Simon Thibault

Hey, as a librarian I need to tell you:

Our funding depends on usage.

So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.

hoke cherries, painted by william henry prestele, 1894

hoke cherries, painted by william henry prestele, 1894

The interviews were done for a *specific* audience. Even if I wasn't wholly part of that audience, it demonstrated HOW to engage with a different lens and lexicon. I still appreciate that, firmly, reading them again over 25 years later.

Tell me publications that did this for you. (3/3)

The reader/writer in me needed to see alternative forms of publishing, and seeing the audience for them. The fact that these books existed, meant that other people like me. They articulated it so I could too.

22 yr old me found Diamanda Galas, bell hooks, Kathy Acker, etc. (2/3)

How many of you have read the Re/Search Publications books? I recently dug out my copy of "Angry Women," and the queer kid who came to be during the AIDS crisis needed this book so much. (1/3)

Access Copyright Foundation Invests $60,000 Into Professional Development Access Copyright Foundation, an arm’s length foundation of Access Copyright, is excited to announce the Canadian creators, publishers and organizations who have been awarded Professional Development G...

Access Copyright Foundation, an arm’s length foundation of Access Copyright, is excited to announce the Canadian creators, publishers and organizations who have been awarded Professional Development Grants for 2025. www.acfoundation.ca/2025/08/06/a...

italian stone pine, painted by deborah griscom passmore, 1908

italian stone pine, painted by deborah griscom passmore, 1908

Announcements! Calls for collaborators, sources, etc… Updated 8/6/25: NEW! I’m working on an exciting project with some illustrious co-conspirators, the full details of which will become evident to all, soon enough … For now, I’m interested in receiving recommendations of books written by a trans and queer authors that you feel were overlooked by the NYT book review between ~2013 - 2022 (under Pamela Paul’s leadership). If you are an author and you feel your book was overlooked, feel free to write me (or let me know on Bluesky). If you are a reader and you want to recommend a queer- or trans-authored book you adore that again the NYT did not review when it was released during this time-frame, again please feel free to let me know, either via this site or on Bluesky. If you’re a book reviewer and you want to pitch a book to review for the aforementioned series, please pitch me via email. If you’re interested in reviewing a book: Send me a paragraph or two explaining why this book in particular (not much longer). Please share a brief bio for yourself and a website. Also include a couple of your best clips, ideally previously published book reviews. Please reach out via my contact form. This is a paid opportunity; I’m just coordinating on behalf of the publication; they’re saying $250 per ~800 - 1000 word review (and we’ll be assigning many so please tell your friends about this too, if they’re also book reviewers). We may have some flexibility, depending on what the outlet decides. I will discuss further specifics with those whose pitches we follow up with. Thank you! No set deadline yet but send in submissions ASAP as our budget is finite and we’ll start assigning pieces soon.

hey good morning, this is gonna be a thread

attn: queer/trans writers/readers especially:

just want to announce this all again, because I've added some more specifics to this page:

www.sandyernestallen.com/announcements

Bumblebee sleeping in Queen Anne’s Lace. This is what I needed to see on this walk.

If your company’s AI can be used to create nude images of nonconsenting people then you should be subject to massive civil liabilities IMO.

The Honesty Boxes of Scotland Podcast Episode · The Kitchen Sisters Present · 2025-08-05 · 26m

As someone who was raised in a community with honesty boxes (and still uses them!) this piece by @kitchensisters.bsky.social speaks to me on so many levels.

It’s not a rural thing: it’s about community, and what is valued by them.

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Fab!

⭐️ SHORTLISTED ⭐️

Congratulations to Sarah Cox for Signs of Life making the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society shortlist for their Book Awards for BC Authors contest! 🌳

@sarahkcox.bsky.social

Love this feed, love these paintings, love this fruit.

champion plums, painted by harriet l. thompson, 1915

champion plums, painted by harriet l. thompson, 1915

The Japan issue is my fave. So. Fucking. Good.

Bonus points:
- Still a great read
- interesting to see what has changed in food media and what has remained
- this issue is going for up to $75 in certain stores (not that I would sell it)

A copy of Fool Magazine, issue 3, held in the foreground. American chef Sean Brock is on the cover. In the background, à bookshelf full of magazines and books.

The double-edged sword of buying books and magazines for the love of them:
- oooh, this looks interesting. I like having the option to read this later
- later is 10-12 years.

Case in point, this issue of Fool Magazine I bought in 2013. (At least I read all the Saveur issues in the background)

Got up early to bake.
Made shortbread biscuit dough yesterday (100% whole grain wheat flour, with high fat butter I found from an Italian gent), and rolled and baked it today.

It is now past ten, so time for black coffee and a biscuit.

That's exactly it. Labelling laws are loose when it comes to food, and "Canadian" foods can be named/labelled/coded as such, even if much of the raw materials are produced elsewhere. It's often based on percentages. Ex: coffee beans produced elsewhere, roasted in Canada, so considered a CDN product.

Botanik illustration from historical archives

🌱 Handbuch der pharmaceutischen botanik.
Nürnberg, Stein'sche buchhandlung, 1804.

[Source]

Famer doesn’t have snap peas? Buy something else. Don’t go get them at your big store.
Change your meals, with what is offered. Supporting that farmer doesn’t mean only supporting when they have what you want.

Learn to expand what you can cook, can enjoy.

And that informed decision making also extends as to
-how we use the food we buy
- understand the work that goes into food production (including ecological and economic impacts)

Don’t just use your purchasing power, use your resources: time, knowledge, and skill.

The other thing in this discussion that is often missing is that shopping, like voting, is best done with INFORMED DECISIONS.

Appreciate this, and yes, buy local. But beyond passive/lazy labelling in stores, there is also the fact that CDN labelling laws also permit foods that have been processed/assembled in Canada to be considered to be CDN foods, hence why they may have had the maple leaf

Pride Book Fair vendor list Saturday, July 26 12-3 pm At the Pink Piano Cafe Chad Lucas Arwen Falvey Vivian Zhou Fabien Barabe Kate Phillips Bruce Bishop Intersecting Futures Lab The Q Creative Network Buffering Millenial Sorixean Chaotic Cape & Cowl Comics Free entry! Door prize draws! With support from Halifax Pride

I’ll be at the Pride Book Fair today at the Pink Piano in Lower Sackville from 12-3. Come check it out! #halisky #halifaxpride

If you’re there this weekend, the Keanding Conference is happening in Skowhegan Baked goods galore

tioga apples, painted by mary daisy arnold, 1913

tioga apples, painted by mary daisy arnold, 1913

Saturday morning. Red currants, blackcurrants, raspberries, and jostaberries (à cross between blackcurrant and gooseberries).

The “Garlic Nerds” Building a Better Allium - Offrange Garlic ranks high on our list of beloved ingredients — meet the die-hard enthusiasts who are obsessed with improving it.

I started thinking about garlic in December, so it's thrilling to see this story out in the world 7 months later. thanks especially to Offrange mastermind @jessehirsch.bsky.social for letting this one go long & into strange corners (also, the art! 🧄)

ambrook.com/offrange/cro...