Tag: place and identity

August 1, 2025

An Interview with Medieval Monster Studies Scholar Asa Mittman

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Medieval Monster Studies scholar Asa Mittman about his research into medieval marginalia, maps and monstrosity, and the othering of bodies in the middle ages. I don’t often interview folks outside of Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy for speculating Canada, but I thought my conversation with Dr. Mittman might be of interest to many...

Categories Interviews/On Air Comments: 0

July 11, 2020

An Interview with Terese M Pierre about her Book Look Makeovers and Poetry

Interviewed by Derek Newman-Stille Spec Can: To start our interview, could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Terese M Pierre: Sure! I’m a writer and editor, based in Toronto. At this point, I’m mainly writing poetry, but I also sometimes write essays, about my experiences in the writing community and my family. I’m also the senior editor of...

Categories Interviews Comments: 0

July 23, 2019

Secret Identities

Secret Identities A review of James Alan Gardner’s They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded (Tor, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille James Alan Gardner’s They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded, a sequel to All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault, continues his exploration of the superhero. Gardner focusses his narrative on the perspective of another of his superheroes, Jools, whose...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

February 17, 2018

Story Gestation

Story Gestation A review of “Where Roots and Rivers Run as Veins” in Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories edited by Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay (Exile, 2016). By Derek Newman-Stille It is an incredible experience to view a story at its gestation, to be able to watch as the seeds of inspiration take root in...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

February 3, 2018

Confusion

Confusion A review of Karin Lowachee’s “Invasio”in Shades Within Us: Tales of Migration and Fractured Borders Edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law (Laksa Media Groups Inc., 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille Telling a tale of mass migration after an apocalyptic invasion, Karin Lowachee’s “Invasio” explores the confusion associated with diaspora and the search for a new home. Although her...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

February 5, 2016

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 58: An Interview with Evelyn Deshane

As part of Write on the Street Peterborough, I had the opportunity to interview author Evelyn Deshane for this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio. We discuss trans literature, horror, genre-crossing, disability, synesthesia, queer fiction, and the relationship between place and identity. You can listen to this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio at the link below. This...

Categories Interviews/On Air Comment: 1

March 19, 2015

You Are What You Eat

A review of Nalo Hopkinson’s “Slow Cold Chick” in Northern Frights 5 (Mosaic Press, 1999) By Derek Newman-Stille We are shaped by what we eat, by what we consume and Nalo Hopkinson’s “Slow Cold Chick” is an examination of the relationship between food, identity, and selfhood. Food is transformative. When Blaise finds rotting eggs and rotting hot sauce in her...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

January 3, 2015

A Mosaic of Stories

A review of Steve Vernon and Colleen Anderson’s Tesseracts Seventeen: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast to Coast (Edge 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille It is very exciting to see one of the prestigious Tesseracts books sharing a name with this website. I was quite honoured to see that they had chosen a name that matched the name I created for...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

January 1, 2015

Cityscapes

A Review of Lisa Poh’s “Graffiti Borealis” in Tesseracts Seventeen: Speculating Canada From Coast to Coast (Edge, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille Our urban environments are places of identity, places where one can find oneself, but they are also places of loss. Lisa Poh’s Graffiti Borealis is about the notion of finding a voice and finding a place in the city....

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

September 9, 2014

Definitely Not A Chameleon.

A Review of Jason Loo’s The Pitiful Human-Lizard Issue 1 (May, 2014) By Derek Newman-Stille Few superheroes call themselves “pitiful”. Most tend to hypermasculinize themselves to try to make themselves seem beyond the human, more powerful, further beyond moral critique, but Jason Loo’s The Pitiful Human-Lizard plays with the superhero genre and opens it to critique, question, and, yes, pity....

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0