Big thanks to all the readers who’ve borrowed The Fall-Down Effect!

@lpgcanada.bsky.social · last wk.

Thanks to BookNet Canada's #librarydata, here are the 50 books from indie lit publishers Canadians borrowed most in August '26. Ft. top 10 from @biblioasis.bsky.social, @invisibooks.bsky.social, @ecwpress.bsky.social, @coachhousebooks.bsky.social, and @arsenalpulp.bsky.social.

Thank you to all the library users who borrowed and read Canadian independently published books in August, including The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social and Olga Ravn's The Employees and The Wax Child!

@lpgcanada.bsky.social · last wk.

Thanks to BookNet Canada's #librarydata, here are the 50 books from indie lit publishers Canadians borrowed most in August '26. Ft. top 10 from @biblioasis.bsky.social, @invisibooks.bsky.social, @ecwpress.bsky.social, @coachhousebooks.bsky.social, and @arsenalpulp.bsky.social.

The Word On The Street is right around the corner! toronto.thewordonthestreet.ca

Rooted Narrative (she/her)@newagegoddess.bsky.social · 2w ago

With panels covering everything from horror and romance to thrillers and mysteries, there’s something for every type of reader. 📍 David Pecaut Square, 215 King St W 📅 September 26–27, 2026 🎟️ FREE admission

so much of the time what's meant disparagingly by "woke" is accepting broadly established historical facts & asserting that some measure of justice or change should now take place

“I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth. The only truth I can understand or express is, logically defined, a lie. Psychologically defined, a symbol. Aesthetically defined, a metaphor.” ―Ursula K. Le Guin

Our editor-in-chief Tom Ley remembers Soraya Roberts: defector.com/soraya-rober...

Soraya Roberts Was A Great Critic And A Great Hang | Defector

A not-insignificant part of my job is fielding phone calls from freelance writers who have questions. The questions can vary—Have you heard of any job openings? Are you interested in this pitch? An…

defector.com

Wow looking at all the food borne illnesses and recalls in the states I'm really glad that @mark-carney.bsky.social didn't do the EXACT SAME FUCKING THING. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

587 jobs to be cut at Canadian Food Inspection Agency

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency will cut 587 positions as part of the federal government’s move to reduce the size of the public service by 28,000 positions by 2029.

ctvnews.ca

The Fall-Down Effect is "constructed like a piece of Shaker furniture. The point-of-view shifts throughout the book dovetail so smoothly that readers wouldn’t feel a joint if they could touch them.” Julia Lichtblau on @lizjohnston.bsky.social debut for The Common. thecommononline.org/what-it-take...

What It Takes To Save the Trees and the Birds: Review of The Fall-Down Effect and Field Notes from an Extinction

JULIA LICHTBLAU <br> The story is told through several narrative devices, primarily Green’s notebook entries, interspersed with newspaper clippings, which feed the mystery at the center of the book. T...

thecommononline.org

“We really have to get off fossil fuels.” Wildfires this summer have displaced many in Canada — and even burned down entire communities. Fire scientist Mike Flannigan spoke with us on data he’s collected about wildfires in B.C. — and what we can do in both the short- and long-term.

I will keep posting these videos on bike lanes that Ford is threatening to remove daily until morale improves. Today we are on Bloor at Brunswick, during afternoon rush hour on a Wednesday. No congestion to be found. 38 bikes and 25 cars over 2 light cycles.

if avoiding an AI future constitutes a ‘generational L’ then christ just let me take the L www.patreon.com/raxkingisdea...

Matt Gabriele@profgabriele.com · 3w ago

Extremely tired of people who profit from this telling the rest of the world that it’s inevitable and no you’re the myopic one

So grateful to Julia Lichtblau for this brilliant reading of The Fall-Down Effect alongside Eoghan Walls's Field Notes from an Extinction. (cc @bookhugpress.bsky.social, @riverstreetwriting.bsky.social)

The Common@commonmag.bsky.social · 3w ago

"What’s one species, they say, compared to my precious convenience? Trees and birds do their bit for the ecosystem merely by existing." Julia Lichtblau reviews "The Fall-Down Effect" by Liz Johnston and "Field Notes from an Extinction" by Eoghan Walls. Read it below!

Thanks to Kerry Clare for this review!

@bookhugpress@bookhugpress.bsky.social · 3w ago

“This is a book about both climate disaster and family disaster, the difficulty of engaging with reality as opposed to the stories we tell ourselves..." Kerry Clare reviews The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social for Pickle Me This. picklemethis.com/2026/08/14/t...

When you read a book only a fraction of what you get from the experience is the information in the book. The vast majority of what comes from reading is a new experience of yourself that comes to exist in relation to the book’s unique patterns.

FeelsZine is now open for submissions on the theme BELONGING, CA$25 honorarium feelszine.com/pages/submis...

Hurray! Just received the new issue of @thenewquarterly.bsky.social, which includes my swimming essay, “Individual Medley,” alongside work by pals and so many writers I admire. What an incredible lineup of contributors! Excited to dive in this weekend, preferably by a lake.

Like all Canadian government surveys on AI, this is hilariously pro-AI. But it only takes like 5 minutes to fill out, and at the end you can make it clear that the only focus of the government when it comes to AI and culture is that Canadian artists need copyright protections from AI scraping.

Sonja Boon@storiedselves.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Canadian arts and culture folks: the federal government has launched a (methodologically flawed) survey on "the Cultural Sector's readiness for Artificial Intelligence". If you're ready to resist or refuse genAI, here's your chance to let them know. pch.research-recherche.ca/f/s.aspx?lan...

"Whatever grew back would not equal what had been lost.” The Fall-Down Effect by @lizjohnston.bsky.social is reviewed by Grace Henkel for the Literary Review of Canada. reviewcanada.substack.com/p/bookworm-n...

Apparently biting, snarky comments on rigged surveys can sometimes sway the powers that be.

Toronto Star@thestar.com · 2mo ago

#Breaking: Federal government grounds Billy Bishop airport expansion

Every letter. Every post. Every sign. Every call. It all counted.

Adam Radwanski@aradwanski.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Worth remembering: The feds were initially more favourable than not toward some manner of Billy Bishop expansion, but then left it to Doug Ford to make the case, and…here we are.

Guys holy shit we're two for two here. Friday night collective action results getting kiiiiiiind of addictive.

Billy Bishop Airport expansion plans halted by federal government

Plans to extend Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport have been halted by the federal government, according to Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon.

ctvnews.ca

Yesterday it felt like 40+ C in Toronto. Today it's cooler... because smoke from the wildfire that has obliterated Collins First Nation in northern Ontario is blocking the sun. Seems like time to re-up my column from last year on the summertime blues. thenarwhal.ca/seasonal-dep...

I have seasonal depression in the summer now | The Narwhal

Extreme heat, wildfires and pests — fuelled by climate change — threaten to make summer the worst season in Canada. It’s time to talk about it

thenarwhal.ca

Zadie Smith's obsessions. Read more in Brick's Summer issue! brickmag.com/obsessions/

If you continue to defend this government, this PM, that pushes for water-wasting AI data centres while doing backflips to deny Indigenous people water, wtaf is wrong with you?

Mary Grace@emgeekay.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Carney's government asserts that "... there is absolutely no right to safe drinking water on reserve...asserting that First Nations’ interest in their own reserve land doesn't include water because "water is not attached to land, but flows under and around it." www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...

Shut down Canada's plans to lead and host the global headquarters of the newly announced DSRB war bank. We must oppose this new institution designed to fund and accelerate a global arms race and funnel public money directly to arms manufacturers. actionnetwork.org/letters/stop...

Stop the Global War Bank: Not in Toronto, Not in Canada, Not on this Planet

Shut down Canada's plans to lead and host the global headquarters of the newly announced DSRB war bank. Take action now to oppose this new financial institution, the first of its kind, designed to fun...

actionnetwork.org

With the 2026 Creative Nonfiction and Translated Literature Subscription Package, you’ll receive every envelope-pushing, formally inventive, and utterly original work in these two categories that we’ll publish throughout the year, all at a 25% discount. bookhugpress.ca/shop/books/s...

2026 Creative Nonfiction and Translated Literature Subscription | Book*hug Press

If there are two areas of publishing we particularly love here at Book*hug, it's creative nonfiction and translations. With the 2026 Creative Nonfiction and Translated Literature Subscription Package,...

bookhugpress.ca

In my latest newsletter, I give thanks for a whirlwind two months since launching my debut novel—and for things slowing down as summer begins for real. open.substack.com/pub/lizdsjoh...

Settling Back into Regular Life

Reflections two months after launching The Fall-Down Effect

open.substack.com

if you love this world. they will use it to kill you but you must love this world. because it is ours if you love this world. they will despise you because you remind them. how little they have the power to end a life is nothing. all things die the love to keep things living. is what will save us

Philip Gourevitch@pgourevitch.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"She used to talk about the beach like it was a person. Her bond to the sunset, her bond to the water and the turtles….she was really into conservation, and into the soul, the spirit of conservation." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wanna hang out in London on July 16th? 7:00pm at Little Wren Books 502 Adelaide Street N., London, ON @lizjohnston.bsky.social Aga Maksimowksa, Jennifer LoveGrove and Alison Gadsby chat about their recent books.

“A representative of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute says it looks like the expansion might be a done deal, and any further consultation is just ‘window dressing’”

TheTrillium.ca@thetrillium.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Indigenous group seeking consultation, records on Billy Bishop expansion plans