NOVEL/NARRATIVE
Aussi étrange que toi, Frida, by Christine Gosselin (Mémoire d’encrier, 2026)
Following Larves de vie and Regarder les coulisses se répandre, sports journalist Christine Gosselin continues on her literary journey in which the female body sheds the afflictions that consume it. In her third book, Aussi étrange que toi, Frida, the author embarks on the steep and vital path of empowerment. Through a timeless dialogue with the famous painter, and in its wake, the echoes of other fiery women, from Greta to Ernaux, Nelly to Pélicot, she summons herself, too: Titi in her childhood, Cri in her tormented adolescence, and Chris(tine) in adulthood, expanding her own self-portraits. In chapters interwoven with Kahlo’s paintings, without ever losing her way, Gosselin surrenders to the many parallels between her obsessions and those of the Mexican artist, including a spirit of rebellion, a rejection of gender norms, a failed motherhood, and an unyielding thirst for creation. Didn’t Frida say, “The most powerful art in life is to turn pain into a talisman that heals?” A source of courage that is both deeply textured and tied to redemption.
POETRY
Quand je ne dis rien je pense encore, by Camille Readman Prud’homme (L’Oie de Cravan, 2021)
“[S]ometimes you lack/words/or rather space/to say the words/and what could have been/a word/remains a thought.” Let’s make an exception to the “new” rule to mark the 5th anniversary of this remarkable collection, the winner of the 2022 Booksellers’ Prize, Poetry. All the more because it bears witness, with wild acuity, to the balancing act we must (un)learn in order to evolve within society, or withdraw from it, if necessary. Between the dislocations of the intimate and what lies hidden beneath the images, Camille Readman Prud’homme offers us a stream of consciousness of raw clarity and witty, dizzying intensity. The gaps in our unspoken or deferred speech are laid bare, “between what we feel inside ourselves, what we show, and what is perceived.” It’s important to step outside to encounter all these faces that always appear “vaster and also denser” than we think, to grasp their bubble. By the end of 2025, the work had reached its 16th printing, a remarkable feat in poetry and a well-deserved success.
PODCAST
À la recherche du soi perdu (OHdio, 2025-2026)
Over two seasons, journalist Karina Marceau teams up with psychiatrist Marie-Ève Cotton and psychologist Nathalie Plaat, both of whom are also authors, to explore various psychological issues in a warm and welcoming atmosphere, and to better examine “our relationship with ourselves, our loved ones, and the world.” The conversation, always enriched by two guests, serves as the perfect opportunity to “take a break, step back, and gain some perspective.” From the “pressure to love oneself” felt within families to the scourge of loneliness, via communication gaps or sexual disconnect, the themes are always explored and illuminated from the inside, with myriad variations that prove nothing is monolithic. Personal favourites include the episode entitled Cultivating Your Relationship with Others to Face Crises, which dissects our sense of powerlessness and the essential human interconnectedness needed to brave the “turmoil of the present,” and The Invigorating Act of Bringing Joy into Your Daily Life, where actor and ritualist Stéphane Crête argues that being joyful can be a transgressive act. A reflective and immersive podcast, accompanied by songs to match.
SONG
t.o.m. ou la trajectoire des perséides, by Alphonse Bisaillon (LABE, 2026)
Don’t try to pigeonhole Alphonse Bisaillon; he won’t fit. The Maskoutain singer-songwriter released his very first album, t.o.m. ou la trajectoire des perséides, in February, and it’s as sparkling and teeming with life as its title. A true UFO (an unidentified, unruly, and ever-changing object) in our musical landscape, whose influences range from Billie Eilish to Asterix! At the age of 27, in a deft reel talk where he surveys l’avenir et moi [the future and me], Bisaillon steps back a decade, to a time when “our sky was the palette of our caps,” to recount a journey of self-affirmation and falling in love. While the album as a whole can be approached as a Hall of Mirrors of masculinity, each song is both the sum and a part. We encounter the figures of the best friend (dessins desanimés), the essayist with three initials (chroniques), and the travelling sage (Monsieur Quan), as we navigate from jazz to dubstep, without forgetting traditional music (every appearance by Éric Beaudry and David Boulanger of La Bottine Souriante, followed by his sidekick Michel Bordeleau of Les Charbonniers de l’enfer, is a gem). An inexhaustible storyteller, Bisaillon spares neither his love of words nor his theatricality, sculpting his art from the very vibrations of the unspeakable.
COMEDY
Québécois Tabarnak; Des putes et des voleurs, by Adib Alkhalidey (La Tribu, 2022, 2024)
At the intersection of music (Plexus lunaire), directing (the teen series La nuit devant nous), and comedy, Adib Alkhalidey is a happy jack-of-all-trades whose sensitivity is matched only by his humility. Both available for free online, released by Stanké, and winners of the Félix Award for Best Comedy Show, his latest stage offerings reflect his uninhibited and sharp vision. In Québécois Tabarnak, his weariness as a pandemic-era unemployed person and his identity crisis drive him to reclaim his Quebec identity, between jokes about cookies and the Taliban. “I start from the premise in life that we are all one,” he states right off the bat. “There is only one human race, and existence is a tragedy for everyone.” As for Des putes et des voleurs, he comes to realize that one can “love existing,” all while advocating universal hatred of mosquitoes, and empathy toward them. A master of digression, Alkhalidey can’t quite reconcile taxes with YOLO, but above all, like the psychiatrist Jung, he invites us to acknowledge our shadow side, so as not to live “in the illusion of [our] own light.”
