Daniel Allen Cox

Didn't see this coming. I Felt the End Before It Came is a PW Best Book of the Year. 😭 "There’s a live-wire intensity running through Cox's prose that makes this easy to read and difficult to forget." Happy to be on this list with so many writers I admire. Thank you, Publishers Weekly! /pw/best-books/2023 @penguincanada #bestbooks2023 #bestbooksof2023

Ce n'est pas tous les jours que je vais à l'hôtel de ville. 🥹 Quel honneur d'être finaliste du Grand Prix du livre de Montréal. Merci au jury, à la Ville de Montréal et aux Bibliothèques de Montréal. Bravo aux finalistes et au lauréate, Andréane Frenette-Vallières. 👏👏👏 Un grand merci au Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec pour avoir soutenu la création de ce livre. @bibliomontreal @lecalq @penguincanada #grandprixdulivredemontreal #livres #lecture #bibliotheque Photos: Une affiche Grand Prix du livre de Montréal; les livres finalistes sur un signet; Carole David, presidente du GPLM 2023; Pascale Bérubé, finaliste, Andréane Frenette-Vallières; Ericka Alneus, Membre de comité exécutif de la Ville de Montréal responsable de la culture et du patrimoine; les livres finalistes; certificat du GPLM.

Something unbelievable happened today. I never dreamt my book would be reviewed in washingtonpost, but it happened, and here it is. So thankful for the breathtaking ways that Courtney Tenz writes into the entanglements of belief and finds the nuances. The details, the focus on the issues, the synthesis: what a gift. And the biggest review of my career 😭 /books/2023/05/19/felt-end-review-daniel-cox/ Pictured: "What it's like to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses" in the top stories or the Arts & Entertainment section of the Washington Post, and the following text: This is ultimately a story about the struggle to build a life out of ashes with little to no support — about unlearning familial inheritances and forgiving ourselves for our own trespasses. Most of all, it is about learning how to carry on after leaving a community obsessed with finality. Though he had no idea what awaited him upon his departure from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Cox writes neatly about what he had to undertake. “I would embark on a lifetime project to redefine words that had once been used against me,” he writes. “The point is that one cannot imagine escape, or agency, or the true shape of one’s life until there is a language for it.” “I Felt the End Before It Came” is Cox’s way of putting his chaotic life experiences into words. In so doing, he has offered up a language for others who might still be searching for the right thing to say. #ifelttheendbeforeitcame

Friends in Montreal, come join us at @pulpbooksmtl on June 9. It's going to be an unforgettable night of lit, conversation & good times 🔥 @danielallencox @bokchoygurl @ellenadams Daniel Allen Cox lancera l'édition broché de I FELT THE END BEFORE IT CAME: 📚 Finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, and a Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 2023 📚 "Hugely entertaining, open-hearted, and insightful." —Heather O'Neill Tamara Jong lira des extraits de WORLDLY GIRLS: 📚 On CBC Bookends with Mattea Roach, and CBC Books' 45 Canadian nonfiction books to read this fall 📚 "Worldly Girls is for all of us." —Jen Sookfong Lee Ellen Orme Adams animera la soirée et lira des extraits de ses œuvres. Entrée gratuite ! --- Daniel Allen Cox is the author of I Felt the End Before It Came, finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Nation, The Globe and Mail, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, The Malahat Review and The Brooklyn Rail. Tamara Jong is a Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) born writer of Chinese and European ancestry. Her work has been published in literary magazines, and long and shortlisted for various creative non-fiction prizes. She is a Writer’s Studio graduate and lives on Treaty 3 territory, (Guelph, ON). Worldly Girls (Book*hug) is her first book. Ellen Orme Adams writes fiction, essays, and songs. You can find her work in Ploughshares, Kenyon Review Online, Black Warrior Review, Singapore Art Museum, and, shortly, the National Film Board. Her almost-done novel follows a chaotic, closeted lesbian who seeks escape in a Buddhist nunnery, only to find addiction, spiritual misconduct, and, ultimately, her own agency. @penguincanada @bookhugpress @cbcbooks

OH MY GOD. 😭

My first piece for The Nation, in defense of the singular they. It was one thing to start writing about my cult upbringing in the Jehovah's Witnesses. It was quite another to deal with pronoun erasure in literary journals at the same time. /article/society/they-pronoun-writing-journalism/ My gratitude to many of you, and to Jack Mirkinson for the edits. If you have trouble accessing the link through IG, you can find it on The Nation's website @nationmag @sim_bookstagrams_badly @roxanegay74 @joycecaroloates3146 @amanda_montell @the_rumpus @malahatreview @theatlantic @nytimes

Some news! This little book that came out in hardcover 3 years ago will soon be out in paperback: May 26, 2026 🎉🎉 I'm grateful for the life these essays have had, and the people they've connected me to. You've all made the experience so special. Now for part two, with a bit of a new look by Matthew Flute. Photo by Stanley Stellar, always and forever, plus one you've never seen. 🫶 Stay tuned for launch parties 🥳 and pre-order at an independent bookstore, these faves and more: @pulpbooksmtl @drawnandquarterly @massybooks @mcnallyrobinson @gaysthewordbookshop @perfectbooksottawa @typebooks @destiil_books @anotherstorybookshop @gladdaybookshop @argobookshop @steeplegreenbooks @bookclubbar @strandbookstore @powellsbooks @booksaremagicbk @bookcityto @thespanielstale @librairieleuguelionne @saint.henri.books

Some news, as they say: DEADLIFTING, my second nonfiction book, comes out in fall 2027! 🎉🎉 I met le Grand Antonio when I was a kid and I haven't been able to shake him since. I've worked on this weird pocket of Quebec history for more years than I can count. A researcher's memoir of sorts, and a tribute to outsider art. I'm lucky to have the best collaborators: I get to work with @ae_akinwumi again, this time as my editor! He's believed in this book from the start. The amazing team at @dundurnpress who bring much energy to the project. Amis personnels du Grand Antonio, parmi lesquels Roxanne Ducharme et Sylvain Laquerre. La Fonderie Darling, le Musée McCord Stewart, Valérie Rousseau du American Folk Art Museum, Marcus Macdonald et d'autres spécialistes de l'art brut. VIVE LE GRAND ANTONIO  Photos: Collages du Grand Antonio intégrant des photographies de Sylvain Laquerre et des photographes inconnus

Thinking back to a day that changed my life: this review, the 122 comments below it, and what happened next. The Books section of the @washingtonpost has been a lifeline for so long, and for so many. Engaging with the work. Taking issue with it. Provoking discussion. Now with the recent gutting of WaPo, books coverage will vanish. Democracy dies in darkness. And darkness blooms in billionnaire techno-plutocracy. Fight back. Eternally grateful to @courtney.tenz

Yes, that is who you think it is. Yes, that's the world premiere at a university lecture hall. Yes, Rachel Reid was there. There was a feeling in the room. Something was happening, we just didn't know what. This was November 23. The dawn of time. @heatedrivalrycrave @imagenationmtl @connorstorrieofficial @hudsonwilliamsofficial @jacob.tierney @concordiauniversity #heatedrivalry #hollanov

Kevin Killian's ideas can never go out of print and his books will keep provoking us in new ways. Six years after his death, we have over 400 newly curated pages of his poetry to sift through. I was lucky to review Padam Padam for The Brooklyn Rail: /2025/10/books/kevin-killian-padam-padam/ Such incredible work by @nightboat_books @runtsavant , Jason Morris, @unit01barbie , Dodie Bellamy and many others. Here's a photo I took of Kevin on Valencia Street, San Francisco, around 2010. Miss the hell out of him. @brooklynrail @poetry_project @p.g.gizzi

My book just turned two, and what better way to mark the birthday than to have it featured in the @Aesop Queer Library—now in its fifth year. 🥳 If you're in Toronto this weekend, stop by the Aesop store in Yorkville to pick up a free copy of I Felt the End Before It Came. Also featuring some of my faves: @petcri @thedannyramadan @vivekshraya @gabrielle.drolet @neilwordsmith @mauricevellekoop #aesopqueerlibrary @penguinrandomca @ellecanada