In The Trenches: The Best of subTerrain represents ten years of alternative writing, as featured on the pages of Vancouver's literary renegade magazine, subTerrain. In The Trenches features works of poetry, fiction and commentary by innumerable talented emerging writers, many of whom have since gone on to become established Canadian authors. Included is work by: Derek McCormack, Steven Heighton, Helene Littmann, Elise Levine, Grant Buday, Dianne Warren, Mark Anthony Jarman, Bud Osborn, Sophia Kaszuba, Michael Turner, Mark Cochrane, Joanne Arnott, Dennis E. Bolen, Tamas Dobozy and many others, plus commentary by the editors.

Brian Kaufman has worked for years in the Vancouver art scene as a playwright, editor, and publisher. He founded the internationally known literary magazine subTerrain.

Steven Heighton is the author of nine books, including the bestselling novel, The Shadow Boxer (published in five countries); essays: The Admen Move on Lhasa; and poetry: 1995 Governor General's Award finalist The Ecstasy of Skeptic and Stalin's Carnival. He lives in Kingston, Ontario. The Shadow Boxer was published in the New Face of Fiction program in 2000. Afterlands, his second novel, has just appeared with Knopf Canada and will soon appear in the USA, Britain and Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The debut work by Sun Belt is a genre-bending almanac depicting the rise and fall of a company town that, within the span of a century, becomes a desert wasteland. A full-length album of dusty, surreal songs by the Sun Belt music ensemble both informs and is informed by a blend of transcripts, photographs, micro fictions, wildlife plates, film stills, costume designs, environmental reports and other invented artefacts. The result is a multimedia portrait of a mythic place closer tohome than we'd like-and an artistic collaboration that defies categorization. Sun Belt is an interdisciplinary group of writers, musicians, illustrators, video and theatre artists whose mission is to make innovative, experimental works that aspire to the visionary. A History is the group?s first release. The songs: Fort Iquique North Country of Madmen Karnas Camarena Plateau So Far the Stars Champion the Wonder Horse Daddy-o Cabalcor Pale Destroyer Red Bird Fort Iquique South

Sun Belt members include: Rick Maddocks, author of Sputnik Diner (Knopf Canada), former singer-songwriter for The Beige, and the composer of the experimental opera The Meal presented at the PuSh Festival and Vancouver's Pacific Theatre. He teaches creative writing at Douglas College. Carrie Walker, a Vancouver-based artist whose practice is strongly rooted in drawing, often employing images of non-human animals as metaphors for the human animal. She has exhibited her drawings in NewYork, London, Los Angeles and Vancouver. Stephen Lyons, a Juno-award winning musician/writer whose iconoclastic work is at the forefront of Vancouver's creative music scene. Known mainly as the leader of the seven-piece avant-rock group, Fond of Tigers, Lyons is also a noted producer and presenter of experimental music. Florence Barrett , a costume designer whose recent theatre credits include: To Wear a Heart so White (Leaky Heaven Circus), Visions of Vancouver (Pi Theatre), El Jinete (Puente Theatre), Foreign Radical (Theatre Conspiracy). Film credits include; Eadweard (Motion 58) Patterns of Liquid Stars (Chien Productions) and Pas De Deux (O'Shea Pictures). Other members include Spanish-based illustrator Sandra Carvalho González, songwriter Jon Wood, multimedia artist Justine Gabias, and Grammy-nominated musician and composer Paul Rigby.

Rose Dubois and Julie O'Brien find themselves on a burning roof together, on a summer's day, and from then on their fates intertwine, in a world where the natural force that is the changing climate foreshadows and encourages their predestined suffering. Rose and Julie's submissive love for the same man, Charles, creates in them an arms race of artificial beauty and debasement. The first in their common obsession for plastic surgery and their attempts to be the avatar for the perfect female, and possess the perfect female organ; the second in their acceptance of Charles' objectifying sexual fetishes, his love for women as pieces of meat, and controlling nature. However, both women, in this competition, realize that to accept being nothing more than an object, to kneel and grovel before you persecutor, you become his executioner. In the end, Charles will not survive his own obsessions and his desires, which he loathes, which will be his downfall and, ultimately, his death.

Nelly Arcan was born in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Her first novel Putain (2001); English: Whore (2004), drawing on her experience working in the sex trade in Montreal, caused a sensation and enjoyed immediate critical and media success. It was a finalist for both the Prix Médicis and the Prix Femina, two of France's most prestigious literary awards. Three more novels followed establishing her as a literary star in Quebec and France: Folle (2004), also nominated for the Prix Femina, À ciel ouvert (2007), and L'enfant dans le miroir (2007). Paradis, clef en main, her fourth novel, was completed just days before she committed suicide in 2009 at the age of thirty-six. Born, bred and raised in Montreal, Jacob Homel has translated or collaborated in the translation of a number of works, including Toqué: Creators of a Quebec Gastronomy, The Last Genêt and The Weariness of the Self. In 2012, he won the JI Segal Translation Prize for his translation of A Pinch of Time. He shares his time between Montreal and Asia.

Dwight Eliot was born on a baseball diamond, during a dugout-clearing brawl between his hometown team, The Seep Selects, and a team of barnstorming Cuban All Stars. Decades later, when he sees his childhood home being moved on a truck down the highway, he begins a quest to research the history of his hometown and of his family. Seep is being dismantled, and the land is being redeveloped as a master-planned recreational townsite to complement a nearby First Nations casino. And then his brother Darryl arrives on his doorstep with the force of a bus crash. In the face of the town's erasure, he tries to preserve its stories; so doing, he comes to question his own. Seep limns the tension between land development and landscape, trauma and nostalgia, dysfunction and intimacy in a narrative of twenty-first century Canada. Praise for Seep: "Mark Giles assuredly steps in the footsteps of his predecessors who so engagingly limned the Alberta prairie: W.O. Mitchell, Henry Kreisel,W.P. Kinsella, and Robert Kroetsch. Giles' Seep is a wickedly wonderful account of how our senses of self and of place can be interrelated, with the swirl of emotions involved in each part of the equation making for a complicated world and illuminating fiction." (Tom Wayman)

After many years mired in the middle-management muddle of transnational corporations, he now is a writer and an educator. His first book Knucklehead (Anvil Press) was honoured with the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award. His writing (fiction, poetry, and non-fiction) has appeared in magazines in both Canada and the U.S.A. Saskatchewan-born, Edmonton-raised, with stops in Victoria, Kelowna, Montreal, and Halifax, W. Mark Giles now calls Calgary home.

At times comic, tender, dark, compassionate, and arrestingly bizarre, Gary Barwin's latest fiction collection marvels at the strangeness, charm, and beauty that is contemporary life in the quantum world. Raging from short story to postcard fiction, Barwin's stories are mysterious, luminous, hilarious, and surprising. A billionaire falls in love with a kitchen appliance, a couple share a pair of legs, a pipeline-size hair is given the Nobel Prize only so that it can be taken away, a father remembers with tenderness, the radiant happiness of his teenage child, trapped inside his body. As the Utne Reader said of his last collection, "what makes them so compelling is Barwin's balance of melancholy with wide-eyed wonder."

Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multimedia artist, and educator and the author of 17 books of poetry and fiction as well as books for both teens and children. His most recent poetry collection is Moon Baboon Canoe (Mansfield Press, 2014.) A novel, Yiddish for Pirates will appear with Random House Canada in 2016. Sonosyntactics: Selected and New Poetry of Paul Dutton, introduced and edited by Barwin, will appear from Wilfrid Laurier University Press in spring 2015. Barwin is the winner of the 2013 City of Hamilton Arts Award (Writing), the Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year 2011, and co-winner of 2011 Harbourfront Poetry NOW competition.

Kevin Spenst's much-anticipated debut collection of poetry opens as a coming-of-age narrative of lower-middle class life in Vancouver's suburb of Surrey, embroidered within a myriad of pop-culture and "post-Mennonite." Jabbering with Bing Bong interrogates memory and makes its way into the urban energies of Vancouver. Language is at play with sit-com sonnets and soundscapes of noise; videogame goombas and an Old-Testament God; teenage longing within the power chords of heavy metal andthe complicated loss of a father to schizophrenia. Jabbering with Bing Bong, chronicles the heartbreaking and slapstick pursuit of truth in the realms of religion, mental health, and poetic form itself. The poems in Jabbering with Bing Bong are formally inventive, emotionally charged, and teeming with ideas. "Belief and disbelief rub up against each other in this startling and flawless debut collection by Kevin Spenst. Jabbering with Bing Bong's urban and suburban-scapes vibrate with a controlled hysteria; a music at turns ebullient, ribald, somber. These important poems do not redeem so much as allow the possibility of redemption: ‘Sometimes words/mean nothing and everything. Open your mouth and see.'" (Jen Currin) "In Jabbering with Bing Bong, Kevin Spenst playfully-and masterfully-confronts the preacher of the urban pastoral. For us, he gives a deserved and surreal middle finger to the comic absurdity of the evangelist. Infused with 80s pop culture, folklore, psychology, and thetransient mythos of the changing 'nonesuch' of place and people, Spenst's poems platform a don't-mess-with-me feistiness and versatility. Fearless, attentively probing, and sonically sharp, he is a rare counter-theosophist rhapsodist. His poems reveal the labour of an unyielding, gentle soul. Indeed, Spenst's Jabbering... is the work of a remarkable shepherd." (Sandra Ridley) "Inside a twisted TV-to-organism takeover, Kevin Spenst provides further proof that the best writing these days is in the practice of poetry. Hang on tight as you are winged deftly through the human strains...curiosity, sexuality, death, religion and striving, it's all here. 'Best of all you can jump towards the heavens on the trampoline in bouncing rain.' Something for everyone: a story of Surrey as a history of traffic; family life of the scruffily psychotic; the phrenology of things that go David Lynch in the draft beer night; and gibberish too!" (Dennis E. Bolen, author of Black Liquor, Anticipated Results)"Charged with energy and delivered with confidence, Jabbering with Bing Bong is a compelling read. Kevin Spenst's muscular vocabulary, vigorous pace and nimble references to cultural details enliven his exploration of topics ranging from adolescence to God to Fenris wolf. Skepticism is offset with humour and compassion, and holding it all together is grief for a dead father whose troubled life still haunts the son and informs his writing." (Sarah Klassen)

In addition to the UK, the United States, Austria and India, Kevin Spenst's poetry has appeared in over a dozen Canadian literary publications. In April and May of 2014 Kevin Spenst did a 100-venue reading tour of Canada in support of small poetry presses with his chapbooks Pray Goodbye (the Alfred Gustav Press, 2013), Retractable (the serif of nottingham, 2013), Happy Hollow and the Surrey Suite (self-published, 2012), What the Frag Meant (100 têtes press, 2014) and Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press, 2014).

Foreign Park situates itself in an epoch where prior assurances of the natural world's solidity begin to slip. Poisons enter the Fraser River Basin. An oil slick approaches by night engulfing a fishing vessel, leaving its captain in open waters. Page after page, Foreign Park makes strange with its inhabitants. As it unfolds, it plots itself along the Fraser River overlaying myth and historicity with present day. These calm poems detail the effects of destruction on land and simultaneously explore family and community in Vancouver's coastal cityscape. Foreign Park guides through subtle shifts in temperature and elevation in order to engage with questions on death, ageing, family and fidelity. "Jeff Steudel's Foreign Park measures an immediate world through the palpable juxtapositions of the local, what's close to hand, organic flashes of the day's objects that can be touched. The 'foreignicity' of his poetic park reveals the paradox of where and how we live, that in-between margin in the world where we 'don't need to know everything' and Every five minutes together [is] a new world. These poems shimmer in their aliveness." (Fred Wah)

Jeff Steudel's poetry has appeared in several publications including, PRISM international, CV2, The Fiddlehead, subTerrain, and Canadian Literature. He has received the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, and his work was chosen as a finalist for the CBC Literary Awards. Foreign Park is his first book of poetry. He lives in Vancouver.

In her compelling debut poetry collection, shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award, Melissa Bull explores the familial, romantic, and sexual ties that bind lives to cities. Rue takes us through its alleys, parks, and kitchens with a robust lyricism and language that is at once inventive and plainspoken, compassionate and frank. In English, to rue is to regret; in French, la rue is the street – Rue's poems provide the venue for moments of both recollection and motion. Punctuated withneologisms and the bilingual dialogue of Montreal, the collection explores the author's upbringing in the working-class neighbourhood of St. Henri with her artist mother, follows her travels, friendships, and loves across North America, Europe, and Russia, and recounts her journalist father's struggles with terminal brain cancer. Inspired by powerful Quebec talents like Nelly Arcan, Marie-Sissy Labrèche, playwright Annick Lefebvre, Canadians poets Elizabeth Bachinsky, Nikki Reimer and David McGimpsey, Melissa Bull brings an unflinching new feminist voice to the Canadian literary scene.

Melissa Bull is a writer, editor and translator based in Montreal. Her writing has been featured in Event, Matrix, Lemon Hound, Broken Pencil, The Montreal Review of Books, Playboy and Maisonneuve. She has translated such authors as Kim Thuy, Évelyne de la Chenlière, Raymond Bock, Alexandre Soublière and Maude Smith Gagnon for various publications, including Maisonneuve, where she is the editor of the Writing from Quebec column. She recently translated a collection of essays and articles by Nelly Arcan, entitled Burqa of Skin (Anvil, 2014). Melissa is currently pursuing her MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Rue is her debut collection of poetry.

Never before have as many outrageous and out-sized characters appeared in one place at the same time. Words like rogues, rascals, rapscallions, reprobates and rodomontades don't completely describe these individuals; they are more than each or any combination thereof. They are scalawags. People who claim to push the envelope are stamped, sealed and delivered compared with this bunch. They may be conmen or conwomen, adventurers, fabulists and/or delusional but they all share the extremepassion for life – always more Life! Some are of the modern era, some go way back, but their lust and spirit link them throughout the ages. This book, like its predecessor, Scalawags: Rogues, Roustabouts, Wags & Scamps, is devoted to the celebration of that passion that refuses to be stifled by convention. These lovable but mostly disreputable men and women are scalawags, too. Read about the adventurous lives and wild exploits of Caroline Otero, Andre Malraux, Lord Timothy Dexter, Suzanne Valadon, William Hunt, Mata Hari, Emma Hamilton, Bata Kindai Amgoza, and many more in this second volume of Scalawags! Praise for Scalawags: Rogues, Roustabouts, Wags & Scamps: "Christy's work reminds us that losers are cool, that the middle-of-the-road might be smoother but the ditches are more interesting, and that every rounder has a good story to to tell." (The Globe and Mail) "If the proverb is correct and a life lived in fear is a life half lived, then these unapologetic oddballs knew nothing of doubt and fear. ... Christy's short biographies highlight the salacious and the sensational with wit and aplomb." (The Westender) "These are larger-than-life characters in stranger-than-fiction stories. ... It's perfectly suited to those times when you're seeking a momentary escape. There's nothing like outrageous lives and flamboyant characters to take you out of the dreary day-to-day." (Robert Wiersema, The Vancouver Sun) "Christy's style is wry, conversational and witty." (The Star)

Jim Christy is a writer, artist, and tireless traveller. The author of more than thirty books, including poetry, short stories, novels, travel, and biography, his travels have taken him from the Yukon to the Amazon, Greenland to Cambodia. He has covered wars and exhibited his art internationally. Raised in inner city Philadelphia, he moved to Toronto when he was twenty-three years old and became a Canadian citizen at the first opportunity. His most recent books are the fragmentary memoir, Sweet Assorted (Anvil Press, 2012) and the poetry title, The Big Thirst (2014). A resident of British Columbia's Sunshine Coast for many years, he currently lives near Belleville, Ontario.

Further Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer is a continuation of the columns and essays that comprised Stuart's 2005 release, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer. Again, equal parts literary memoir, reckless tirade, and unsolicited advice for the aspiring writer, Further Confessions is drawn largely from Stuart Ross's notorious "Hunkamooga" column, his blog entries, essays for subTerrain magazine and other online venues. We bring them together here in their collected brilliance: alternately snarky, sincere, touching, honest, and always opinionated, Stuart's "confessions" are essential reading for any literary confessional. This volume offers its readers a roller-coaster journey into the mind of one of Canada's most committed small press activists. Praise for Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer, vol. 1: "Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer is a wonderful book-funny, outrageous, and acute. I'll even say it's the best short-essay collection about the writing life I've read in ages." (Lynne Van Luven, Malahat Review) "For a quick and dirty breath of fresh air, it's difficult to beat renegade urban poet Stuart Ross's latest effort, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer ... No reformed baby boomer or slumming trust-funder, Ross has the battle scars and knows poetry isn't about flowers and meadows, it's about blood and guts." (Stephen Knight, Quill & Quire) "The book is a must for anyone working as a poet in Canada, with standout pieces on the politics ofwriting for free, open mic readings, poetic bitterness, chapbook and ‘zine publishing, and the requisite but never-funnier grouch advice to young poets, salubriously titled ‘Stop Bugging Me Already!'" (Prairie Fire) "...no pulled punches here ... this is writing that works because, as with all good confessions, it's from the heart but comes by way of the brain." (Vancouver Review)

Stuart Ross has been involved in literary publishing for over thirty-five years. He maintains his own micropress, Proper Tales, and is the co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and a founding member of the Meet the Presses collective. Stuart is the author of nine books of poetry, two story collections, a previous book of personal essays, two collaborative novels, and a solo novel. He has given writing workshops across the country and, for the past two decades, has edited books for both literary and trade publishers. Stuart has his own imprint at Mansfield Press. He was the 2010 Writer in Residence at Queen's University, and the same year he won the ReLit Prize for Short Fiction for Buying Cigarettes for the Dog. In 2012, he was co-winner of the Mona Elaine Adilman Award for Fiction on a Jewish Theme for his novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew, and in 2013 he was awarded the sole prize to an anglophone writer by l'Académie de la vie littéraire au tournant du 21e siècle for his poetry collection You Exist. Details Follow. Stuart lives in Cobourg, Ontario, and blogs at bloggamooga.blogspot.ca.