MICHAEL BLOUIN

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE 
Combines the true story of Canadian daredevil and stunt driver Ken Carter (1938-1983) with imagined biographical elements from the lives of Canadian film director Bruce McDonald and Canadian poet Gillian Sze.  "Michael Blouin has written a brilliant and complex narrative that vacillates through fractured prose. I Don't Know How to Behave is notably reminiscent of another Canadian writer, Michael Turner, as it was MacDonald who adapted Turner's Hard Core Logo for film, subsequently turning it into his best-known work." - Sheena Lyonnais, This Magazine

 

WORE DOWN TRUST - WINNER OF THE LAMPMAN AWARD

The author  maintains no genre has yet been coined to describe his book properly. He's right, although the clever mix of poetry and prose is reminiscent of Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Alternately, think of it as a daily devotional. You can pick it up, open it at random, read a few lines, stop, and then ponder the mysteries of life as they enveloped Johnny Cash and Alden Nowlan. Tomorrow and the next day, the experience can be repeated; a few more lines can be savoured.

(Paul Gessell. The National Post). Winner of The Lampman Award.

CHASE AND HAVEN - WINNER OF THE 2009 RELIT BEST NOVEL AWARD

Chase and Haven is a haunting story – inventively told and deeply felt – of suffering and love, made of thousands of small impressionist facets that refract the quiet spectrum of the beauty and the detritus of two entwined lives. (Alana Wilcox) Winner of the Relit Award - Best Novel in Canada, Finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award.

I'M NOT GOING TO LIE TO YOU

The poems in I’m not going to lie to you arise from a place of inquiry into the nature of that which we call home and of the people whom we call loved, reminding us that in  small details wonder and awe  exist.

(Beth Follett). Shortlisted for the ReLit Award.

I AM BILLY THE KID

LAUNCHED JULY 2022

ANVIL PRESS

What if Billy the Kid not only didn't die, but was saved by a woman?

History tells us that the short and violent life of William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, ended at the hand of Pat Garrett on the moonless night of July 14, 1881. But I Am Billy the Kid tells a different story, straight from Billy himself. This revisionist history seen through the lens of a twenty-first century sensibility features the picaresque hero we thought we knew and the unexpected one that we don't; a fearless and determined young woman who is in no mood to be saved and would much prefer exacting her own revenge.

Billy has been in an alcoholic haze since a failed attempt to escape notoriety by faking his own death. By 1915, his fame has only increased, and when word of a possible ruse leaks out, Billy finds himself once again on the run. He agrees to follow his elder brother Joseph north from New Mexico Territory, to possible sanctuary in Canada. Billy and Joseph encounter Turner Wing, a young woman with a fierce sense of self-determination and the skills with a gun to back it up, and her father, a man with a past and a burlap sack over his head due to a significant facial disfiguration. They are in desperate search of Turner's sister, who has been abducted by a pair of marauding thieves. Billy and Joseph know the truth about the girl's fate and, following their own code of honour, form an uneasy alliance with the Wings to avenge her death.

​

AVAILABLE NOW