel. #canlit #yycarts #fiction

Ben Zalkind and Tracy Dawson read Thursday, March 12th, 7 pm @pagesbooks Discussion to follow, music by Doug Waite. @dugwaite @benzalkind @dawsontracy @jani.elizabeth.krulc #literaryreading #canlit #fiction

A big thank you to Toby Welch for this outstanding, thoughtful, encouraging review of Honeydew! What a wonderful Wednesday surprise! Check it out here: /honeydew/ #canadiantliterature #canlit #satire #bookstagram #debutnovel

Honeydew by Ben Zalkind Genre: Dystopian Satire Series: Upcoming Author: 🍁 Canada, Alberta Setting: Fictional City Book feature #383 Overview Rose Gold can’t catch a break. Her latest “golden opportunity” has given way to a madcap adventure through the soft underbelly of Bonneville City. She finds herself cast in the role of renegade mentor and hero to a trio of idealistic young rebels. Together, they perpetrate an act of subversion targeting “future-mover” and celebrity CEO Moses Honeydew, which puts them in the crosshairs of his Substrate Inc. Along the way, they join forces with family-doctor-by-day and fixer-by-night, Dr. Hansjorg Winteregg, and go on the lam. Meanwhile, there are rumours about Honeydew’s private space station, The Visionary, which may or may not have forced its first passengers into working off their debt. Rose’s boss and his crew go missing. Honeydew announces his plan to take a manned submersible drill to Earth’s mantle to burnish his brand as a fearless and impossibly cool maverick. With her faithful charges by her side, Rose finds herself at the centre of an unfolding conspiracy. Did she ever truly have a hand on the rudder of fate? And what chance does a quartet of second-rate saboteurs have against a multinational corporation with a vendetta and a trillion-dollar market capitalization? #canadianbooklibrary #canadalovesbooks #canadianbookstagram #canadianbookstagrammer #canadianbooks #canadianbookworm #canadianbookstagrammers #canadianbookishlovers #canadabookstagram #canadabooks #canadabookday #canadareads #canadareaders #canadareadersofinstagram

2025: A Year In Books 16) Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley (Jacob Silverman) Last but certainly not least in my 2025: A Year In Books retrospective is @somedudeinflatbush ‘s edifying “Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley” (Bloomsbury, 2025). I babbled about this fantastic book in a recent post, but it’s one of my favourite reads of the year, so I wanted to include it here. Original post: /p/DRZt4UmktCb/

2025: A Year In Books 15) Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech (Brian Merchant) @brianmerchant ‘s “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech” (Little, Brown and Company, 2023) sets the record straight on the unfairly maligned Luddites, who are recast as freedom fighters taking on the factory owners and textile juggernauts of the early 19th century. Riveting, infuriating, and also, in its way, grimly hopeful about the potential for resistance in our own wayward, tech-besotted world.

2025: A Year In Books 14) Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World (Malcolm Harris) Malcolm Harris’ magisterial history of Silicon Valley, “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World” (Little, Brown and Company, 2023), veers into the realm of hauntology. Harris is unflinchingly materialist, and he grounds his analysis in the ongoing cycles of greed, subjugation, and demand for endless capitalistic growth that find a sort of apotheosis in his titular hometown. My little review can’t encapsulate the scope of this 700+ page tome, but it’s an absolutely brilliant and critically important book. I recommend it to anyone wondering, “how the hell did we get here?”

2025: A Year In Books 13) Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI (Karen Hao) With “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI” (Penguin, 2025), Karen Hao has issued a clarion call to resist the looming tech juggernauts ushering in a darkening future. Her frame is anticolonial, and she makes a persuasive case that companies like OpenAI, which contract with governments to consume unimaginable quantities of energy and potable water and rely on a hidden labour underclass in the Global South, operate as imperial satellites. Hao is an outstanding investigative journalist and a keen analyst. Her humanity, bravery, and clear sight shine through here.

2025: A Year In Books 12) When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, And How America Cracked Up In the Early 1990s (John Ganz) I’m a big admirer of @212johnganz , and I preordered his remarkable book, “When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), the moment he announced it on his Substack, Unpopular Front. John is a historian in the style of Rick Perlstein, weaving cultural and political theads into a narrative that is edifying, astonishing, and, at times, quite funny. His gloss on the early 90s, a period often characterized as an anodyne interregnum, is fresh, and he shines a spotlight on semi-forgotten figures such as Ross Perot, David Duke, Rush Limbaugh, and even John Gotti.