One of the biggest stumbling blocks we hit when setting out to make our dreams come true is appreciating what is going well. Most of us have an unfortunate tendency to dwell on the problems rather than on the good things in our lives ... and then we wonder why things just seem to keep getting worse instead of better. In The Power of Appreciation in Everyday Life, psychologist Noelle Nelson explains how you can achieve success in every area of your life through transforming your beliefs with appreciation.

A wolf tree is a tree in a bush or a thicket which is different in shape from those around it; a tree whose broader trunk and spreading branches indicate that it once grew alone but is now surrounded. Alison Calder’s poems shine the light of a poet’s curiosity on all manner of “natural occurrences,” which nevertheless stand out. The book opens with an examination of the extreme forms this nature may take – from the Dutch legend of the false child Sooterkin, to two-headed calves, Zip the Pinhead, and other medical curiosities, particularly those captured by 19th century photographic techniques. The disquieting feelings created by these subjects persist, causing the reader to proceed watchfully, even when the poet’s attention switches to more common themes and images - plastic clotheslines,wildflowers of western Canada, snow geese, the Porta Nigra in Trier, Germany. A selection of poems from this manuscript received the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award for writing excellence by a writer under the age of 35. A section of this manuscript, Sexing the Prairie, was published in the journal Open Letter in Fall 2006.

A devilishly intelligent new novel by the internationally bestselling author and Prix Mï??dicis winner. A black writer from Montreal has found the perfect title for his next book: I Am a Japanese Writer. His publisher gives him an advance on the strength of the title alone. The problem is, he can't seem to write a word of it. He can scarcely summon the energy to put pen to paper, and so he nurses his writer's block by taking long baths, re-reading the works of Japanese poet Basho and engaging in amorous intrigues with rising pop star Midori and her entourage of vampire girls. For the writer, though, the title isn't just a title: he really does believe he is a Japanese writer. He makes this declaration in a mall, and, the next thing he knows, he's an international celebrity. The book becomes a cult phenomenon, even though he still hasn't written a word of it. In Japan, it sets off a cultural revolution. A Japanese writer even publishes a book called I Am a Malagasy Writer. On the nightly news, a Japanese officer declares, "I Am a Korean Soldier." No wonder a pair of attachï??s from the Japanese embassy has been following our hero around. At first, he is delighted to discover his celebrity. But things quickly go wrong. Part postmodern fantasy, part Kafkaesque nightmare and part travelogue to the inner reaches of the self, I Am a Japanese Writer calls into question everything we think we know about what-and who-makes a work of art.

InSkin Like Mine Garry Gottfriedson offers a suite of poems that peel away the skin of contemporary first nations society to reveal an inside view of individual experience. Gottfriedson speaks of "minds full of anticipation" yet with "tongues pointing arrowheads." Today's youth, he says, are "afraid of themselves." He finds that both individuals and bands end in "tangles," that they write "nonsense words in the sand" or exploit images painted on rocks, those "the postmodern Indian calls / visual poetic expression." As the collection continues, however, Gottfriedson's love for the land emerges. He draws attention to the rape of the natural environment, the skin of Mother Earth, through clear-cut logging. He speaks of the damage caused by the pine beetle, of "forests being / eaten from the inside out." And here it is that Gottfriedson introduces the mysterious Horsechild, who is to prepare the drying racks for the returning salmon "so that beneath your skin / the mountains will be forever abundant": a prayer for us to protect the migrating salmon on their multi-year cycles, to protect the bears and eagles that feast upon them, so as to assure that the transformations will continue, that there will be abundance for both humans and the earth itself.

This book consists of four lectures and six interviews; it covers a wide range of topics central to Glissant's thought - such as creolization, langage, culture and identity, 'atavistic' versus 'composite cultures' - presented in a particularly accessible form because here Glissant interacts with the views of other people.

The story of Dany Laferriere, the narrator and writer living in exile in Montreal, who finally comes home to Haiti. Nothing is different, and yet everything has changed. There is his mother, who has never left Haiti, not even for one minute, and who still performs all the rituals of old. But there is also the army of zombies that takes over the streets at night, while the American army occupies the country by day. What is this country of dead men? Is every Haitian a secret citizen? Is it possible for Laferriere to cross over to that country and then return? Laferriere wanders through Port-au-Prince interrogating old friends and new acquaintances. The tone becomes strident, as do the questions: Do we stay? Do we leave? What's the point? Where can we be ourselves and live like humans at the same time? In the end Laferriere decides to head for Bombardopolis, a village where you only need to eat once every three months -- a way of curing hunger? What will become of him once he gets there, and who will he be when he returns?

In the last few decades Canadian and Québécois literatures have been catapulted onto the global stage, gaining international readership and recognition. Canada and Its Americas challenges the convention that study of this literature should be limited to its place within national borders, arguing that these works should be examined from the perspective of their place and influence within the Americas as a whole. The essays in this volume, a groundbreaking work in the burgeoning field of hemispheric American studies, expand the horizons of Canadian and Québécois literatures, suggest alternative approaches to models centred on the United States, and analyse the risks and benefits of hemispheric approaches to Canada and Quebec. Revealing the connections among a broad range of Canadian, Québécois, American, Caribbean, Latin American, and diasporic literatures, the contributors critique the neglect of Canadian works in Hemispheric studies and show how such writing can be successfully integrated into an emerging area of literary inquiry.