Our Canadian Literature shelf brings together major national writers alongside smaller regional voices who never achieved wide distribution outside their own province. It is a good place to find both well-known novels and poetry collections that were printed by small Canadian presses and have since gone out of print entirely.

We pay particular attention to Alberta and Western Canadian writers, along with fiction and poetry that draws directly on mountain and prairie landscapes, which tends to resonate strongly with our local and visiting customers alike.

Because small-press Canadian poetry in particular is often printed in runs of only a few hundred copies, this section is one where a used bookstore can genuinely outperform what is available through a general retailer, new or used.

We also stock literary anthologies gathering shorter Canadian fiction and poetry, useful for readers wanting a broad sample of voices before committing to a full collection from any single author.

This shelf sees particular interest from book clubs and reading groups based in Canmore and the surrounding valley, several of which have made a habit of choosing a Canadian title each season.

They tend to come to us first, both for the book itself and for whatever background reading, criticism, interviews, or an author’s earlier work, we can suggest alongside it.

• Major Canadian novelists
• Poetry from national and regional presses
• Western Canadian and Alberta voices
• Mountain and prairie landscape writing
• Short fiction collections
• Literary anthologies
• Small-press and limited-run editions
• Prize-listed Canadian fiction

Small-press Canadian poetry rarely gets a second printing, so a collection that catches your eye here is genuinely worth picking up when you see it. There is no guarantee it will still be on the shelf, or findable anywhere else, on a return visit.

We try to flag particularly scarce titles when we can, but our own knowledge of what has gone permanently out of print is not exhaustive, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

If your group needs several copies of the same title, tell us early. Used stock arrives one copy at a time, so gathering four or five matching copies usually takes a few weeks rather than a single visit.

We can also mix editions where that is acceptable to your group, which is often the fastest route to having everyone reading the same book at the same time.