Joanne Merriam (@joannemerriam.bsky.social)

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 3:50 PM

Currently obsessed with this series of penguin videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFkv...

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 7:24 PM

Discover #SmallPress #books: This is How It Is by Sharon King-Campbell, @breakwaterbooksltd.bsky.social & Work Lunch by Lee Bains, @hubcitypress.bsky.social. See alt-text for book details.

#DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

This is How It Is by Sharon King-Campbell, Breakwater Books: Illuminating, poised, and wholly original, these poems range across the planet from New Zealand to Thailand to Newfoundland, gathering along the way voices both historical and mythological in a compelling display of dramatic empathy and poetic imagination. https://breakwaterbooks.com/products/this-is-how-it-is

Work Lunch by Lee Bains, Hub City Press: In his debut poetry collection, Alabama poet and musician Lee Bains draws on his own experience at the intersection of work and food—the daily ritual of a workday lunch. https://www.hubcity.org/books/poetry/work-lunch

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 7:19 PM

I'm always amused by the chalk graffiti in the @tridenthalifax.bsky.social bathroom

"The bad news is you're falling, and there's no parachute. The good news is, there's no ground - VICTR"

Several chalkwritten notes:

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
one end is moo, the other, milk.
- Ogden Nash

Choose peace over power.

Stop trying to make sense
Just sense and then make

What is the responsibility of a writer?

A very basic drawing of a walrus labeled "the wall-rus"

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 1:57 PM

Discover #SmallPress #books: Napier's Bones by @derrylm.bsky.social, @newestpress.bsky.social & Drawing Blood: A Paramedic Memoir by Andrew Bethune, @nimbuspub.bsky.social. See alt-text for book details.

#DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Napier's Bones by Derryl Murphy, NeWest Press: Dom is a numerate. He can see and control numbers. On the hunt for an item of immense power which he has only heard about in whispers, Dom must flee across continents to outrun the fall of dominos he has unwittingly begun and a numerate even stronger than he is. Finding unlikely companionship along the way and dodging fantastical creatures and numerical wonders Dom must find a way to save himself, his friends, and their way of life. https://bookshop.newestpress.com/products/napiers-bones

Drawing Blood: A Paramedic Memoir by Andrew Bethune, Nimbus Publishing: Paramedics help people. They are proud. But there are downsides: Working night and day, spending endless hours driving endless kilometres without sleep, food, or bathroom breaks. Drawing Blood: A Paramedic Memoir is a powerful work of narrative non-fiction by debut author Andrew Bethune. It offers razor-sharp insight into the human cost for the paramedics who bear witness to the moments when lives begin, change, or end. https://nimbus.ca/store/drawing-blood-a-paramedic-memoir.html

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 11:41 AM

Part of why these things are made to mimic human-ness (and often also femininity!) as much as possible

@nobelprize.org Oct 8, 2026, 11:07 AMReposted by @joannemerriam.bsky.social

BREAKING NEWS
The 2026 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the Canadian author Anne Carson, “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 11:46 PM

This article also features @davidlywrites.bsky.social, @mjaysmith.bsky.social, Raye Anderson, Jody Chan, Olivia Pillai Quinney, and Tanis MacDonald! #BookSky

alllitup.ca/homegrown-20...

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 11:46 PM

A mini-interview within a round-up of interviews of other authors who live in their hometowns, part of @alllitupcanada.bsky.social's Homegrown series, in which I mention several folks including @sarahemsley.bsky.social, Charles R. Saunders, @tridenthalifax.bsky.social & @tricon-hfx.bsky.social.

Screenshot from the article with the title "Aether and Ego by Joanne Merriam (Inanna Publications) Halifax, NS" with a photo on the left of Joanne smiling and holding her book in the Public Gardens and the cover of her book on the right.

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 11:46 PM

I was right in the thick of Booktoberfest + grant application deadlines at my day job last week and missed posting about this when it came out!

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 1:53 PM

Discover #SmallPress #books: Nightnursing by @tianareid.bsky.social, @gooselane.bsky.social & Narrow Rooms by Choi Sungmin, @dandq.bsky.social. See alt-text for book details.

#DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Nightnursing by Tiana Reid, Goose Lane Editions: A frenetic diary about sobriety and what recovery really means in a world where the innate need for “better” is both trauma and treatment. The poems in this nuanced collection delve into the terrible beauty of unbaked work, critical practice, and state-sanctioned care. Nightnursing simultaneously runs toward and away from reality, grappling with the gravity of memory, of remembering, of a “mind constantly rewriting what happened.” https://gooselane.com/products/nightnursing

Narrow Rooms by Choi Sungmin, Drawn & Quarterly: Narrow Rooms follows a young woman who leaves her rural hometown to study in Seoul and seek self-improvement. But once there, she quickly becomes the target of unwanted attention from her teacher, and the whispers of other students only deepen her alienation. Living in a cramped, poorly soundproofed room, the suffocating atmosphere begins to further distort her boundaries and perceptions. Longing for escape, she fixates on a handsome new neighbor, her fascination spiraling into obsession: She secretly rummages through his mailbox, collects his discarded cigarette butts and teabags, and hoards his trash. But when she discovers something unsavory about the object of her desire, will she be forced to confront the morals of her own behavior? https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/narrow-rooms/

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 6:41 PM

Captain America saying “I understood that reference”

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 6:38 PM

Wow that’s bonkers! 🤯🫠

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 12:22 AM

Obviously-AI email from "Book Marketer | Ten Years of Experience" "Lindy" (no last name) assumes I'll pay for crap advice like my book should have a different cover (I do not control the cover - my publisher does - and also my cover is gorgeous thank you) because it doesn't have a spaceship on it. 🤦‍♀️

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 11:28 PM

just a reminder this thing exists

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 1:34 PM

Discover #SmallPress #books: Discover #SmallPress #books: One Soft Infested Summer by Matthew Heiti, @latitude46pub.bsky.social & Silencio by Clyo Mendoza, translated by Christina MacSweeney, @sevenstories.bsky.social. See alt-text for book details.

#DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

One Soft Infested Summer by Matthew Heiti, Latitude 46 Publishing: ‪Brothers Milo and Woe—gifted with strange psychic abilities—must confront the malevolent force threatening to consume their once idyllic neighbourhood of Kinder Hill. Children are disappearing and they can help. Fast forward to 2019, Miller Hackney—a failed writer and failing member of the human race—abandons his final novel to chase a faceless child in a green raincoat through the alleys and subway tunnels of Toronto. These two stories, seemingly worlds and decades apart, are drawn inexorably to a collision at the bottom of all labyrinths. https://store.latitude46publishing.com/products/one-soft-infested-summer

Silencio by Clyo Mendoza, translated by Christina MacSweeney, Seven Stories Press: A lyrically haunting and powerful account of women surviving femicide and destruction in Mexico, using fantasy to relate atrocities that exist beyond language. https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4841-silencio

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 7:23 PM

I'm sure we will! And I'm so glad you like the photo <3

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 7:22 PM

Great, thanks O_o

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 7:19 PM

York Redoubt National Historic Site #hike today with Dave and our friend Jessica. The cannons are part of the Halifax Defence Complex fortifications. Really great hike and perfect crisp fall weather!

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 6:01 PM

Booktoberfest is an annual book fair by @writersfedofns.bsky.social, with satellite events, incl. Carol Bruneau's launch (1st pic) and my conversation with @julianmortsmith.bsky.social in Yarmouth (second 2 pics). Pic 4: @catrector.com, 5: Jan Morrison, & 6: me with poet Tegan Zimmerman! #BookSky

@joannemerriam.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 11:25 PM

I said "Pride and Prejudice" today instead of "Christmas" because apparently my brain was empty and just picked up the closest thing with an "iss" sound at the end.