Engen Books and Quadrangle are proud to reveal the first three authors to be featured in A TOAST TO HOPE, the collaboration anthology featuring stories by and about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Quadrangle’s mission is to create a community centre for 2SLGBTQAI+ individuals and organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador, a space that is a resource for building community resilience and connection, and that provides supports for existing initiatives of our 2SLGBTQAI+ community. As a registered charity, both working toward having a community centre, and taking up projects like this one contribute to Quad’s vision of contributing to sustainable, positive, community connections. All profits from this collection will go towards that goal.
The title of this year's collection will be A TOAST TO HOPE: Stories at the Centre of Us. It was named for one of the three stories blind-selected that were written by Lisa Timpf. Stories were selected by Ailsa Craig, Sulaimon Giwa, AJ Ryan, and, Sarah Thompson.
Engen is proud to announce Isobel Granby will join the collection. Granby is an author and poet currently living in St. John's. Their previous work includes "The Date-Book," for Queer Sci-Fi "Ink" anthology, "The Second," from the Metapsychosis online journal, "Portrait of a Lady," from the Queer Sci-Fi "Migration" anthology and "The Mark," from Lighthouse Digest. They have been shortlisted or won multiple awards for their work, including the Chatterton 250 Poetry Contest, the 2020 Gregory J. Power Poetry Prize, the 2020 Íslendingadagurinn Open Prose Prize, the 2019 Helen M. Schaible Sonnet Contest, and the 2019 Íslendingadagurinn Open Poetry Prize. When asked their feelings on joining the anthology, they said they felt it was: "Rather fun! I love seeing the expansiveness of LGBTQ+ writing and these anthologies are a beautiful way to highlight that. I'm extremely pleased to be part of something so affirming."
Engen is proud to announce Lisa Timpf will join the collection. From Simcoe Ontario, Timpf is a storied author and poet with over thirty speculative fiction stories published to her credit in a variety of venues, including "Roxy," "Roxy's Rule," and "Gone" in New Myths; "The Disconnect" in Third Flatiron's Brain Games anthology; "The Caller" in the anthology Future Days, and "It's All Good," published in the anthology Enter the Rebirth. She has two novelettes coming in 2021 from JMS Books. Her speculative poem "No Fairy Tale World" was included in the 2020 Rhysling Anthology, which included all nominees for the Rhysling Award. She was also one of ten finalists in the 2015 Rhyme Zone contest, with the poem "His Hands, and a Question." Previous Engen Books publications include her story ‘The Messenger's Mission’ in Mythology from the Rock.
"I'm thrilled to have my work chosen for this anthology," says Timpf. "Thanks to five years spent living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I have a lifelong affection for the Atlantic Provinces, so being included in an Atlantic Canada publisher's anthology is a bonus."
Finally, Daze Jefferies is an astonishing author and vocal talent living on the Bay of Exploits. Her work will appear in the highly anticipated Land of Many Shores: Stories from a Diverse Newfoundland and Labrador, edited by Ainsley Hawthorn from Breakwater Books. She has also produced poetry and hybrid text which has been published in many journals, magazines, and anthologies including Arc, The Dalhousie Review, untethered, HELD, WORD, transVersing, and Hustling Verse. In the time since Acceptance was published, she produced her first book of poem Water/Wept. "I'm feeling happy to share some t4t love with this little story-poem!" says Jefferies. She brings with her her poem deep is the hope-hole.
Interested parties can click here to order A Toast to Hope: Stories at the Centre of Us from Engen Books. All profit from the collection goes toward Quadrangle's community efforts.
A Toast to Hope: Stories at the Centre of Us features fifteen stories from amazing 2SLGBTQIA+ authors.