Spring books from Nightwood Editions!
Nightwood Editions is proud to present our Spring 2026 list, offering an Olympic athlete's memoir, two collections of poetry, a novel and a Kwantlen legends children's book.
When the World Was Twice as Big by Aaron Cully Drake
From Amazon Canada First Novel Award finalist and Leacock Medal for Humour nominee, comes an endearing story about a young man confronting a long-buried family secret, his tumultuous relationship with his father—and the girl who connects it all. Through witty and heartfelt prose, Drake returns to characters Freddy and Saskia from his novel Do You Think This Is Strange? and explores the trap of false narratives, the complexity of family secrets and the hope found in a world of honed truths.
Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist by Betty Baxter
When Betty Baxter was hired to coach the Canadian women’s volleyball team in 1980, she was met with a media frenzy as the first woman in the position. Then her career was cut short—Baxter was fired in January 1982 and tossed from volleyball at age twenty-nine because of rumours about her sexual orientation.
This personal memoir chronicles Baxter’s journey from a small-town prairie girl discovering her passion for sports, through the years of international success, including harsh coaches, excruciating training regimes and the inequities in the sports system, especially for a closeted gay athlete. After her abrupt dismissal, Baxter turned to activism, seeking equality for women, initiating a new coaching school and working for a healthy, visible 2SLGBTQIA+ community through the internationally recognized Gay Games.
Real Grownup by Elizabeth Bachinsky
In her first new poetry collection in over a decade, Elizabeth Bachinsky returns with her characteristic cheekiness and sincerity. If Lorna Crozier, Susan Musgrave, Bronwen Wallace, Evelyn Lau or Joanne Arnott had been in the mosh pit at fifteen when Nirvana performed at the PNE Forum, this is what their poems might have looked like. In Real Grownup, Elizabeth Bachinsky plain-talks her way through the same gritty landscape that illuminated the poetry of her youth, but shows it from the perspective of a person at a waypoint in life, taking stock of the journey: birth, childhood, sex, loss, joy and death. This book is for those who have lived through everyday madness and want to look upon it with acceptance, humour and love.
Bramah's Discovery by Renée Sarojini Saklikar
The ambitious third instalment of Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s epic fantasy saga in verse, The Heart of This Journey Bears All Patterns (THOT J BAP). Ten years in the making, Bramah’s Discovery weaves the devastation of climate change into speculative verse to create an epic family saga that is also a meditation on good and evil. Bramah—brown, brave and beautiful—is determined to conquer the odds and deal with what fate and chance throw in her path. Each twist and turn tests her ability to live up to the motto “Let all evil die and the good endure.”
Pipa:m̓: The Touch of the Frog by Joseph Dandurand, with illustrations by Elinor Atkins
Part of the Kwantlen Stories Then and Now series, this story explores the healing power of the frog, told by award-winning storyteller Joseph Dandurand with stunning illustrations by Elinor Atkins. For children ages 6–8, Joseph Dandurand’s fifth children’s story continues reimagining Kwantlen legends, following The Bears and the Magic Masks (2024), The Girl Who Loved the Birds (2023), A Magical Sturgeon (2022) and The Sasquatch, the Fire and the Cedar Baskets (2020).