Fall books from Nightwood Editions!
Nightwood Editions is proud to present our Fall 2026 list, offering a novel set on Toronto Island, four inspiring collections of poetry and the latest puzzles from our O Canada Crosswords series.
Islanders by Adrick Brock
In this debut novel, the intimate community of Toronto Island is fractured by a death in the ice—one that binds two families across generations. When Theo Frith discovers the body of artist Dan Rainier in the harbour ice, he’s thrust into the center of a drama that will alter the course of his life—and the lives of everyone around him. Dan’s sudden death jolts the close-knit island community, including Theo’s mom, Yvonne, and Dan’s daughter, Maxine. Moving through multiple timelines in the late 2000s, Islanders braids Yvonne and Dan’s mid-life reckonings with Theo and Maxine’s coming of age. Inhabiting the world of Toronto Island in vivid detail, Islanders captures the ache of isolation and belonging amidst the rare backdrop of one of Canada’s most unusual neighbourhoods.
Hallelujah Anyhow by Lisa López Smith
Rural Mexico is practically a co-author of Hallelujah Anyhow, a debut collection that is quietly observant and raw, in which gritty reality lives side by side with delights and transcendence. López Smith pulls on the threads that bind everyone and everything together, whether it be migrants on the borderlands, the majestic wilds or her own small farm. This poetic offering sees the sacred and relational in everything—with sleeves rolled up and dirt under the fingernails—and embraces a tender caregiving toward the land, the creatures, children and community. With gratitude in one hand and a broken heart in the other, these poems are suffused with daily miracles and loving attention to both the horror and the grace of being alive.
Wildfire Verses by Sakiru Adebayo
Wildfire Verses begins from a deeply personal place: the author’s displacement after evacuation amidst the McDougall Creek Wildfire in 2023. The poems in the collection explore what it means to feel like a climate refugee while under a state of emergency. The urgent, raw tone commands attention while commemorating and documenting “the trauma of fire and the fire of trauma” that engulfed the city of Kelowna in that year. The poems, however, are not hopeless. Just as Adebayo paints the dire effects of climate crisis, his poems also dwell on the place of planetary interdependence for the survival of human and non-human beings in our increasingly burning world. This collection emphasizes the importance of climate activism and eco-collectivism in the face of environmental collapse.
How to Nourish a Cannibal by Jess Housty
From award-winning, bestselling poet Jess Housty, a collection that offers nourishment through land-based medicine and ancestral wisdom. Following their critically acclaimed debut Crushed Wild Mint, Housty offers a new collection capturing connections between kinship, ancestral knowledge and spirituality. Drawing on Heiltsuk supernatural beings like Báxvbakvalan̓usiwa (the Great Cannibal at the North End of the World), these poems encircle the idea of the cannibal, a complex figure who is at times dangerous but also a generous conduit for spiritual gifts. They tap into the poet’s own wildness, love and tenderness—and explore the sweet, agonizing anticipation of shared feasts, both from the land and of the body.
welík't by Kalli Van Stone
Interdisciplinary artist Kalli Van Stone embraces syilx and Secwépemc language in these sparse yet potent poems. welík’t—which means “sparkle” in the Secwepemctsín language—captures the story, song and dance which help heal the ongoing intergenerational impacts of colonialism and the residential school, day school and current education systems. The structure of Interior Salish music and its healing powers are alive in many of Van Stone’s poems. The collection itself is framed in three sections for each language—nsyilxcn, Secwepemctsín and English—and translations accompany each piece. With the poet’s artwork interspersed throughout the pages, welík’t is a rich celebration of creativity and coalescence.
O Canada Crosswords 27 by Gwen Sjogren
With O Canada Crosswords 27, you’ll have home field advantage with 75 puzzles featuring almost 9,000 clues. As is her trademark, author Gwen Sjogren covers all the bases with Canadian content, fresh themes and witty wordplay. Swinging for the bleachers, Sjogren pitches new themes including acclaimed art, knots and hybrids. She throws you a curveball with non-themed Canada Cornucopia crosswords, some of which have no three-letter answers or fill-in-the-blank clues—or both! And you’ll cross home plate with a unique final grid. If you’re a crossword fan, O Canada Crosswords 27 lets you steal some time away for amusement, relaxation and cognitive stimulation.