Radiant Press

Saskatchewan’s rich literary landscape is nourished by its publishers, organizations dedicated to publishing some of Canada’s—including our very own prairies’—best writers. The Prairie Grindstone Prize celebrates these publishers and their writers; all the writers showcased here are Saskatchewan-based and eligible for nomination! The Prairie Grindstone Prize Saskatchewan Publisher Showcase #3: Radiant Press Radiant Press is committed to publishing exceptional books by emerging and established authors from across Canada. They publish and promote Canadian authors and artists, with a special emphasis on their home province of Saskatchewan. Their books include poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, as well as those that defy genre. Their eligible writers include: Dave Margoshes Michael Trussler and more! The $50,000 Prairie Grindstone Prize relies on the literary community and the public for nominations. Nominations are open until May 15; to find out more about submitting a nomination letter, visit https://www.prairiegrindstoneprize.ca/nominate

Congratulations to Tea Gerbeza who won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry for her book, How I Bend Into More (Palimpsest Press) and to Melanie Schnell, who the City of Regina Award for her novel, The Chorus Beneath Our Feet (Radiant Press). For everyone looking to read more Canadian published literature, these two books are awesome places to start—and you can grab them from wherever books are bought or borrowed. 📚 Congratulations to all the finalists, and thank you Saskatchewan Book Awards for all their work uplifting provincial literary artists. 📸: @peachynm_ 🫶🏼: @saskbookawards @poetgerby @melanie_schnell @palimpsestpressbooks @radiantpress . . . #canlit #saskart #saskatchewan #ireadcanadian #bookstagramcanada

“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

Exciting news! Green by Zachari Logan has been shortlisted for the Poetry Book Award at the 2026 Saskatchewan Book Awards. ✷ Learn more about Green here: https://radiantpress.ca/shop/p/green Congratulations to all nominees! For a complete list of shortlisted books and more information about the awards, visit the SBA website: www.bookawards.sk.ca/

We’re thrilled to announce that What Shade of Brown? by John Brady McDonald has been shortlisted for the Indigenous Peoples Writing Award and Indigenous Peoples Publishing Award at the 2026 Saskatchewan Book Awards. ✷ Learn more about What Shade of Brown? here: https://radiantpress.ca/shop/p/whatshadeofbrown Congratulations to all nominees! For a complete list of shortlisted books and more information about the awards, visit the SBA website: www.bookawards.sk.ca/

We’re happy to announce that The Chorus Beneath Our Feet by Melanie Schnell has been shortlisted for the Book of the Year Award, Fiction Award, Publishing Award, and City of Regina Book Award at the 2026 Saskatchewan Book Awards. ✷ Learn more about The Chorus Beneath Our Feet here: https://radiantpress.ca/shop/p/tcbof Congratulations to all nominees! For a complete list of shortlisted books and more information about the awards, visit the SBA website: www.bookawards.sk.ca/

“The Limits of Whitness” is a poem from Rebellion Box, my second book and debut collection of poetry. “The Limits of Whiteness” is inspired by Neda Maghbouleh’s book, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race (Stanford University Press, 2017). This book examines the roots and influence of the ‘Aryan myth’ which holds that Iranians are Aryans—and therefore white—against the lived experience of Iranians in America, where they are treated as distinctly not-white. You can follow Neda and learn more about her work here: @neda.soc w/ @radiantpress . . . #poetry #iran #iranian #nonfiction #ketabdoost

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS, EVERYONE, FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! CONGRATULATIONS TO @sabbiecat7 ON YOUR NEW LIBRARY! 🐦‍⬛✨Support the Black Bird Commons Kickstarter for a Chance to Win a (Saskatchewan) Library!🌾📚 Calling all readers! 📣 You can help bring an inclusive, community-built bookstore + third space to Regina, SK, Treaty 4 territory. The Black Bird Commons Bookstore is currently 87% funded over on Kickstarter and with only 3 more days to cross the finish line, the SK literary community needs your help! A small but excited group of Saskatchewan authors, in partnership with Radiant Press (@radiantpress ) have organized a 📚 G I V E A W A Y 📚because we love indie bookstores and we know you do too! Enter for a chance to win this diverse and eclectic collection (38 books total!) from Sk authors and publishers—fiction, non-fiction, middle grade, YA, poetry, award-winning books, and more! Do at least one of the following (but the more you do, the more entries you get!): 1. Check out the Kickstarter (linked in @theblackbirdcommons bio) + tell us which reward you like best in the comments 2. Tag your friends below. One comment per friend = one entry 3. Like + Follow the Black Bird Commons (again, comment to let us know, please!) And even though we won't track if you share this post to your stories, every time you do the Giveaway gods smile on you and bless you with good karma. Make sure you link the Kickstarter while you're at it! You have until midnight on Thursday, February 19, 2026 to enter. The Fine Print: This giveaway has been organized by familiars of the Black Bird Commons, on a voluntary basis, and Instagram has nothing to do with it. Open to Canadian residents. Winners will be contacted after the Kickstarter closes on Friday, February 20, 2026 by direct message. Shipping of all books will be coordinated by the giveaway organizers and winner.

In this NBN episode, I have a lovely conversation with acclaimed Manitoba author David Elias about his new novel, Into the D/Ark (Radiant Press, 2025). To listen in, click my bio link and go to my NBN host page. ✨ Rose Martens struggles with the aftermath of a terrible fire that has left her sons, Jake and Isaac, horribly disfigured. The boys have gone to live in an abandoned house they’ve named Bachelor’s Paradise, where they spend all their time watching American network television. Their father Clarence works day and night in his blacksmith shop, producing bizarre metallic creations no one can make any sense of. Martha Wiebe returns to the stifling conformity of the valley to discover that her brother Abe, a preacher, has abandoned his congregation to devote himself to the construction of “The Ark”, a massive and mysterious edifice whose purpose he will not divulge. When the first major snowstorm of the year roars into the valley, it unleashes a chain of bizarre events that the valley may never recover from. About David Elias: David Elias is the author of seven books, most recently The Truth about the Barn: A Voyage of Discovery and Contemplation, published by Great Plains Publications. It was featured in the Winnipeg Free Press as one of the top titles for 2020. His most recent work of fiction is an historical novel, Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen. It was published in 2019 by ECW Press, and was a finalist for The Margaret Lawrence Award for Fiction at The Manitoba Book Awards. His previous works have been up for numerous awards including the McNally Robinson Book of the Year, the Amazon First Novel Award, and The Journey Prize. His short stories, novel excerpts, and poetry have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies across the country, and in addition to writing he spends time as a mentor, creative writing instructor, and editor. He lives in Winnipeg, Canada. @radiantpress @newbooksnetwork . . . #winnipeg #canlit #jfk #bookstagramcanada #bookishcanadians

@radiantpress coming through with the goods! Can’t wait to sink my teeth into this book 👏 And yes! They also sent the little duck🦆 I absolutely love it 😊

We are so proud of our students!  A recent article on the Langara College website featured current student, Harman Burns @harman.burns , and Department of English @langaraenglish Chair, Prof. Kathleen Oliver.  Harman’s debut novella Yellow Barks Spider @radiantpress was nominated for a Lambda Literaray Award @lambdaliterary in the Transgender Fiction category (congratulations!!!) and she found a writing community in our Creative Writing: Stageplay course taught by Prof. Oliver who is an award winning playwrite and who wants her “students to feel like a community of writers, a community of practice”.  See some excerpts below and find related links in highlights. ✏️🗒️🎉 “’We got our desks in a circle and worked together to improve our individual work,” [Harman] said, noting that her class was less than twenty students. “Working with familiar faces allowed everyone to be more honest in our work, which improved our writing.’  Outside of class, the connections continue. Harman and her peers formed informal writing groups to exchange feedback and build their craft. She also highlighted the wider writing community at Langara, including the Strangers on a Train reading series, the W49 writing contests, and the Writer-in-Residence program.  [...] ‘All of our creative writing courses currently are second year courses,’ explained Kathleen. ‘Students are older than average and they have life experience, which is a fantastic thing to bring to a writing class.’ […] Students from sciences, from design, from theatre, other programs, often take these courses and create the most fascinating material,’ said Kathleen. [...]. Above all, Harman advocated for creative writing and what it brings as beneficial for all students in any field. ‘It’s a beautiful skill to express yourself. It will always be important,’ she said.  You don’t need a budget to write. You don’t need special equipment to tell a story that means something to you. We all have stories to tell.’” #debutnovel #langara #lambdaliterary

#NonfictionNovember Spotlight: If you lie down in a field, she will find you there by Colleen Brown, published by Radiant Press, 2023. While in the middle of a divorce and in the process of reinventing herself, Doris Brown died suddenly in 1974. Two years later, a serial killer confessed to her murder. What propels this book is a desire to recover Doris’ life, which has been obscured by the spectacle of her death. If you lie down in a field, she will find you there, captures the cadence of family stories collected through interviews the author conducted with her siblings. Essays and memories by Doris Brown’s youngest children, Colleen and Laura, appear alongside spoken word anecdotes that contain the family’s oral history and tell us who she was. About Colleen Brown: Colleen Brown is known primarily as a sculptor. If you lie down in a field, she will find you there is her first book. Colleen created visual artworks related to the book when she was the Artist in Residence at the Ranger Station Gallery. She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver and an MFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. She has participated in recent exhibitions and events at Western Gallery, Bellingham; Shelfed, Vancouver; Hedreen Gallery, Seattle; Airbnb, Seattle; and The Apartment, Vancouver. Brown is the recipient of a 2016 Portfolio Prize. She lives in Vancouver, BC. w/ @colleen_v_brown @radiantpress @nonfictionwritingworkshop . . . #nonfictionreads #mothering #nonfictionbooks #nonfictionbookclub #memoir #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada #ilovebooks #bcwriters #britishcolumbiacanada #bookworm #nonfiction