Ben Ladouceur
@helloiamben.bsky.social
Author of novel "I Remember Lights" (2025) and 2 poetry books 🏳️🌈🇨🇦
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
Starry Starry Night by Shani Mootoo and I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social are selected as top fiction books of 2025 by @49thshelf.bsky.social! ✨
49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/12...
49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/12...
Our Top Fiction of 2025 · Blog Post · 49th Shelf
The fiction that rocked the year that was.
49thshelf.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Starry Starry Night by Shani Mootoo and I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social are selected as top fiction books of 2025 by @49thshelf.bsky.social! ✨
49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/12...
49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/12...
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
very cool! THE BEST! the absolute best,
rob mclennan's book of sentences hits the CBC Books Best Poetry of 2025 list!
https://ow.ly/c9p650XIzif
https://ow.ly/c9p650XIzif
December 13, 2025 at 1:30 AM
very cool! THE BEST! the absolute best,
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
Brett Josef Grubisic selects I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social for inclusion in Quill and Quire's Notable Books 2025 round-up.
Canada’s book community shares their favourite titles of 2025. Click here for over 20 titles: https://bit.ly/3XQIRfz
December 12, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Brett Josef Grubisic selects I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social for inclusion in Quill and Quire's Notable Books 2025 round-up.
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
The Miramichi Reader selects I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social as a Best Fiction Book of 2025!
miramichireader.ca/.../the-mira...
miramichireader.ca/.../the-mira...
The Miramichi Reader’s Best Fiction of 2025
It's the end of 2025 already, and so the "Best of" lists are surfacing! Here are some of TMR's Best fiction of the year, chosen by our dedicated team of contributors.
miramichireader.ca
December 12, 2025 at 9:59 PM
The Miramichi Reader selects I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social as a Best Fiction Book of 2025!
miramichireader.ca/.../the-mira...
miramichireader.ca/.../the-mira...
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
if you didn't know, I was recently a writer-in-residence at the Al & Eurithe Purdy A-frame. after the fact I wrote almost 2000 words about the highs and lows of living and writing in that cottage for 4 weeks and now @robmclennan.bsky.social graciously published these words on periodicities. thanks!
newly posted: Chris Johnson @ceeeejohnson.bsky.social : “I’m so fuckin self conscious I doubt the motives for shitting”: on being a writer-in-residence at the Al & Eurithe Purdy A-frame in late Fall 2025
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/12/chri...
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/12/chri...
Chris Johnson : “I’m so fuckin self conscious I doubt the motives for shitting”: on being a writer-in-residence at the Al & Eurithe Purdy A-frame in late Fall 2025
I watched a National Film Board documentary about P.K. Page’s life and literary career while I was the writer-in-residence a...
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:26 PM
if you didn't know, I was recently a writer-in-residence at the Al & Eurithe Purdy A-frame. after the fact I wrote almost 2000 words about the highs and lows of living and writing in that cottage for 4 weeks and now @robmclennan.bsky.social graciously published these words on periodicities. thanks!
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
A good one, by Ben Ladouceur, over at NewPoetry.ca!
November 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
A good one, by Ben Ladouceur, over at NewPoetry.ca!
What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?
November 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?
My criterion collection moment in the @bookhugpress.bsky.social archives.
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November 6, 2025 at 4:20 PM
My criterion collection moment in the @bookhugpress.bsky.social archives.
Tmrw in Ottawa, I'm reading w Canlit legend John Barton at a lovely bookstore! Come see! thespanielstale.ca/events/37534...
Poetry Launch - Compulsory Figures by John Barton | The Spaniel's Tale Bookstore
Hintonburg's independendent bookstore, and Ottawa's proudest indie.
thespanielstale.ca
November 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Tmrw in Ottawa, I'm reading w Canlit legend John Barton at a lovely bookstore! Come see! thespanielstale.ca/events/37534...
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
Pick up @helloiamben.bsky.social's new book from @robmclennan.bsky.social however you can.
very nice. a good reading as part of The Factory Reading Series with Michael Lithgow, Nathanael O’Reilly and Ben Ladouceur, (who is launching a new above/ground press chapbook,
September 29, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Pick up @helloiamben.bsky.social's new book from @robmclennan.bsky.social however you can.
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
don’t give me my phone after an edible
September 26, 2025 at 6:07 AM
don’t give me my phone after an edible
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
#bookreview: I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social is "a lyrical read and a profound examination of the human condition through one man’s eyes.” Deb Stratis on Ladouceur's acclaimed novel for Historical Novel Society. historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/i-re...
I Remember Lights - Historical Novel Society
In this dual-timeline novel, a young man explores gay life against the backdrop of Montreal’s Expo ’67 and his involvement in the 1977 police raid on the gay bar, Truxx, ten years later. As both stori...
historicalnovelsociety.org
August 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
#bookreview: I Remember Lights by @helloiamben.bsky.social is "a lyrical read and a profound examination of the human condition through one man’s eyes.” Deb Stratis on Ladouceur's acclaimed novel for Historical Novel Society. historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/i-re...
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
“I Remember Lights kindles a bright future of gay romance, and asks who-, where-, however might we have kept it alight?" Andrew Woodrow-Butcher reviews @helloiamben.bsky.social's acclaimed novel for Plenitude Magazine.
plenitudemagazine.ca/no-place-lik...
plenitudemagazine.ca/no-place-lik...
July 28, 2025 at 2:51 PM
“I Remember Lights kindles a bright future of gay romance, and asks who-, where-, however might we have kept it alight?" Andrew Woodrow-Butcher reviews @helloiamben.bsky.social's acclaimed novel for Plenitude Magazine.
plenitudemagazine.ca/no-place-lik...
plenitudemagazine.ca/no-place-lik...
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
Get a free pack of 6 CanLit Cards plus a stick of gum with every These Days order this summer?
July 27, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Get a free pack of 6 CanLit Cards plus a stick of gum with every These Days order this summer?
"Sweet, bitter, optimistic, and appropriately angry" is maybe my favourite way I've seen anything written by me ever described, lol. Really love this review from Plenitude Magazine plenitudemagazine.ca/no-place-lik...
No Place Like Far-From-Home: A Review of I Remember Lights by Ben Ladouceur – Plenitude Magazine
plenitudemagazine.ca
July 24, 2025 at 1:31 AM
"Sweet, bitter, optimistic, and appropriately angry" is maybe my favourite way I've seen anything written by me ever described, lol. Really love this review from Plenitude Magazine plenitudemagazine.ca/no-place-lik...
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
Ladouceur’s début novel is a splendid read that celebrates gay life and honours queer resistance and resilience.”
—Richard Burnett, Fugues Magazine
Read more about Ben Ladouceur critically-acclaimed queer coming-of-age début novel, I Remember Lights.
tr.ee/91L3OgpGGb
@helloiamben.bsky.social
—Richard Burnett, Fugues Magazine
Read more about Ben Ladouceur critically-acclaimed queer coming-of-age début novel, I Remember Lights.
tr.ee/91L3OgpGGb
@helloiamben.bsky.social
July 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Ladouceur’s début novel is a splendid read that celebrates gay life and honours queer resistance and resilience.”
—Richard Burnett, Fugues Magazine
Read more about Ben Ladouceur critically-acclaimed queer coming-of-age début novel, I Remember Lights.
tr.ee/91L3OgpGGb
@helloiamben.bsky.social
—Richard Burnett, Fugues Magazine
Read more about Ben Ladouceur critically-acclaimed queer coming-of-age début novel, I Remember Lights.
tr.ee/91L3OgpGGb
@helloiamben.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
“Canadian poetry—not actually written in maple syrup! Not entirely about beavers!” In a reading slump? Try these poets from up north.
10 Canadian poetry books to expand your mind.
Canadian poetry—not actually written in maple syrup! Not entirely about beavers! (Although I have certainly written about beavers.) Canada is a complicated place, living in the shadow of the U.S., …
buff.ly
July 6, 2025 at 3:01 PM
“Canadian poetry—not actually written in maple syrup! Not entirely about beavers!” In a reading slump? Try these poets from up north.
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
Yes! Once I was waiting at the apple genius bar and took the book i was reading out of my bag, and read it. The guy beside me said "what a great way to signal your impatience!" and talked at me a lot so i couldn't read. It wasnt a performance! I was just really into that book!
Been thinking more and more about how the internet warped everyone's brains into thinking everything someone does is "performative" and meant for public scrutiny. You know we all used to just... read books and watch films etc. we liked and no one else even knew?
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Is it OK to read Infinite Jest in public? Why the internet hates ‘performative reading’
Posts mocking strangers for cracking open classics have become popular. So where are we supposed to read them?
www.theguardian.com
July 5, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Yes! Once I was waiting at the apple genius bar and took the book i was reading out of my bag, and read it. The guy beside me said "what a great way to signal your impatience!" and talked at me a lot so i couldn't read. It wasnt a performance! I was just really into that book!
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
currently reading (and absolutely loving) i remember lights, by the wonderful one & only @helloiamben.bsky.social
July 4, 2025 at 11:05 PM
currently reading (and absolutely loving) i remember lights, by the wonderful one & only @helloiamben.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
I went out to shovel dirt on my lunch break (not randomly; I am landscaping) and the final shovelfull tipped the wheelbarrow over and all the dirt fell out, and as I reshovelled it back in, my arms more tired but the dirt at least looser, I thought "this is like writing a novel."
June 27, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I went out to shovel dirt on my lunch break (not randomly; I am landscaping) and the final shovelfull tipped the wheelbarrow over and all the dirt fell out, and as I reshovelled it back in, my arms more tired but the dirt at least looser, I thought "this is like writing a novel."
Reposted by Ben Ladouceur
While June may be Pride, at 49th Shelf, we celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ writers all year 'round! Check out some of our recommendations with titles from @bookhugpress.bsky.social @nimbuspub.bsky.social @dundurnpress.bsky.social @atriabooks.bsky.social
49thshelf.com/Lists/Member... #CanLit #QueerWriters
49thshelf.com/Lists/Member... #CanLit #QueerWriters
Pride Stories for 2025 · Lists · 49th Shelf
Great new books by LGBTQ2S+ writers
49thshelf.com
June 26, 2025 at 9:36 PM
While June may be Pride, at 49th Shelf, we celebrate 2SLGBTQ+ writers all year 'round! Check out some of our recommendations with titles from @bookhugpress.bsky.social @nimbuspub.bsky.social @dundurnpress.bsky.social @atriabooks.bsky.social
49thshelf.com/Lists/Member... #CanLit #QueerWriters
49thshelf.com/Lists/Member... #CanLit #QueerWriters
JAKE WINS! "Daddy" is a possibly perfect poetry collection, and the queer book we all need today.
June 19, 2025 at 1:03 PM
JAKE WINS! "Daddy" is a possibly perfect poetry collection, and the queer book we all need today.