Spring 2023 at AU Press

The upcoming Spring 2023 season at AU Press showcases the wide variety of series that are housed at the Press. With additions to four series, this catalogue covers education, memoir, peace, and culture. Additionally, we have a unique work of literature from renowned writer Joshua Whitehead and a collection that is decidedly not about Canada’s national pastime.

Book cover: Indigiqueerness: A Conversation about Storytelling

Indigiqueerness: A Conversation about Storytelling | April 2023

Joshua Whitehead, in dialogue with Angie Abdou

“Everything I’ve crafted and made has been a whirlwind of community and folks and friends and lovers and family. I kind of write as an animated avatar. A lot of my material comes from listening fiercely to those around me and witnessing that which is discarded or not seen.” —Joshua Whitehead

Evolving from a conversation between Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou, Indigiqueerness is part dialogue, part collage, and part memoir. Beginning with memories of his childhood poetry and prose and travelling through the library of his life, Whitehead contemplates the role of theory, Indigenous language, queerness, and fantastical worlds in all his artistic pursuits. 

Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of the Jonny Appleseed, full-metal indigiqueer, and Making Love with the Land.

Book cover: How to Read Like You Mean It

Newly announced in the Cultural Dialectics series

How to Read Like You Mean It | April 2023

Kyle Conway

“To read like you mean it is to find ways to live with other people, exploring their worlds as they explore yours.”

In this candid and concise volume, Kyle Conway, author of The Art of Communication in a Polarized World, considers how we can open ourselves to others and to ideas that scare us by reading difficult texts. In elegant and compelling prose, Conway introduces readers to the idea that it is through uncertainty that we can gain access to new and meaningful worlds—those of texts and other people. 

Kyle Conway is an associate professor of communication at the University of Ottawa.

Book cover: Drink in the Summer: A Memoir of Croatia

Newly announced in the Our Lives series

Drink in the Summer: A Memoir of Croatia | May 2023

Tony Fabijančić

Since childhood, Tony Fabijančić has travelled frequently to Yugoslavia and Croatia, the homeland of his father. He spent time with his peasant family in the village of Srebrnjak in the north and escaped to the Adriatic islands in the south where he could break free from the constraints of everyday life. From the continental interior of green valleys and plum orchards to the austere and skeletal karst coast, Drink in the Summer is a unique record of a place and people now lost to time, a description of a country’s varied landscapes, and a journey of discovery, freedom, beauty, and love. 

Tony Fabijančić is a professor of English at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the author of two previous travel books, Croatia: Travels in Undiscovered Country and Bosnia: In the Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip.

Book cover: How Education Works: Teaching, Technology, and Technique

Newly announced in the Issues in Distance Education series

How Education Works: Teaching, Technology, and Technique | May 2023

Jon Dron

In this engaging volume, Jon Dron views education, learning, and teaching through a technological lens that focuses on the parts we play in technologies, from language and pedagogies to computers and regulations. He proposes a new theory of education whereby individuals are not just users but co-participants in technologies— technologies that are intrinsic parts of our cognition, of which we form intrinsic parts, through which we are entangled with one another and the world around us. How Education Works articulates how practitioners in education can usefully understand technology, education, and their relationship to improve teaching practice.

Jon Dron is a member of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute and a professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Athabasca University. 

Book cover: On Othering: Processes and Politics of Unpeace

Newly announced in the Global Peace Studies series

On Othering: Processes and Politics of Unpeace | June 2023

Edited by Yasmin Saikia and Chad Haines

In every sphere of life, division and intolerance have polarized communities and entire nations. The learned construction of the Other has fractured humanity, creating divisions that seemingly defy reconciliation. On Othering examines the process of othering from an international perspective and considers how it undermines peacemaking and is perpetuated by colonialism and globalization. Touching on race, gender, sexuality, nationalism, and our relationship with the natural world, this volume attends to the deep injustices brought about by othering and recommends actions for mending the relationships that are essential to renewing the possibility of peace.

Yasmin Saikia is a professor of History and holds the distinguished Hardt-Nickachos Endowed Chair in Peace Studies at Arizona State University. Chad Haines is associate professor of Religious Studies and Senior Global Futures Scholar at Arizona State University.

With contributions by Nikoli Attai, Alexander Avina, Amit R. Baishya, Camille D. Burge, Kathryn Cassidy, Timothy Grose, Maryam Khan, Frédéric Neyrat, Fabio Perocco, and Rebecca Tsosie.

Book cover: Not Hockey: Critical Essays on Canada’s Other Sport Literature

Not Hockey: Critical Essays on Canada’s Other Sport Literature | May 2023

Edited by Angie Abdou and Jamie Dopp

In this carefully curated collection of essays, editors Jamie Dopp and Angie Abdou go beyond their first collection, Writing the Body in Motion, to engage with the meaning of sport found in Canadian sport literature. With the aim of prompting reflections on and discussions of the boundaries of sport, contributors explore how literature engages with sport as a metaphor, as a language, and as bodily expression.

Angie Abdou is the author of seven books, an associate professor of Creative Writing at Athabasca University, and a nationally certified swim coach. Jamie Dopp is associate professor of Canadian literature at the University of Victoria and co-editor of Now is the Winter: Thinking about Hockey with Richard Harrison.

With contributions by David Bezmozgis, Jason Blake, Michael Christie, Heidi Darroch, Misao Dean, Seteven Heighton, Coraley Letcher, Adrian Markle, Fred Mason, Eva-Maria Müller, Gyllian Phillips, Martha Schabas, Veronika Schuchter, Timothy Taylor, Aritha Van Herk, Thomas Wharton, and Cory Willard.

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